After last night’s Stargazing a Pipistrelle Bat hawked for insects on the approach road. This morning’s delight was the swirling performances of a Woodpigeon loft preparing for migration. Initially a good fifty emerged from reservoir copse. At one point I saw two hundred together, whilst a second flock was off shore. Hamish reported see approximately fifteen hundred in all. It was amazing watching the collective snake like form twist, strike then scatter over the gully.
A long hidden and failed drystone wall has been exposed near the Small Copse. The wall that had been long in shade had a cloak of moss and even a Poly Pody fern grew out of a crevice. Beside this lay the Quarr interpretation panel having been relocated (in one piece) by Saturday’s wind! Today’s remaining flowers included Yarrow, Bristly Ox Tongue, Common Toadflax and Dogwood.
Upon the third rung from the top of the upper Mile Marker ladder perched a Kestrel. The hunter flew across the gully following the contours of the landscape and attempted to perch on a windowsill of the Lighthouse complex. Immediately it was mobbed by a Jackdaw and was then chased off by a good dozen such birds.
I was drawn to check on the sea cave ledge and was rewarded by seeing some eighty Guillemots. Whilst I saw arrivals and departures and going there was no raft upon the sea, however, a familiar Great Black Gull was perched above them. Scanning the sea cliffs, I was delighted to see a Peregrine Falcon through the lenses. It flew past a coast path level and even passed over land before disappearing westward. A Shag flew east over the sea.
Approaching the observation point there were a branching lichens growing out of the mown verge. These Brown / Grey fingers were a Coral Fungi and were joined by Shagging Ink Caps nearby. On a dried dead bark-less Elm log a translucent globular Jelly Fungi was seen. Whilst at the base of a Bay Tree fresh white fingers, resembling shoots that had grown in darkness, were possibly a Branching fungus to be identified!