A really autumnal morning, with mist and rain drifting through a grey sky and blizzards of Sycamore and Ash leaves whirling through the woodland.
A Raven croaks from high overhead – a huge black silhouette against the sky, with numerous twittering charms of Goldfinches, wheeling around scrub patches or circling overhead.
A few Pied Wagtails pass high overhead, along with a single Swallow in the lee of the Castle, though little else moving overhead.
A Buzzard quarters the meadows, with a great close-up view of a Sparrowhawk whizzing along the drove towards me, before rolling up and over the scrub.
Along the cliffs, Herring and Great Black-backed Gull wheel above a steely sea, covered with racing ‘white horses’. Further, out, a few immaculate white Gannets cruise past – their white plumage making them leap out, even at a distance.
A Peregrine swerves ‘round the head’, while on Caravan Terrace, a noisy party of Long-tailed Tits bustle among the scrub. On a large, rotten log, the weird fruits of the fungi Dead Man’s Fingers reach up out of the wood, with Cramp Balls (or King Alfred’s Cakes) growing on Elder.
Among the nearby Holm Oaks, the shrill calls of a Goldcrest, barely glimpsed among the canopy of leaves.
Lots of hard work by our volunteers over the last few weeks has seen the cliff-face at the back of Caravan Terrace cleared of scrub to reveal an impressive section of the Purbeck Beds. Do go and have a look, or pop into the Learning Centre from 9.45 every Tuesday and join in!
A variety of fruits brighten the drab winter hedges, including bright red Rosehips, glossy Sloes on Blackthorn and strings of Bryony berries in shades of orange, red and green, like strings of beads. Old Man’s beard covers wind-sculpted Hawthorn and Blackthorn like drifts of snow.