Friday On My Mind - The Turtles

Returning to Friday and my visit to the West, where an early start saw my first stop at the

PORTLAND BIRD OBSERVATORY
where the Moth Traps had already been tended.

SMALL ELEPHANT HAWK-MOTH

EYED HAWK-MOTH

ANGLE SHADES (foreground) and GREEN PUG

With some mail, documents and my copy of Bernard Skinner's Moths of the British Isle to be collected from Secret's house there was time for a coffee and short natter before the Banks opened.

Returning to Weymouth it was amazing to see these young fish in such large numbers a sight not seen here before. There are always lots of Mullet, of various sizes, around the INNER HARBOUR but I feel sure these are

POLLOCK
and if so it says something about the water quality here!

Can't help myself when I spot immature Gulls, this a

BLACK-HEADED GULL

Apologies for chopping half the hull off this German 3 Master
but thought it still worthy of publication?

There, what did I tell you. I'd only been in the town 20 minutes
before spying a very dear friend IVAN WELLINGTON aboard
his Fishing Boat 'TOP CAT III' that put paid to another half hour!

COBRA

WHELKS
awaiting transportation.

Time was when I would buy them at 6 'old pence' a dozen at the Dockyard Gate and fill a large pickled onion jar with these delicious beauties. In the evening my dear old Dad and I would sit down an eat the lot while watching the Boxing - those were the days!

Excellent weather again but not yet the weekend

hence not a lot of people on Weymouth's Golden Sands.

With business almost completed I decided, not unusually I hear you say, to eat in The Swan Pub, recipe for meeting more people and more delays but worth it for all that. First on parade were Rex and Mary Camp who were neighbours for 18 years when I lived on Portland. It was good to reminisce about some of those days.

No surprise that I found Leslie (left) in there but on leaving there was a welcome encounter. First of all we bumped into Charmaine Dagger, a long time friend of hers and shorter for me, but she was on her way to meet husband Wilson who I used to 'spearfish' with back in the late 60's and 70's and hadn't seen since. More (welcome) delay for my already tight schedule. When I did at last get things finished it was a comfortable drive back to Parley where last nights catch of Moths were still needing sorting. My usual routine is to monitor and release them on the spot, but under this very rare circumstance I had disconnected the trap, covered it with a sheet and stowed it in the Wine Cellar. There, the temperature is an optimal c55ºF which keeps the Insects at a Basal Metabolic Rate (posh eh?) keeping them quiet while doing no harm.

Among others we had new to the Property List.

COMMON CARPET

CREAM-BORDERED GREEN PEA

a HOVERFLY

and the beautiful

BARRED YELLOW

On yesterdays Blog the Straw Belle was in fact a Barred Straw, which for once was a 'typo' and not a 'misidentification', the 'pretty plant' (final photo) was Tufted Vetch and the 'river plant' Yellow Water Lily. With THANKS to Paul, John and Roy, the appropriate amendments should have been made by the time you read this.