This morning I was greeted by a fantastic full Moon to northwest and the glow of a low Sun in the southeast. A slightly hazy start to the day, gradually cleared to reveal bright blue skies – a welcome sight following the 15.2mm of rain that fell onto the park yesterday. I had left all of my work clothes spread over radiators overnight but somehow they still weren’t completely dry when I woke up.
As I set out on my walk, a group of Long-tailed tits crossed the path in front of me, bouncing their little round bodies, between the branches of Hawthorn and Holm Oak. In the Lighthouse Field I could see the Hereford Cattle grazing Round Down in the distance, wisely opting for the slopes in lee of the strong winds. I found myself doing the same, briskly walking between the patches of Blackthorn and Gorse, and making my way down into the Gully. A charm of eight or so Goldfinches chattered away as they flew overhead.
At the Tilly Whim caves, huge waves battered the cliffs, thundering as they collided and forcing the blowhole to erupt like a geyser. A couple of Shags sat just behind the whitewater, effortlessly floating over each crest. Further back from the edge, the ground growled and tremored where future blow holes erode away underfoot.
I made my all the way to the woodland where I saw a juvenile Blackbird still with black beak, rather than yellow. A rather large Grey Squirrel sat boldly in the middle of my path with something dangling from his mouth. I couldn’t quite work it out until he turned, when I realised it was a large bunch of Sycamore seeds, or ‘helicopters’ as their commonly known. I wonder if squirrels have ever tried dropping them from trees to watch them spin?
I walked all the way down to the Sunnydale stream where we have recently been carrying out restoration works on an old Victorian stone footbridge. Fortunately our works had survived the storm and the water level has dropped back to a much calmer flow. Clutching to the side of a nearby Ash tree, a bright white chested Tree Creeper looked on approvingly of our works.