A still, misty start to the day, but despite the lack of sunshine spring is definitely starting to work it’s magic.
Around the park, Blackthorn is covered with sprays of pure white flowers, while Hawthorn is covered with fresh green leaves. Buff-tailed Bumble Bees buzz around flowering Sallow Catkins, with Cowslips and Hairy Violets scattered across the downs.
On the shorter turf, tiny, fresh, fiercely prickly leaves of Carline Thistle are starting to appear, along with the black-spotted leaves of Early Purple Orchids.
Also in flower, Glaucous Sedge – the underside of the leaves a silvery green, with tufty-flowered Good Friday Grass, Whitlow Grass and Early Scurvy Grass also blooming among the bronze-coloured Tor Grass.
Down on the cliffs, an Adder writhes lazily on top of a dry-stone wall, with the small green fern Sea Spleenwort on the reverse of the wall at Tilly Whim (the 3rd most easterly site in the UK – after the small patch within the Castle and a patch near Old Harry).
9 Gannets glide gracefully along below the clifftop – unusual to see them so close in to the cliffs, especially on such a calm day.
The excited ‘peeping’ of Rock Pipits is inescapable, as they make their showy, fluttering display flights, while around them, Jackdaws hurry in and out with beaks full of twigs and moss.
On the water below, no less than 18 Razorbills ‘bill and coo’, along with browner Guillemots, with hundreds more Guillemots crammed onto the main ledge, renewing their bonds as breeding season gets underway.
Above them, Fulmars sweep gracefully through the air, on stiff wings, with Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Shag and Cormorant also seen.
The harsh croak of a Raven heard near the Castle, with the equally unmusical calls of a Jay from the woods nearby.
Migration has been slow to get underway so far, with a single Chiffchaff the only bird ringed this morning!