Two For The Price of One - Venezuela & Colombia

More gloom again this morning, at least on the Weymouth side, with a milky looking sun barely breaking through the greyness and the wind still fresh from the west. Goldcrest continue to inhabit the cemetery in decent numbers, with a few chirpy Siskins passing overhead along with Sand & House Martins. It has been quite a few weeks since I've walked

The Rodwell Trail and when I do it's still hardly believable that this fantastic stand of trees are only a few hundred yards from Weymouth town centre. Robin, Wren and Dunnock were present as usual while Blackcap numbers also reached double figures but that was about it, so continued to Ferry Bridge where the tide was already low. Disappointment indeed, as the reward for half an hour each side of the Beach Road resulted in just a single Ringed Plover on the Fleet side and 3 Turnstones on the harbour shore.

At the Bill things seemed even worse, except for the weather which was measurably better, with a count of 69 Wheatear being the only thing of note, so with little in the way of photographs except for

the 'River Class' off-shore patrol vessel HMS Mersey steaming past Portland Bill.

and this Large White Butterfly laying eggs, we once again have to rely on the archive. Having received an e-mail from my Venezuelan friend Graciela Pineda Abreu just this very morning telling me of he visit to the coffee growing region, Eje Cafetero in Colombia, what better way to pad this post than with some photos of my visits to both countries.

Galapagos Road, Santa Marta Mountains, Colombia

Steely-vented Hummingbird

White-capped Tanager

Torrent Duck (female)

White-tailed Starfrontlet

Rufous-breasted Chat-Tyrant

White-tipped Quetzal

and from Venezuela

'One For The Vine' - Genesis (Wind & Wuthering)

Aplomado Hawks misbehaving.

Bar-backed Wren

Black-collared Hawk

Brown-throated Parakeet

Buff-necked Ibis

Caimen (fish species unknown)

It may be useful for those who have not discovered it yet, that for some reason all uploaded photographs now default to Picasa. I have no idea why this has happened but have made no effort to rectify the matter as when 'left clicking' on any image all the photographs for that particular post come up enlarged and can be viewed as a stream. It is hoped this will be more convenient than doing this singly?