A beautiful morning, with some brilliant sunshine glittering on pools, puddles and raindrops around the park. Below the cliffs, sunshine sparkles on the gently lapping waves, while further out to sea, whitecaps chase across the bright blue water.
The soft growl of Guillemots rises up to the clifftop from the water below, with dozens crowded onto the ledges in a noisy, bustling bazaar, while other flicker in and out on tiny wings.
Fulmars glide serenely in smooth arcs, with Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull and Cormorant passing by. A Shag flaps in to the cliffs, his beak packed with twigs and seaweed, with a noisy gang of Jackdaws dogfighting above Lighthouse Green.
Nearby, their ‘big brother’ – a Raven, perches on top of the Mile Markers, with a Peregrine Falcon perched on the clifftop at Tilly Whim. Down below in the Gully, a Sparrowhawk veers and jinks his way between patches of scrub, sending a chorus of alarm calls rising up from Great Tits, Blue Tits and Wrens.
The manic ‘chuckle’ of a Green Woodpecker echoes across the Lighthouse Field, while Chaffinches in the scrub are ‘warming up’ their accelerating song as nesting season approaches.
A Roe Deer bounds, loose-limbed across the Gully slopes before diving into a patch of yellow-flowered Gorse, while Badgers have been turning up the woodchip path through the Large Copse.
A few plants in flower around the Park, with Primrose, Spring Crocus and Dog Violet in the woods, patches of Winter Heliotrope (a lovely ‘marzipan’ scent) around the Small Copse and blue Great Periwinkle along the clifftop.
Also seen or heard this morning, Goldcrests, darting through the canopy above the Woodland Trail and a Robin, picking his way along the kerbs in the Car Parks, oblivious to the parents dropping off kids to the Nature Nursery!