Not only me out enjoying the early sunshine this morning, as I was accompanied by a host of wildlife as I checked around the National Nature Reserve.
Standing on the short green turf, which looks a little like a moon scape with all the bright green Meadow Ant Hills, was a Green Woodpecker, flashes of red, yellow and green reflecting in the sunlight.
Nearby another range of colours from the Magpie, a quite stunning bird if you look closely, brilliant white, jet black and dark greens and blues. The other bright member of the crow family, the Jay, flew past, in what to me seems a gentle manner of flying.
In front of me two Roe Deer were stood, there dull brown coats now blending in well with the dull background of Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Bramble scrub. The twitching of an ear and the dirty cream rump giving them away initially.
Small bright pink baubles waving in the wind, are in fact the berries of the Spindle, while nearby for comparison were the smaller still and paler pink berries of the evergreen Japanese Spindle.
Down on the cliffs, a look westwards saw 2 Great Black-backed Gulls standing on perched one above the other, their large black and white bodies standing out well. Higher up still, a silhouette of a Peregrine Falcon occupying yet another outcrop of cliff.
Whizzing round in circles were lots of Guillemots while many more packed the large ledge.
My highlight however was watching a Fulmar, this albatross soaring with barely a movement of its speckled grey narrow wings, just wonderful.
Yesterday, whilst I was clearing a bit of scrub, a brown female Adder squirmed and slithered away, not a common sight in the middle of December.