Throw Down the Sword - Wishbone Ash

 Throw down the sword, the fight is done and over,
Neither lost, neither won.
To cast away the fury of the battle and turn my weary eyes for home.
There were times when I stood at death's own door,
Only hoping for an answer.
Throw down the sword, and leave the glory,

a story time can never change.
To walk the road, the load I have to carry
  a journey's end, a wounded soul.

Personally it would not bother me one jot if the whole of sport was 'closed down', and even though I love and enjoy the spectacle from time to time, of such events as Wembley and Twickenham, there is this underlying feeling that like our politicians, clergy, bankers, top entertainers etc that some kind of corruption exists. That was highlighted to MILLIONS all over the world last night when Mighty Warrior

GEORGE GROVES

was mercilessly 'bush-wacked' by so called referee Howard Forster at the Manchester Arena. Forster not only robbed Groves of his chance to continue what was already an overwhelming performance against Carl Froch but also robbed the world wide audience of their 'entrance fee' (pay to view), betrayed his own sport, sullied the reputation of the fine city of Manchester and brought ENGLAND into disrupt. and for what? 

30 Pieces of Silver?

Throw Down the Sword (Live Dates)

The sun continued to shine and I continued my few days stay on Portland again starting the day at Portland Bird Observatory.

The HIGHER LIGHT
Portland Bill

CARRION CROW

STOCK DOVE

and despite the wind still being in the northern quarter and fresh,

one of the

LITTLE OWLs
was putting in an appearance, unusual under these conditions.

STARLING
sparkling in the bright sunshine.

Another occasional visitor to the Island this

LAPWING
was on the Bill Common.

Quite a few Auks about today but mostly too distant to determine
identification. This one, in flight, was most definitely a
COMMON GUILLEMOT

Another distant record was a LITTLE EGRET

which is enhanced with this photo from the archive.

GANNETs have also been numerous during my stay

but today at least only a single
MEDITERRANEAN GULL
in this area.

THE MOON
Waning Gibbous about 70%

ROCK PIPIT

GOLDFINCH

WALL SNAIL (or Snail on a wall)

SEA CAVE

Sunflash at the Boat Hoist.

Here's one for you Deborah (Tessier that is)

BETSY, the PBO cat, was asking after you.

A quick and short visit to Ferry Bridge at Low Water produced

just a few

MEDITERRANEAN GULLs

 As VENUS was RISING (just left and above centre)

the sun was setting behind a distant SOUTHWELL VILLAGE

 I was on my way to BOWIE (right) and SHEILA EDWARDS

for a Curry with more than a few Drinks and the added bonus of 

sharing all of this with former Shipmate and Great Friend

DAVID (The Post Sausage) FRAMPTON

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Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix

It would be churlish indeed to complain about the sunshine particularly at this time of year and with a North Easterly blowing as well. However on my second day in Weymouth, and mostly Portland, what few birds there were clashed with the sun making them all very difficult to see let alone photograph.

Not unusually my day started at the
Portland Bird Observatory

taking this shot along the Mist Net Ride to show the
disappearance of the last black clouds.

A wander along the East Cliff as far as the Trinity House Obelisk
found a few GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULLs

and even more HERRING GULLs.

GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL

 

The OBELISK from the West Coast

The Commercial BASS Fishermen were already in the Race

catching 'line caught' fish from the vessel
ARETHUSA

More interesting to me was this distant

BALEARIC SHEARWATER
which was an addition to my Ongoing November List.

 

There were some fine 'seascapes' with combinations of sea and sun.

ROCK PIPIT

GANNET

These cliffs never cease to bring me wonderment, just the sight of
these 2 massive chunks of rock (centre) just snapped off the main
ledge by the force of the sea.

OYSTERCATCHER
was followed by a most welcome find in my first

PURPLE SANDPIPER

of the year (in fact there were c2

which very much perked up at my approach.

The only one to grace the view finder was in company with
c3 TURNSTONE

These confiding little Waders could have come from as far away
as Iceland.

The BILL from the east.

These fast craft seemed to have  menacing about them
maybe it was the Special Boat Service?

 

Another fine view including one of several
SEA PILLARS

and so to Secret's house for a coffee and as it happened some
tasty cheese and crackers - yum, yum!

Waiting for him to arrive home I sat in the kitchen
(I have my own key, a measure of our friendship)

when a movement caught my eye.

It was this mange ridden

FOX

prospecting the possibilities of a meal from around the
Bird Feeders where this

MAGPIE

seemed to be doing very well.

Late Note:- It's a known fact that I am half technophobe and 52% stupid as for many months now readers have been unable to increase picture size on this Blog. Having no idea how to rectify this I just ambled on thinking it was another result of unwanted and unneeded changes made by Google. After a discussion with Secret he seemed to think it maybe a change of lap-top with one holding the required programme and the other not. Today I'm compiling and publishing this post on the middle size computed and you should find that by 'right clicking' any image it will increase in size, hopefully enhancing your enjoyment.

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Can You See Me? - Jimi Hendrix

The most telling feature of the last two days weather has been the chill factor keeping temperatures in single figures. The wind, average speed 20 knots, first 'backed' into the North West, then continued to show a little East in it - Breeeeeer! On Wednesday there were a number of  appointments needing attention in Weymouth, so to combine that will a little 'birding' on the way an early start was needed. For the second time in the past few days I took the ferry from Sandbanks to Shell Bay then park strategically to observe the vehicle ramp on Furzey Island where there might have been a chance of seeing Golden Pheasant. Unfortunately, as time had past by the island has become more popular with human presence spoiling these chances. British Petroleum now have an Oil Drilling Derrick there, the ramp is floodlight day and night and it seem that the Check Point too is manned for much of this time. I set myself a time limit which was governed by the first sign of human activity, which took exactly 10 minutes - dismantle tripod, secure telescope, get the hell out of there. In passing there was a quick and very distant view of the Surf Scoter, but the next target was the Woodcock roost at Soldier's Road close to Arne. I don't even know if this is still an active site, but a 'gut feeling' saw me take a diversion down to Middlebere. Before reaching the hide a single Redwing was seen followed by a dozen or so Fieldfare, a good start, and from the hide there were loads of

 LAPWING

 plus singles of
SPOTTED REDSHANK

and YELLOW-LEGGED GULL
it was hoped that the 'hundreds' of Avocets that now overwinter
here would be seen but that was not to be for today at least!

Leaving the cover 2 birds were seen flying over the reedbed

one being a male HEN HARRIER

(photo from Wiki for illustration)

and the other a

GREAT WHITE EGRET

both sightings were short lived and photos come from the archive.

On to Portland Bill, where the weather turned decidedly inclement.

The plan had been for a longish walk but now the rain was falling

like stair-rods so down to the Bill Car Park and out with the 'scope.

After a hour all on offer had been lots of Gannets plus c2

MANX SHEARWATER

Next was a drive to Sandsfoot Castle on the northern shore of

Portland Harbour where there was a little more to see including

c15 Great Crested Grebe, several dozen Red-breasted Merganser

plus c11 BLACK-NECKED GREBE

and a single

RED-NECKED GREBE
the latter two both being additions to the Year List.
Can You See Me? - Link? 

 and finally, an excellent but frustrating image from one of our dedicated readers.
The simple question that comes with it is
"can you see the bird yet"?

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