A beautiful winter morning, after a hard frost. A clear blue sky is tinged with pink, as the rising sun makes grass stems and bushes glitter with ice crystals, while to the south a tall bank of red and silver cloud hangs above a glassy sea.
Perched in the branches of a Sycamore just outside the Centre, a male Bullfinch is silhouetted against the sky – his bright crimson breast looking magnificent against the bright blue.
The colourful red, white and gold plumage of Goldfinches also looks superb in the morning sunshine, as they skip along the top off the Lighthouse Field, picking through the dead heads of Teasel, Burdock and Wild Parsnip, with a flash of bright blue, as a Jay disappears into the Copse
A Peregrine Falcon perches on a rocky outcrop below the Observation Point, her head slowly turning as she scans the cliffs for prey. More unusually (for Durlston), 3 Mallards fly by overhead.
In the still air, lovely to hear the gentle growl of Guillemots, with hundreds crammed onto the main ledge and more flickering in and out to sea.
As the sun warms the scrub and hedgerows, small birds start to emerge, with Long-tailed Tits, Blue and Great Tits, Chaffinches, Robins, Blackbird, Song Thrush and Dunnock all starting to feed.
Goldcrests seen among the overhanging Holm Oaks on Caravan Terrace, with a Green Woodpecker bobbing along Long Meadow, a Raven near Tilly Whim and a raucous gang of Jackdaws squabbling above the Car Parks.
Grass crunches underfoot in the meadows, with the trail of a Badger, crossing one of the fields visible in the frosty grass with a Roe Deer grazing quietly in the Lighthouse Field.
2 Velvet Scoter seen passing by at sea.