A Time and a Place - Greg Lake

 With a change in the weather

much for the better on Sunday and no more than c2

noisy
LITTLE GREBEs
on home turf another, what is continuing to be a weekly, visit was paid to

Longham Lakes 

but not with Emerson, Lake and Palmer

Only the Usual Contenders across our couple of hours starting with this scruffy looking

GREY HERON
which must have had one almighty itch and sticking with the Herons on the Main Island both

LITTLE EGRET
along with c2

GREAT WHITE EGRETs

to maybe prove significant later in the day as what were considered to be c4 more were recorded?
Along with a collective from left

CANADA GEESE, GREY HERON and CORMORANT
before the familiar thunder of one of the

EURO-CARGO AIRBUSES
provided a completely different view of the daily 'side-on' we have become used to.
Wot's all that Blue Stuff?

LITTLE EGRET with inquisitive MOORHEN
Along the centre path, deviding the 2 lakes, we encountered the usual array of

POCHARD

GREAT CRESTED GREBE

DITTO PREENING
It may be of interest to freeze frame this clip right at the begining to note
the 'webbing' on the feet of these highly skilled hunters by comparison to the full
cover of most other waterfowl.

TUFTED DUCK

TUFTED DUCK with POCHARD

BLACK-HEADED GULL

and similar in strange streamline posture, but the tranquility was not to last for long.

A COOT among the POCHARD had surfaced with a beak-full of groceries which set off

the formerly lethargic

BLACK-HEADED GULL

Swooping in from Angels 12!
It was good to see that the

HAMPRESTON WATER MEADOWS
were back as nature had intended and where a total of 4

GREAT WHITE EGRET
were now stationed.

GWE Stalking
and it could just as easily have been that one of the Birds from the Island

had flown over to make up the 4 on the meadow

GWE with accompanying Cetti's Warbler

but surely too much of a coincidence that they were both in the same place on our return?
We are claiming c6 even though there was no record of such on the
Dorset Bird Club
website the following day.

Our wander ended on something of a

Tranquil Note

as the Model Yacht Brigade were out in Full Force.

Somewhat theraputic and of course in the knowledge that it would be me again to put a ship
AGROUND!

Like the Curate's Egg, Not All Bad - Part II

 It was always going to be High Water when reaching Ferrybridge, Portland so expectations were never like the tide - HIGH! However, not to write things off there were but c2

BRENT GEESE

but not, it should be pointed out, those shown.

The low profile of a
GREAT NORTHERN DIVER
amid the choppy waves was enough to claim a sighting

but had it been a First in My Life it would not have cut the mustard.
Reaching a completely deserted

PORTLAND BILL
(Lighthouse and Trinity House Obalisk right)
it was a chance worth taking to park on the mini roundabout and

Look to Seaward across the notorious

Portland Race dashing over the Shambles Bank
(Shambles being, the same as the narrow thorougfare in York, a Slaughter House)
Most of what Birds were seen were numerous but unclickable 

such as

CORMORANT

in just about equal numbers to

GANNET

but only a single discernable

SHAG
There was no way we were going to even attempt the walk to the cliff edge

where there was a likelihood of

PURPLE SANDPIPER
on the ledges but from the lee of the Lighthouse wall did manage a few

GUILEMOTs

skimming the turbulance of the Race along with just a sole

RAZORBILL
No attempt was made either at the Bill Quarry to find the

BLACK REDSTART
but poor views of a

LITTLE OWL
in the Obs Quary via the camera zoom but left the
Lower Light

PORTLAND BIRD OBSERVATORY
until another day given the worsening virus situation.

Some further effort was put into trying to find maybe a

RED-THROATED DIVER
as well, but no such luck!
Despite the foul weather and the Headline an enjoyable day was had as always good to be back in
This Part of Dorset!

Like the Curate's Egg, Not All Bad - Part I

With important (to me) pending things to do in our previous home town of Weymouth and with no signs of a ‘weather window’ it was a case of having to

Grasp the Nettle.

Grasping Friday seemed no different to any other but turned out to be about the wettest day of the year with the rain proving far beyond persistent but we soldiered on. Such a drive always entails a stop at a number of ‘hot-spots’ along the way but have to report that not a Canon shot was fires at any of the creatures shown and the report leans on a little journalistic licence.

The first of these stops was at Lane End, close to Bere Regis, where in days now sadly gone the short cul-de-sac would have been alive with

YELLOWHAMMER

but on the day no more than c2 sodden individuals in the Hawthorns. Another reason for their decline is that the lady of the nearby house would feed them daily, so no wonder gone are the days! Not an action we would ever usually consider but given the rain we drove the length of the track to find at      Okers Wood

just a single

MARSH TIT
Next stop the view from

MONKEY'S JUMP (self taken)
as recommended by Bomber as having seen lots of birds there only a few days ago, which is one of the vantage points overlooking

MAIDEN CASTLE

one of the largest and most complex Iron Age hill-forts in Europe. Its vast multiple ramparts enclose an area the size of 50 football pitches (that’s half the size of Wales to you and me), with the site being home to several hundred people in the Iron Age (800 BC–AD 43). Excavations in the 1930s and 1980s have shed much light on the development of the hilltop, from its origins as a Neolithic enclosure over 6,000 years ago, through many centuries of modification during the Iron Age, to the building of a Romano-British temple here and a good job one of my Royal Navy Oppos was just passing in his helicopter at the time! Only the claimed 'calls' of

GREY PARTRIDGE
from this spot so time to move to the

Crop Fields
where one or two

CORN BUNTING

were, as usual, performing but looking no way as glamourous as these and where also above the

SHEEP FIELD with TUMULI
the smallest flock of

GOLDEN PLOVER

on record put in no more than a cameo appearance.
The view from the crest of Ridgeway Hill, which under clearer conditions would show
Weymouth laid out before us, was a none starter but had cleared a little by the time we reached the lower level at the village of

BINCOMBE

Similarly, a stop at the Radipole Lake Tennis Courts to look for Waterfowl was a 'no go' so onward the main car park there were representatives of both

COMMON GULL

and

MEDITERRANEAN GULL
lay in wait

This is what the Meds will look like when once again
Spring and Summer
visit us - which seems a long way off.
We will try for a Continuation tomorrow and Many Thanks for tuning in, a Bagfull of Hits yesterday!