All the weather during the morning rounds this morning, including bright wintry sunshine, rain showers and hail, while as I write snow is drifting down out of a leaden sky.
A heavy frost last night making the ground crunch pleasingly underfoot, with frozen puddles traced with ferny ice in the meadows.
Birds are taking advantage of a still start to the day to refuel after a cold night. On Caravan Terrace, a family of Long-tailed Tits bustle among the tangle of Blackthorn and Old Man’s Beard, as a Dunnock picks through the leaf mold below. A Bullfinch surveys the scene from the top of a Hawthorn above the terrace – his breast a brilliant crimson.
Chaffinches, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Robin and Wren are also feeding, with the shrill calls of Goldcrests from the canopy. Jays dart in and out of the Holm Oaks with their startling screeches.
Underfoot, the fresh green leaves of Cleavers are starting to appear, along with lots of fresh Primrose leaves.
A Raven wheels above Durlston Bay, though no sign yet of the pod of 8-12 Bottlenose Dolphins which passed by yesterday.
Gannets sail serenely by in the distance, brilliant white against the steely sea, with the call of an Oystercatcher echoing off the cliffs below the Globe.
Fulmars swerve in dizzying arcs below the Observation Point, along with Herring Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls and Shags.
Guillemots huddle on the ledges, with many more bobbing in straggling lines on the water, along with 8 Razorbills. A Peregrine clings, immobile to a craggy outcrop, with a Kestrel hovering above the Gully.
Our ‘Pleasure Grounds’ Work Party had a busy day yesterday cutting scrub to open up the Coast Path near the Timeline – come the summer, butterflies will enjoy the extra sunshine. Nearby a group of young people from Poole College have cleared scrub ready for walling at the back of Long Meadow.