A lovely autumn morning, with a heavy dew sparkling in the bright sunshine and as the mist clears, a dizzying blue sky is revealed.
Once again, Swallows and Martins are gathering overhead, swooping and circling as they feed up ready for their long journey ahead.
The hedgerows are bursting with colour as fruits and berries ripen, with the brilliant red of Dog Rose hips and Hawthorn berries, alongside heavy ropes of red, orange and green Bryony berries, like strings of beads, constellations of ripening Blackberries, the shiny black berries of Elder and midnight-coloured Sloes amid a tangle of silver Old Man’s Beard.
A charm of Goldfinches rise up from an Apple tree at the top of the Lighthouse Field, filling the still air with their jangling calls, with brilliant crimson and gold plumage glittering like a dragon’s hoard in the morning sun.
Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits are all feeding among the scrub, with the eye-catching plumage of a Redstart catching my eye in a corner of the meadows.
The meadows are now cut, meaning they are full of the lovely scent of fresh hay, though in the uncut margins and headlands, yellow Fleabane, Wild Parsnip and Wild Carrot, Yarrow and Hoary Ragwort are all providing late nectar sources.
Plenty of butterflies already on the wing, including fluttering Common Blues, darting Small Skippers, basking Red Admirals and a late Marbled White. A few Clouded Yellows on the wing (not quite my first this autumn, though numbers seem to have been low so far), with Large and Small White and a large, intricately shaped Comma also seen.
As I chatted to our bird ringers, a Spotted Flycatcher settled in the top branches of an Elder, providing a brilliant view, as a Southern Hawker dragonfly quartered the pond below.
A Roe Deer gallops sure-footed down the slopes of the Gully, as a Kestrel hovers overhead, with Raven and Peregrine also out hunting.