A peek out of the bird hide revealed a Hen Pheasant strolling around the pond perimeter. Our bird feeders needed topping up. It was quiet at the Large Copse where Black Pine and Holm Oak provided evergreen canopy cover with deciduous tree gaps allowing light to the floor. It was a delight to see the tidy, low laid hedgerow at the copse edge. Not only a new habitat but also stopping the scrub from encroaching into the Taskers Meadow edge path. A Wren trilled and Herring Gulls mewed as I wandered on .
Amongst the Blackbird activity in Saxon was a female that picked and swallowed a Sloe. One of several of this morning’s Robins observed from thorn cover. One bent wind shaped Hawthorn bobbed in the breeze. Another nearby wore Ivy leaves and wobbled like a jelly in the icy wind.
Beside the drove a persistent Yarrow flower remained. The adjacent Hawthorns wore Haws, pale green / grey branching Lichen and an orange crust Lichen. At the shrubs feet Stinking Iris blades were accompanied by its red / orange fruit and the neighbouring leaf like fronds of Harts Tongue Fern.
The Herford Cattle remained locked and secured in Eight Acres. Although I counted only twenty-eight, I was confined that the crunch and snap of branches meant the others were in the scrub that obscured the quarry hollow. One benefit of the castles closure would be that I could finish preparations (fencing collapse wall gaps) to enable the cattle to move to the reclaimed Landfill site shortly. At the feet of the cattle were the usual Magpies and today a good dozen Herring Gull.
I admired a smart well rebuilt drystone wall in Johnstone Meadow that even wore its cap stones. My ears were frozen when upon the coastal downland ridge. In the gully six then eventually a dozen Jackdaws perched on the overhead wires. Offshore two Gannets flew east and I might have seen a Peregrine Falcon head that way also along the cliffs.
Today, for the time being, is the last planned opening of the Seventhwave take away.