JAB-BERWOKY - Part II

 With time now getting a little tight and Ferry Bridge, Portland considered a 'must' the decission was simply Lodmoor or Radipole? With the latter having a car park right alongside we didn't have to put the Motion to the House and on arrival found a single

MEDITERRANEAN GULL
just waiting for us on the tarmac, in compleat contrast to our second sighting

which, with head under wing, needed a double take

to show that it was in fact a

CATTLE EGRET
we have had worse starts to such visits!
The reeds somewhat hampering the view from the Visitor's Centre we were only able to see a couple of

TEAL
while a noisy

WATER RAIL
under the bridge did put in a couple of obliging views, but heading for

FERRYBRIDGE with the ISLE of PORTLAND
in the distance, it looked in the first instance than the number of people might hamper our progress.

With only as many

BRENT GEESE
as could be counted on one hand we reflected on how things can be here

during the

Winter Months
so every reason for another visit later in the year.

All else amounted to no more than a single

OYSTERCATCHER

with a similar number of

BAR-TAILED GODWIT
With recent reports from the Portland Bird Observatory pointing to activity at Osprey Quay

we headed in that direction but the near we got the more SAILS there were but on the up-side more Gold Medals in prospect!
It was only a detour on the way home to a rather crowded northern shore of

Portand Harbour
that brought with it our final sighting of the day with a pair of

RED-BREASTED MERGANSER
showing reasonably well.

JAB-BERWOCKY Part I

 The main thrust of the day was the Covid Booster Jab for which we had to make the drive to Weymouth (including Portland), a method in our madness as it kind of forces us to keep up the association with what for many, many years were our home towns. With high hopes of finding some interesting nature en-root but there was the attention to the Moth Traps to address first

which included a First for the Year

DECEMBER MOTH
along with another

FEATHERED THORN
Unhampered by the previously reported Major Road Works within 30 minutes we we at Lane End and already hearing the gritty refrain of

YELLOWHAMMER
(male)

(female)
which seemingly are still being fed by the new residents of the Farmhouse and or General Public?

It took a while for the first

BROWN RAT
to appear but worth it as boarding our (now) trusty steed we may have missed the high-flying

RED KITE
had there been no delay with the next Port of Call, with time still on our side, being

but Bird Watching not as we like it!

Firstly just c3 equally high flying and almost out-of-sight

GOLDEN PLOVER

reducing us to a visit to the archive to bring you representationwhich was also the case with the
None Event of the Year

with the

SNOW BUNTING
(we don't see them performing like this in the good old U of K)
still in the now cleared Sun Flower Field but viewed as an ancient

Charlie Chaplin
might be, a small flash of white, a similar flash of grey which wouldn't have reached the notebook let's say on Bird Race Day!
(images taken on the Pribilof Islands, Bering Sea)

In company were also c3 also reluctant
BRAMBLING

which, like the
SKYLARKs,

were following the
HARROW

while we thank the Gentleman with the telescope for allowing us to get a little closer to the subject matter. To be continued......

Seven Wonders - Fleetwood Mac - Guatamala Part II

Our last 3 or 4 days in this wonderous country were spent mainly sight-seeing, which we will cram into a single Post, for fear of boring you, and begin with a stroll around the facinating city of

ANTIGUA
pursuing other interests such a architecture and others but by no means abandoning Birdlife in the numerous parks, starting with

BLUE-CROWNED MOTMOT
while comparing the new Cathedral with the old

struck like so many others in the Caribbean region by earthquakes,

with both inside and out these
SAND TAPISTRIES
before heading on to the

MYAN CITY of TIKAL
and its attendant birds such as the raucous

MONTEZUMA OROPENDOLA

particularly when at their Communal Nest Sites.

The Twin Temples of the
GREAT JAGUAR

sometimes known as the temple of
AH CACAO

COATA MUNDI
along with numerous

STELA STONES

Banners raised to Glorify the King.

CHAAC

Rain God of the Myan People

along with

GREAT CURASSOW
before leaving in hopes of finding the 'Bird of the Trip' with sights set very high we headed for

LAGO ATITLAN

and its fabled (artists impression)
GREBE
This is how Wiki describes it.

The Atitlán Grebe (Podilymbus gigas), also known as Giant Grebe, Giant Pied-billed Grebe, or Poc, is an extinct water bird, a relative of the Pied-billed Grebe. It was endemic at the Lago de Atitlán in Guatemala at an altitude of 1700 m a.s.l. It was described in 1929 by Ludlow Griscom based on a specimen collected in 1926 and had been overlooked in the past. American ecologist Anne LaBastille observed the decline of this species over a period of 25 years and was declared extinct by 1990. Maybe needless to say "we didn't find one"! but very much enjoyed the scenary, freshwater fish dinner at lakeside

COLLARED ARACARI

TO BE CONTINUED!

HAD WE NOT POSTED THIS TODAY BY NEXT SUNDAY IT WOULD SURELY HAVE BEEN FORGOTTED!