None So 'Righteous' As The Brothers!

A dramatic looking sky to start the day, as the sun peeked above the building line of Weymouth sea-front with a black as black 'front' directly over the border of Weymouth and Portland. Fortunately, this came to nought as I headed to Portland via the cemetery which held a fair number of newly arrived Robins, a few Goldcrest and a passing Yellow Wagtail.

A veritable armada of small boats were leaving Weymouth Harbour as I crossed Town Bridge, all taking advantage of what promised to be a fine day. Barleycrates Lane produced 4 Tree Pipits, 3 Whinchat,

no fewer than 10 Stonechat

and literally 'hundreds' of Meadow Pipits.

Along the west cliff there were good numbers of Fox Moth Caterpillars which was about all for the walk down to the Bird Observatory.

Not a lot happening there except like yesterday the wonders of the Moth Traps, My absolute favourite name for any of the Moths is Setaceous Hebrew Character, where did that originate, of which there were a few

along with Black Rustic which despite being all black, as the name suggests, is a most striking insect.

It is never known what exactly might be found in a Moth Trap, there were a couple of Crane Flies (Daddy Long-legs) today, along with

the first Large Ranunculus of the year at the Obs

along with several Common Wainscot. Coffee and some usual banter and I was off towards Weymouth via the East Cliff, always a most therapeutic walk.

Having consulted some of the most knowledgeable locals, I am still at a loss as to be sure exactly what these concrete structures are. Most seem to think they or foundations for Gun Emplacements, which is probably the most logical answer.

No doubt about the identity of this bush, which is a Fig on which I have never seen a single fruit. However, with the amount of figs I am getting from Bowie and Sheila at the moment, no worries!

With brilliant seascapes to my right and the jigsaw of redundant stone quarries to the left, you'd hardly need anything else but there were a few birds including

Rock Pipit

Northern Wheatear,

Common Kestrel and

lots of Linnet and Goldfinch.

The local crab/lobster fishermen appeared to be doing well as I saw them remove a couple of large Lobbies from their pots as I made towards the bus to Weymouth.

Assured of a great laugh at The Swan pub in town, I met up with a few friends for a couple of wines - Micheal, Cath, Val, Helen and Leslie, but none of us were ready for this card!

A group of noisy young men, obviously from the Welsh Orchestra as they were all Har'-pists, entered and 'his nibs' launched straight into the Righteous Brothers classic, You've Lost That Loving Feeling, directing his attentions to a young lady on her own content to eat her dinner. Having whipped us all up into an accompanying frenzy Fonz, as I discovered later, simply gave the lady a gentle, friendly hug to the applause of us all. She it transpires is from Cape Town, and took the whole thing as if it happens to her every day, leaving the whole place buzzzzing. I hope you are both reading this because if everyone was like you 2 there would be a State of Palestine!!!!

A thousand kids run around hungry, 'cus Ma was a louse,
Daddies down at the Whiskey house! - Jimi.

Frank Zappa & the 'Moth'-ers of Invention

Not a lot of change in the weather today, but interesting to note 3 forms of 'cloud' partially covering the sky, cumulus, altostratus and at higher altitude cirrus, which eventually the sun managed to force its way through.

A great start in the cemetery as far as birds were concerned, with the first 2 returning

Mistle Thrush flying around and letting out their distinctive chatter. To my knowledge there has been no confirmed breeding here for the past 3 seasons, but it is hoped they will return to that in the near future.

At Radipole small foraging groups of Long-tailed Tit are now gathering and also seen was a single Whitethroat a few Chiffchaff & Bearded Tit

plus 2 Water Rail appearing to get bolder as the year gets longer. At the Bill numbers of Wheatear seemed much reduced, but there were far more Goldfinch and Meadow Pipit heading seaward along with a few Swallows.

With the absence of birds, there is always something of interest to be found in the Observatory Moth Traps, for want of a better description a large bucket filled with egg trays and fitted with a Mercury Vapour (or other) type light. The insects are attracted to the wave length of the lamp, fall into the trap and seek shelter in the trays. Last night seemed to have been quite prolific as there was much to see this morning, an example of which are shown below.

Pink-barred Sallow

L-album Wainscot

Rusty Dot Pearl

Angle Shades

and with nothing else to report, we can once again return to Venezuela to admire

The mythical Hoatzin

Common Black Hawk

Capibari

Great Potoo

Capped Heron and

the mighty Jabiru

Two For The Price of One - Venezuela & Colombia

More gloom again this morning, at least on the Weymouth side, with a milky looking sun barely breaking through the greyness and the wind still fresh from the west. Goldcrest continue to inhabit the cemetery in decent numbers, with a few chirpy Siskins passing overhead along with Sand & House Martins. It has been quite a few weeks since I've walked

The Rodwell Trail and when I do it's still hardly believable that this fantastic stand of trees are only a few hundred yards from Weymouth town centre. Robin, Wren and Dunnock were present as usual while Blackcap numbers also reached double figures but that was about it, so continued to Ferry Bridge where the tide was already low. Disappointment indeed, as the reward for half an hour each side of the Beach Road resulted in just a single Ringed Plover on the Fleet side and 3 Turnstones on the harbour shore.

At the Bill things seemed even worse, except for the weather which was measurably better, with a count of 69 Wheatear being the only thing of note, so with little in the way of photographs except for

the 'River Class' off-shore patrol vessel HMS Mersey steaming past Portland Bill.

and this Large White Butterfly laying eggs, we once again have to rely on the archive. Having received an e-mail from my Venezuelan friend Graciela Pineda Abreu just this very morning telling me of he visit to the coffee growing region, Eje Cafetero in Colombia, what better way to pad this post than with some photos of my visits to both countries.

Galapagos Road, Santa Marta Mountains, Colombia

Steely-vented Hummingbird

White-capped Tanager

Torrent Duck (female)

White-tailed Starfrontlet

Rufous-breasted Chat-Tyrant

White-tipped Quetzal

and from Venezuela

'One For The Vine' - Genesis (Wind & Wuthering)

Aplomado Hawks misbehaving.

Bar-backed Wren

Black-collared Hawk

Brown-throated Parakeet

Buff-necked Ibis

Caimen (fish species unknown)

It may be useful for those who have not discovered it yet, that for some reason all uploaded photographs now default to Picasa. I have no idea why this has happened but have made no effort to rectify the matter as when 'left clicking' on any image all the photographs for that particular post come up enlarged and can be viewed as a stream. It is hoped this will be more convenient than doing this singly?