A chilly start to the day, with air temperatures dipping below zero here for only the third time this year.
Well worth the extra layer of clothes required though, as frost has glazed the meadows and downs with a layer of sparkling white, making them glitter in the bright morning sunshine. Grass and puddles crunch pleasingly underfoot, though the brilliant sunshine is quickly turning the grassland back to green.
Plenty of winter movement overhead, with the ‘seep’s of several flocks of Redwing heard from overhead, with a few also seen in Taskers Meadow – their red plumage very noticeable in the sunshine.
The sounds of Brambling (another very typical winter bird here) also heard as they pass through, along with the clattering wingbeats of several large flocks of Woodpigeon.
Long-tailed Tits, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Chaffinches, Bullfinch, Robin, Wren, Song Thrush, Blackbird and Dunnock all seen or heard in the hedges and scrub – out early this morning, to feed up after a cold night which will have depleted the vital reserves of fat which keep them warm.
In the woods, a Great Spotted Woodpecker taps at a Sycamore, with a flock of 6 Goldcrests flitting among the canopy.
Guillemots are visiting the cliffs and bath among the gently lapping waves below, with a Shag preening on a low ledge as Great Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull circle above them. The grey, sickle shape of a passing Peregrine seen, with a brilliant white Gannet passing by out to sea.
As I walk up the hill alongside the Castle, a Grey Squirrel nibbles on an acorn in the dense shade of the Holm Oaks – his white bib catching my eye, with a Sparrowhawk whizzing along the top of the Lighthouse Road as I return to the Centre.
Just as I sat down to write, one of our bird ringing research volunteers hurried into the office to show me the bird which had just been removed from the nets – a female Hawfinch – the first of this species ringed at Durlston. A real privilege to see her close up before she was weighed, ringed and released – the incredibly powerful beak is apparently capable of cracking open even cherry stones!