Ice Cold in Alex - Christopher Landon

 We could certainly do without these 'Cold and Frosty' mornings, but do bring with them some eye-catching images.

even from the door-step

and what may be allowed as a Dawn Chorus by a solo

WOOD PIGEON
perched on the Chicken Coup and followed at full daylight by a
New Kid on the Block

a carrier that has flown to and from Bournemouth International before and thought to be part of the new destinations reported on the local news channel?

No surprise to note the / a

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER
on the garden feeder and elsewhere

and likewise with the

KESTRELs
more often seen, but difficult to 'click' on the overhead cables just waiting for that hapless
Mammal or other to drop its guard.

A little more severe in more northerly climbs where the
PUDDLE of MUD

has been re-dubbed

THE RINK

while seemingly still sustaining the local

ROBINs

while the
Blow-Holes

on the Irrigation Pond have also succumbed to the weather and to end with

A Fine Pair - Pink Floyd

a second new carrier that just escaped our clutches as to identification.
Don't worry Mate "Our Day Will Come" - Ruby and the Romantics!

Breakfast at Tiffany's - Audrey Hepburn

 

With the starboard side of the Main Pond, looking east, frozen solid it was felt that the uneffected water to port was something of a minor miracle even allowing one of the local

GREY HERONs

to catch, quite a breakfast, what we believe to be a
ROACH.
Continuing the theme at the junction of the main road and Chapel Lane this

KINGFISHER
at least a mile from the nearest watercoure

which was also just about completely iced over!

Something of a

WINTER WONDERLAND

within the
Solar Panel Compound
as just about every panel was adorned with frozen Spiders Webs also giving some idea of just how many Arachnids are within. Otherwise, things were getting a little 'thin on the ground' until the almost reliable

RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE
(can you see it yet?)

conveniently appeared

from under the

Accumulator Cabinet

with the Frost seemingly not upsetting its breakfast!

Dorset Delights

Some positive movement as far as 'HITS' are concerned but would love to see that magic '4-Figure' sum return?? Don't be shy, please pass the link on to others! Thanks in Anticipation!

With total absence now of any sort of 'dawn chorus', replaced by beautiful

SKYSCAPES

and frosty ground, we did venture up north

IRRIGATION POND
more in hope than ambition

and unsurprisingly not a Moth to be seen, but all was not lost. 

A little late in publishing we had to trek to Weymouth for that now annual flu jab regular readers will not be surprised at the brief stop at Land End to view the

Little Belters

there by way of

YELLOW HAMMERs
but not surprisingly no Brown Rats! With the next stop being Lodmore we approached from the Avenue Road end in hopes of scoring a

BEARED TIT

of which we found but a single before heading for the shelter and booking

a couple of

COMMON SNIPE
en-route with the spectacle of the morning

being the large number of

GOLDEN PLOVER
A brief stop at the surgery for the afore mentioned inoculation and a couple of
'Smarties' for being such a brave Sailor, we headed for Portland where at the Bill there was little more than one of the resident

LITTLE OWLs

an equally lone
OYSTERCATCHER

along with those fabulous

over-winter visiting

PURPLE SANDPIPERs
and the continuing story of singles a

TURNSTONE
Such a visit would be nothing without popping into the Lower Lighthouse that is the
PORTLAND BIRD OBSERVATORY
and to meet up with only the Warden Martin Cade, recently returned from a bird-ringing visit in Kenya. About the most interesting of many, many conversations with the man and as a welcome cherry on the cake, as it were, the brief arrival of his Right Hand Lady (Assistant Warden) Jodie. The flood tide at Ferrybridge seemed to have brought little with it save for what looked every bit to be an all to distant

KNOT
(the image having been plucked from the archive) - Manana!

HAITI - 2013 - Part II

 Were we of a mind it might have been considered that Part I of the Haiti Trilogy, published last Sunday, was the catalist for yet another outbreak of severe violence and rampage in Port-au-Prince reported on the news the following day!  We saw nothing of this during our 10 day's stay with the finales being firstly a visit to the embrionic Helicopter Pad being constructed by

Californinan Rowdy (second from left) and a roughly tacked together work force.

A 90 minute drive from the Eucalyptus Guest House

proved to be yet another eye-opener giving another insight

to the abject poverty

which covers the whole of this half of the Island of Hispaniola,

but not without one
Ray of Brilliant Sunshine!

"to see a fine lady ride on a white horse, rings on her fingers and bells on her toes she shall have music wherever she goes"!

View of the propossed site from the hill-top.

A severe backward step, a few weeks before my arrival, was a yet another

Minor Earthquake 

which can be seen to have cause damage to this nearly completed building!

'ARRIVALS'

Clearance Work

Undamaged, something Concret to look back on,
while the only Bird Species to have been recorded here was something of a
'CRACKER'

BROAD-BILLED TODY

Some Plant-Life

The Future Work-Force

and more building-work on the way back to the capital and the Eucalyptus with

Bell-Boy Charles, House-keeper Rita and His Truely the Master Mind behind the project.        More Next Sunday.