A wonderful autumn morning to be out and about, with a bright sun hanging low above the horizon, making the sea look like beaten bronze and sparkling on dew drops on the bushes and hedges.
Walking up past South Barn, a dog Fox bounds along ahead of me, glancing back casually as I get closer, before disappearing into the hedge. In the Saxon Field, a Badger’s latrine is filled with Sloe stones and Blackberry seeds, as they gorge on the plentiful supply of fruit.
Around the downs, tinkling charms of Goldfinches look magnificent in the sunshine – their crimson and gold plumage catching the light as they swirl over dry seed-heads of Teasel, Wild Carrot and Woolly Thistle.
Here and there, some late summer flowers are still in bloom, with imperial purple Knapweed and white-flowered Yarrow standing out among the soft gold of the grasses.
The croak of a Raven drifts through the still air above the meadows, with a Buzzard surfing the thermals. A Green Woodpecker bobs past, as if bounced on a piece of elastic, with the bright blue wing feathers of a Jay also catching my eye.
Blackcaps are busy feeding up among the hedgerows, where sprays of ruddy Hawthorn berries and the soft reds of Dogwood sit alongside midnight blue Sloes, silvery Old Man’s Beard and the bright orange ‘starburst’ seed-pods of Stinking Iris.
Down on Caravan Terrace, a Blue Tit pops into a nest-hole in the newly-cleared cliff face, with a few Goldcrest among the scrub above the ledge – the yellow and orange ‘mohican’ of feathers which gives them their name echoing the colours of the sunrise.
A Peregrine perches on the rocks below the Observation Point, as a noisy gang of Jackdaws squabble around the clifftop.
Back at the Centre, Reading University are here on their annual visit, training meterology students and preparing to launch weather balloons as I write.