Yesterdays walk in from Langton was accompanied by the sound of Skylarks up until the Durlston Quarried ridge line. The walk home saw my asking to move a couple of campers remove their tent from beside the western boundary of the park. Any campers would have had a cold night as even Durlston reached -0.3 Celsius. This morning revealed occasional, light patches of frost, with Thistle basal rosettes being “iced”. The wildlife pond had ice striations and small drifting sheets. At the pond margin three Goldfinches explored whilst a trio of House Sparrows observed from a scrub perch. Of course, the Blue Tits and Great Tits were active abound the feeders whilst a Magpie simply perched in a Hawthorn on the edge of the garden. From here the sound of waved rolled pebbles and boulders drifted up from Durlston Bay.
A clump of fifteen Daffodils looked out of place in South Field but the two open flowers were a welcome sight. A male Blackbird exchanged an alarm call which received a response from another unseen bird in the hedge beside the gateway. A pair pf Carrion Crows called in Saxon, but it was a Chaffinch that perched, silently near the hay rake quarr. An ant hill wore a patch of frost and a scattering of tiny white Bittercress flowers. I discovered the field gate on the end of the public footpath coming into Saxon had been removed and had at last fallen apart. This added to never ending list of gate works, however, the footpath looked much accessible for the recent vegetation clearance. Adjacent Blackthorn held tiny tight white buds and in places a few shrivelled Sloes remained. Near the Large Copse a few small Blackberry leaves had emerged, whilst the Arum, Iris and Heliotrope leaves, protruding from the woodland floor, were lightly tickled by a breeze. I was surprised to find a Dandelion type seed clock head in South Field near the scrub island. Here the sound of a distant Raven croak reached me. The second of the Carrion Crows to leave the Small Copse carried a twig in its beak, hinting at the beginnings of nest building.
Upon the concrete base of the lower Mile Marker there were the remains of three bird pellets with signs of small mammal bone within. Angling were west of the Lighthouse whilst several pot marker buoys were close to the sea cliffs. The cave ledge was empty yet there were eight Razorbills and a dozen Guillemots rafted together upon the sea. I passed a pair of Dunnock in a Clematis cloaked Thorn on my return.