We were walking up to Ballard Down by Old Harry and a lady asked us did we know what was above us.

In the clear sky directly above us was a white tailed sea eagle , the sky only troubled by a some gulls accompanying like frigates will an aircraft carrier.

We had no answer to the lady but an elderly couple, walking down to Studland explained that this bird was nesting on the mainland, a spread from the Isle of Wight where it has been reintroduced.

The bird was huge and close and if I was a baby little dog, I would have been frightened. A lone sea eagle , one of 150 in the UK above Old Harry.

This is Dorset as the Isle of Purbeck , a splendid heathland protected by development to a degree that allows Sea Eagles and walkers to climb its hills , stand on its cliffs and enjoy the clarity of its winter light!

That these few days out of London and Eton could be for ever but for now they may be a foretaste of retirement in a few years. Yesterday they ended with a sandwich and a ginger beer in the Purbeck golf club, staring across Poole Harbour and down to Christchurch and beyond to the East.

To the north we could make out Wind Green in Wiltshire and the Cranborne Chase where we had been on Christmas Eve.