An unexpectedly balmy spring morning, with high cloud and blue skies (though an ominous bank of purple cloud hints at a coming change in the weather.
As I walk up through the woods, a Treecreeper scuttles up the towering stem of a Sycamore, with the drumming of a Great Spotted Woodpecker echoing around Sunnydale.
On the woodland floor, the white stars of Ramson flowers are starting to open, amid a sea of Primroses, Dog Violets, Cuckoo Pint and pink Herb Robert.
Skylarks whirl into the sky above the meadows, where Early Purple Orchids, Green-winged Orchids and furry green and brown Early Spider Orchids are all in bloom. Cowslips carpet some of the meadows, with pure white Stitchwort, the intricate, geometric flower-heads of Salad Burnet and a patch of early Birdsfoot Trefoil all newly in flower.
In the hedgerows, Whitethroats, Blackcaps, Chaffinches, Long-tailed Tits, and Blue and Great Tits are all busy, with a stream of Swallows, newly returned from Africa heading in from the sea.
In the Saxon Field, the jagged, glossy leaves of Agrimony are appearing among the grass, along with the rare, curious looking Adderstongue Fern – a little like a miniature Cuckoo Pint.
A Lesser Bloody-nose Beetle plods across an anthill, with the ‘yaffle’ of a Green Woodpecker shattering the silence for a moment.
Along the cliffs, pink Thrift flowers are emerging from dense cushions of leaves, with Sea Campion also forming drifts of gently bobbing flowers.
Great views of a Kestrel, fluttering just below the clifftop, while below, Guillemots and Razorbills straggle across the water, with Fulmars carving smooth arcs above them, and a pair of Great Black-backed Gulls on a nest nearby.