A wild night for weather. Our rain gauge was maxed out with over 30mm of rainfall being recorded. Furthermore the maximum gust at our weather station recorded wind speeds of 60mph at 11 minutes past midnight.
Not much to see from the bird hide this morning, the windows were all misted up. But I didn’t manage to spy a couple of Sparrows waiting their turn for the bird feeders as a pesky Grey Squirrel disappeared into the undergrowth. A flight of Pigeons soared overhead, the sound of their wings quickly gathering as a impressive rumble on their approach.
It was morning full of Corvids in the meadows. Crows and Magpies waddled through the sodden fields, occasionally pecking in the puddles, possibly discovered a drowned Earthworm. Clatterings of Jackdaws squarked noisily from the grassland, and I spotted a single Jay perched in a nearby Ash Tree.
In Johnstone Meadow, I tip-toed my way towards the pond – where it’s not uncommon to spy a deer hidden away behind the scrub. To my surprise I was instead greeted by a large Red Fox standing boldly out in the middle of the field. One look at me and it made straight for a familiar hole in the Blackthorn hedge.
I made my way to fields on the downs, and was impressed to find a stream in full flow, running down through the upper reaches of the gully. Gathering momentum, it was foaming at the edges, and eddying in pools of old quarr pits. I followed it down, reaching the footbridge in the field west of the Lighthouse. Here the topography closes in and the torrent gathers; flowing down, under, and even across the footbridge.
On my approach to end of the gully by Tilly Whim, I wondered what seaweeds I would find washed onto the cliffs. I was disappointed – not one of bit to find. It must have all been blown straight back off of the cliffs. Instead I found some heavier clumps of Sea Thrift and Golden Samphire dislodged from the ground. On return to the office, I was told that Hamish had spotted a Firecrest this morning.