Looking across the sea, patterns of sunlight were on the water while above there was a layer of pink sky covered in a fan like pattern with grey and blue stripes, the pink remaining between.
Across the sky flew two Redwings, just the thrush shape visible, but as they landed amongst the large clump of wispy white Old Mans’ Beard I was able to see the dark red patch under the wing and once they were perched the pale stripe above the eye was visible.
A sign of the colder weather was the appearance of a Snipe, this small long-billed wader taking flight just before I got to it as I walked along the coast path. The short body, curved wings jinxing across before it landed again amongst the tussocks of Tor Grass on the downland.
Over the last month we have been doing quite a lot of clearance of Gorse, Blackthorn, Wild Clematis, Privet and Madder from along the coast path, this is to improve the route for walkers, making it wider, allowing it to dry out more quickly and be less muddy (with luck), but we are also removing the scrub to get back some of the grassland which has been taken over in the last few years. At the same time we are removing many of the old hairy webs of the Brown Tail caterpillar which cause irritation to some people.
At the top of the lighthouse field the Hereford Cattle are grazing, while in the Hawthorn bushes around them, a flock of Chaffinches and Goldfinches were active, the flashes of pink and white of the Chaffinches and the yellow and black of the Goldfinches adding some splashes of colour to the fairly brown backdrop of the walk.
Skulking in the undergrowth was a Dunnock, their grey head making them easy to identify while the short tail of the Wren is one of their distinguishing features.
Last night I watched a Fox crossing the path in front of the Centre and later a Tawny Owl floated by, completely silent, just its shape against the night sky.