Another chilly night last night, with temperatures below freezing again, leaving patches of white frost in sheltered hedgerows and glazing puddles with ferny sheets of ice.
Despite the cold, the hedgerow just outside the Learning Centre is bustling as birds ‘refuel’ after the cold night. 9 or 10 Great Tits are all crammed into one 10 yard stretch, squeaking noisily to each other, with some already starting to make fluttery, looping display flights. A Dunnock scuffles through the rusty red bracken below, with Blackbird, Song Thrush, Chaffinch, Greenfinch Goldfinch and Blue Tit also busy in the same spot.
Down towards the Copse, a large extended family of Long-tailed Tits scramble and fuss over and among the tracery of Bramble and Old Man’s Beard, making complete rotations and constantly chattering as they feed.
A Kestrel hangs in the air above the frosty meadows scanning for prey, with a quick glimpse of a Sparrowhawk along the Drove.
The cattle have their heads down and are munching away in the Lighthouse Field – helping ensure that this patch of downland remains probably the richest area for its size in plant diversity in Purbeck.
Not much in flower at the moment, however, although a whiff of ‘vanilla’ from a patch of Winter Heliotrope was a nice surprise.
Guillemots are in on the ledges once again – as breeding season draws closer they will visit more and more often, until they settle in March. Razorbills, Fulmars, Shags, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls all seen around the clifftop, with the unmistakable gleaming white plumage of a Gannet out to sea, along with a few Brent Geese.
The musk of a Fox hangs in the air along the Coast Path, while Badgers have been digging up the woodchip path, leaving behind characteristic triangular ‘scuffs’.