After a string of damp, grey days, the park is bathed in bright sunshine this morning, sparkling on puddles and wet leaves and making Gorse flowers blaze brilliant gold.
Along the cliffs, Fulmars wheel gracefully above a sparkling sea, with a Shag, perched high on the cliffs gleaming with iridescent colour as the sun catches his plumage and buttercup yellow gape - these early breeders are already planning nests.
Below, the ledges are crowded with visiting Guillemots, with more of these tiny black and white auks flickering in and out to the cliffs, as they re-visit the ledges where they will raise chicks later in the year.
A Rock Pipit skitters along the clifftops, just below the wall – a tiny, dappled bird in constant motion, as a mob of Jackdaws squabble noisily below and a Raven flaps by, ‘cronking’ as he goes.
By contrast, a flash of motion catches my eye as a Peregrine Falcon swerves out from her high perch and streaks westward just below the clifftop.
In the woodland, Goldcrests weave among the canopy, with a family of Long-tailed Tits bustling through a Blackthorn hedge at the top of Long Meadow.
The drumming of a Great Spotted Woodpecker heard near the Aviary Glade with Green Woodpecker, Tawny Owl, Jay, Song Thrush and Chaffinch heard elsewhere in the woodland.
Around Sunnydale, a variety of spring flowers are starting to appear, including Primrose (from prima rosa or ‘first flower’), Spring Crocus and Daffodil, with the leaves of Snowdrop, Lords and Ladies and Cow Parsley also emerging.
A Roe Deer grazes calmly in the Gully, while Badgers have been digging through the woodchip path in the Large Copse, leaving characteristic triangular ‘scuffs’.