Today it is cold
Before everything else
It is cold today
The park seemed very still today as I approached through the woodlands. There was activity in the undergrowth, with Robins and Blackbirds moving and singing, but it seemed somehow more reserved than usual. I called in briefly at the Learning Centre and then headed out to the Meadows to get the lay of the land.
Chaffinches were in voice, as well as Great Tits and Blue Tits. Carrion Crows shuffled across the fields and everywhere, there was the cold. Persistent and insidious, the cold leeches away at everything. Even when warmly dressed and mobile, the cold saps away at you every second. You’re never really free from it. Any exposed skin is immediately attacked, numbing the tips of your ears, bare fingers and the face. A cold day is a cold day before it is anything else.
Out at Brian Johnson Meadow my heart swelled to hear the sounds of Skylarks. Not displaying (too cold no doubt), but singing and making short flights. I counted three rising briefly from the grass and then landing again. I stayed a little while to listen, glad to hear a little optimism for the coming spring.
The skies were filled with Jackdaws all over the meadows, clatters of up to thirty were flying in loose formations, with additional individuals and small groups peppered across the landscape. Whilst many species of birds have declined due to human activity, corvids seem to be doing alright for themselves. It makes sense. Stable conditions favour specialist organisms, whereas changing conditions favour generalists, and we live in a time of change. The future belongs to the crows, today belongs to the cold.
On the Downlands I zeroed in on a sunlit smudge. Adjusting my focus I was just in time to catch a Peregrine Falcon taking wing, its yellow feet slipping out of view as I followed its flight round the brow of a hill.
Down on the clifftops the Guillemots were again absent and despite the stiff breeze the sea was stiller than I expected. At Tilly Whim I counted three Adders sunning themselves in preparation for the day. Below on the water a pair of Greater Black Backed Gulls bobbed gently up and down, apparently not in the mood for flying.