After listening to the weather forecast I was hopeful of a crunchy snow sprinkled patrol at Durlston this morning, but sadly just some drizzle and the ground around the fields slippery and slidy in the mud.
Along the woodland and clifftop the surface dry and hard sot he best place to go for a walk, especially as it allows fantastic views of the seabirds.
Tucked into the ledges, loads of Guillemots, while on the water more of these auks were bobbing. Amongst the raft were 13 of the darker black, thicker billed Razorbills, some of whom were ‘billing’ obviously pairing up in readiness for spring.
Looking out towards the east, the dark grey cloud looked to be depositing rain as shafts of grey met the sea, the Isle of Wight disappeared deep behind.
This dark sky provided a stunning backdrop to the Gannets which were soaring across the sky, their white wings looking even more brilliant than normal.
Through binoculars a seething mass of Gulls could be seen, this included Great Black-backed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Mediterranean Gulls and Kittiwakes, their whiteness also highlighted.
In the same area were more Gannets, Guillemots and Razorbills.
Back on the cliffs the Feral Pigeons were in action, a group fly-past, allowing me to see that some have a distinctive white rump (one of the characteristics of a Rock Dove - which are now limited to the far north of Scotland).
A croak from above alerted me to a Raven soaring overhead, while from amongst the tumbled rocks the Rock Pipits could be heard calling and Jackdaws were perched.
As the sun emerged so did some of our smaller birds, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Bullfinch and Song Thrush all in amongst the Blackthorn scrub, while a Jay almost floated as it flew through the thick tree cover of the woodland.