A stunning autumn morning, after a distinctly nippy night, with frost down in the town, although nothing up here (we are usually a few degrees warmer).
Clear blue skies are streaked with a few wisps of high cloud, with a few scattered birds passing through. Charms of Goldfinches in their elegant crimson and gold swirl through the sky – their jangling calls often described as sounding like sleigh bells.
Also moving through, a few Song Thrushes, along with Pied Wagtails, Meadow Pipits, Linnets and a few large flocks of Chaffinches, though none of the ‘winter thrushes’ yet.
Several scattered flocks of Woodpigeon, though none of the large flocks we will see as food becomes more scarce later in the winter.
In the scrub above Caravan Terrace, a Bullfinch looks magnificent in the morning sunshine – bright red among dark Blackthorn and silvery waves of Old Man’s Beard.
A Buzzard soars in lazy spirals above Long Meadow, with a huge black Raven flapping ponderously by below him.
A Green Woodpecker pokes through the soft turf of an anthill near the Car Parks before bobbing off down the meadow, leaving behind some of it’s distinctive ‘cigar ash’ droppings.
Blackcaps, Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Robins, Wrens and Greenfinches all seen feeding among the hedgerows.
Some lovely displays of autumn colour from golden Field Maple leaves, brilliant red Dogwood, yellow Blackthorn leaves, interspersed with sprays of Hawthorn berries.
Along the cliffs, a few Gannets passing by in the distance, with a Peregrine perched, as usual near Durlston Head.
Also seen this morning, a Kestrel, seeming to hang in the air as if painted on above the Car Parks, and a Roe Deer, investigating the newly cleared Aviary Yard.