A nip in the air this morning, more than made up for by blue skies and some bright sunshine.
Wisps of cirrus drift by high overhead, while above the meadows, Skylarks are passing overhead – so high as to be invisible, but their fluid fragments of song are unmistakable.
A few Starlings also on their way through – stubby and triangular in silhouette, along with a few Pied Wagtails and Woodpigeons.
A Green Woodpecker ‘chuckles’ from within the Small Copse, while in the hedgerows, the song and calls of Blue Tits, Great Tits, Robins, Wrens, Dunnocks and Song Thrushes form an increasingly loud and enthusiastic chorus.
Long-tailed Tits are busy in the scrub alongside the Castle, along with Bullfinches and Chaffinches (and a Squirrel, raiding the ‘bouncy bird table’ – with the number of visits he made while I watched, I was amazed he could fit through the bars!).
In the woodland, Spring Crocuses, Snowdrops, Daffodils and Primroses dapple the woodland floor, along with fresh green leaves of Lords and Ladies, Cow Parsley and Cleavers.
The cliffs are bustling with noise and activity, with Fulmars hurling themselves in dizzying, criss-crossing arcs from their ‘penthouse’ nests, with Guillemots growling softly from the water below.
Great Black-backed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Shags and Feral Pigeon also around the cliffs, with a Raven flapping overhead with a beakful of twigs.
A gang of Jackdaws near the Observation Point seem to be practising a surprisingly good impression of a flock of Starlings as the swoop and swerve, playing ‘follow the leader’, with a Peregrine perched on the clifftop nearby.
3 Adders are sunbathing at Tilly Whim.
A Great Tit repeatedly darts out from the traffic island to check out the Victorian bollard at the entrance to the Castle Car Park – a rather noisy place to raise a family I would have thought!
As I return to the Centre, a Jay flashes across the Car Parks in front of me – his wing feathers a dazzling sky blue, gleaming in the sunshine.