Okay. So starting my patrol from the former landfill site meant I was walking into the sun. A glorious dazzling sun at that!. So in terms of trying to observe nature one had to stop a look backwards! However, the flash of St. Catherine Light on the Island was clear! To the west a waning gibbous moon was in the sky.
I was stunned at the extent of Winter Heliotrope cover on both the former landfill and nearby Quarry Field. Upon the rest of the park it appears that this garden escape is contained within and at the margins of the woodland cover.
Over the adjacent Belle View Fields It looked like a flock of thirty Starlings moving as a swirling mass. A good dozen Herring Gulls took interest in our neighbour’s fields. My concern was for our Hereford Cattle as eight had escaped in to the lush grassland through a gateway (without gate) that had been hidden under scrub. We are hoping that the grazier has removed some of the stock as planned as their numbers are down yet both electric fence lines were still active. After Carrion Crows two Ravens flew over the cattle.
I followed a narrow cattle track through a stand of wind set Sycamore and Ash with a Blackthorn edge. Amongst this cover one heard Blue Tits whilst admiring the octopus like limbs of sprawling Sycamore.
On my journey I heard the briefest call of a Skylark and the overhead peeps of a Meadow Pipit. Magpie numbers were rather “good” today, but then again they do stand out!
Teasel stems and seed heads along with Blackthorn saplings (or suckers) were starting to cover a quarr depression in the upper gully.
Out at sea two ships (in fact coasters) passed heading in opposing directions. Yesterday eleven Young People from the Swanage Duke of Edinburgh Awards Group braved the wet. With many hands we transported logs and pegged them for path edging at the Small Copse. Later we created a human chain to pass cut scrub to a future fire site, thus avoiding much slipping and sliding in the mud!