A rather reflective walk around the park this morning as this is my last few days here at Durlston. Knowing this will be my last diary for a while (I hope to come back up to volunteer, so I may do the odd one then!) I take in each step, each gate and each field that I pass, something I have taken for granted for the past 15 months. My first diary and the first thing I saw that morning was a Magpie! And the first thing I saw this morning, on the road just by the entrance, was a Magpie! Though this Magpie didn’t seem too bothered about my car approaching, making me go wide as I didn’t think it was going to shift! Thankfully it did take flight before I passed. Phew!
Walking along the drove and I flush a Green Woodpecker from the grass which flew one way, then the other, then back again, totally unsure which way was best to take flight. I open a gate to the next field and see a big pile of Badger poo, and I mean a BIG pile of badger poo right next to the gate post! There are a few gates around the park that have attracted the attention of our lovely badgers and their business cards. I then notice how the grass is all pushed down running along the walls, something I hadn’t taken in till now. The highways and byways for the parks mammals.
Wandering down the Lighthouse Field I flush another Green Woodpecker from the long grass, taking flight across Goat Plot. Looking down and a very small, singular crimson flower looks forlorn and lost against the green grass, a lonely Lesser Centaury, fighting against the onset of Autumn. Out to sea a Yacht heads west, being beaten across the sea by the random gusts of wind, which reached 27mph overnight. The Swanage Lifeboat is also powering west, cutting a large bow wave as it slams through the tumbling coastal seas. Two Shag tuck in close to the cliffs as they pass east, not far behind 2 Black Backed Gulls and a singular Herring Gull. A Rock Pipit rises out of the Gully, calling as it goes and after following it with my binoculars I avert my gaze back to ground level where a small patch of Puffballs are starting to balloon.
I pop in to see the bird ringers who have had 2 Redwing and 2 Song Thrush and some Goldcrests so far but the big surprise was a Tawny Owl! Not what they were planning to ring this morning but quite an accomplishment none the less. A lovely bird to end my last diary with.