A wonderfully complex sky this morning, with banks of silvery grey cloud, tinged with pink, and dotted with pools of bright blue, making a very autumnal feel to the morning rounds.
Hundreds of clattering Woodpigeons overhead this morning, in flocks of a few dozen, as they gather for the winter. Although grouping together means more competition for food, it also means more pairs of eyes looking for it, so winter flocking is a strategy used by many birds.
Goldfinches are also around in large numbers, with numerous small ‘charms’ easily identified by their jangling calls and vivid crimson and gold plumage – a welcome splash of colour on a grey morning.
A few more wintery visitors, with Redwing seen near the Lighthouse, in the meadows and just outside the Learning Centre, with the call of their close relative, Fieldfare heard above the Wildlife Area.
A Black Redstart seen by our residential volunteer Greg, foraging in the Gully.
Around the hedgerows, Long-tailed Tits, Blue and Great Tits, Wrens and Robins are all busily foraging for food, with a couple of Goldcrest among the branches of a Black Pine in the corner car park, picking for insects with their tiny needle-link beaks.
Jays are hunting for acorns among the Holm Oaks in the woodland, with a Magpie, in a rather ‘Jay-like’ way secretively tucking an acorn into a gap in a dry-stone wall! Jays burying and forgetting acorns are one of the most common ways for Oaks to spread.
A Tree-creeper spirals up a Sycamore near the Aviaries, as the sea murmurs below the cliffs in Durlston Bay.
As ‘white horses’ break against the ledge at Tilly Whim, dozens of Guillemots are crammed onto the ledges, like black and white milk-bottles on a doorstep, with more flickering in and out on tiny wings. Shags, Gannets, Great Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls are also on the wing. Below the clifftop, a few late reminders of summer still in bloom, with Thrift, Wild Carrot and Ragwort still flowering.