No sign of any French Hens today, though Jay numbers have almost certainly been increased by visitors from across the Channel! No less than 4 seen along the Entrance Road, with more seen or heard around the Park, flashing across in front of me, with a glimpse of iridescent blue wing feathers, or shattering the morning stillness with their harsh croaks.
In the Lighthouse Field, a Raven ‘caws’ to her partner from the top of the Mile Markers, who was busy dragging a piece of cut Blackthorn out of the wind-pruned scrub below her – a sign that breeding season is not too far away?
A heavy frost last night, making the gully slopes glitter as a golden sun creeps upwards, with the sky to the south tinged with soft red. Underfoot, the grasses are dusted with white and (for a little while at least), the meadows crunch, rather than squelch underfoot.
As the sun warms the scrub, small birds start to emerge, with a fantastic ‘bustle’ of Long-tailed Tits weaving in and out of the traceries of Old Man’s Beard, the insistent song of a Robin, the see-sawing ‘teacher, teacher’ of a Great Tit and the soft ‘moop’ of a Bullfinch.
A Green Woodpecker bobs across the Gully, where a Kestrel keeps watch from the telephone wires.
Also out hunting this morning, a Sparrowhawk, swerving around the pathwork of scrub on the downland ridge and a Buzzard circling above Durlston Bay.
A Rock Pipit skitters along the clifftop near Tilly Whim, while around the Car Parks, a noisy flock of Goldcrests, are picking their way through the branches of a Black Pine, with a Firecrest eventually picked out from among the group.
A superb day for a walk – the Castle and café are open all day, so do pop in for cuppa!