A chilly start to the day, though some patches of bright blue among a skyscape of tumbled grey cloud and shoals of broken grey hint at a bright day ahead.
A fresh norther-easterly breeze is bitingly cold though, as it rattles through dry grasses in the meadows and stirs the branches of Sycamore and Ash, sending some of the last of their leaves tumbling down to carpet paths with a mosaic of red and gold.
Among the Holm Oaks near the Castle, the piercing calls of Goldcrests ring out, with 3 seen among the canopy, along with a single Firecrest – his distinctive ‘Mohican’ of feathers catching my eye.
Nearby, a family of Long-tailed Tits (sometimes known as ‘flying toffee apples’ due to their round bodies and long, thin tails) squabble and fuss, with Blue Tit, Great Tit, Robin and Wren also waking up as the sun climbs above the trees.
A Kestrel hangs in the air above the Globe, as she scans for prey, with a pair of Sparrowhawks chasing each other past the Learning Centre and a Peregrine Falcon keeping watch from the cliffs below the Observation Point.
Charms of colourful Goldfinches skip along ahead of me at the top of the Lighthouse Field, pausing to feed on seed-heads, before jumping ahead to pause again. A Dunnock scuffles among the leaf litter in the Large Copse, where Badgers having been searching for food among the woodchip path.
At sea, a skein of Brent Geese pass by, out towards the horizon, with Scoter, Oystercatcher and Great Black-backed Gull also seen.
Great to see the recent work by the tree surgeons as part of the Pleasure Grounds Project – in particular at ‘The Dell’ alongside the Castle, where they have cleared Holm Oak to create a sheltered, south facing suntrap – look forward to seeing it in the summer, when it should be a great spot for butterflies! To find out more about the Victorian landscape and how we are restoring it, come along for a guided ‘Victorian Durlston’ walk at 2pm tomorrow.