The pinnate leaves of an Ash Tree fell around me as I set off this morning and found myself making a quick beeline for the woods.
I notice the new footpath at the top of Long Meadow is taking shape: This new route will connect access between the Car Parks and the Woodland / the Pleasure Grounds. Mature black and blue sloe berries line the hedges of Blackthorn here, with unripe red Blackberries between.
Two Blue Tits and a Wren tweet away in the shelter of one of the woodland viewpoints, with it’s gnarled old Apple Tree; choked by Ivy and propped up by a y-shaped log. This viewpoint is known as the ‘Listening Seat’, which I found quite apt this morning, being pretty much the only place I could hear some birds all morning.
The grey ruffled feathers of three juvenile Herring Gulls can be seen patrolling the bay below. I can see the waves breaking at Durlston Head. The crests grows tall before smashing into the rocks, with the water gusted onwards into a fine sea spray. Durlston Bay is grey with the top of Ballard Down disappearing into a mist at Old Harry, and white horses stampeding across the over falls at Peveril Point.
Brown-lipped Snail, Lapidary Snail, Pomatias elegans, and the familiar Garden Snail, were all to be found gliding their way across the lichen covered dry stone walls along the coastpath. Snail weather. That’s what I told myself, but even as a snail I think I’d rather be tucked up inside my shell!
The wind feels like it’s sand blasting my face at Tilly Whim. Too strong to brave an ascent into the gully , though the Great Black-backed Gulls seem undeterred as they fly westward. Looking up across the Lighthouse Field, it could be mistaken for a soggy moorland with bobbing dead heads of Wild Carrot, Teasel, and Wooly Thistle the only action to be seen…
At the weather station I recorded 22.6mm of rain fell within the last 24 hours, though I question it’s accuracy if the rain is falling sideways!