View From The Top - Cat Stevens

A sunny day with a chill on the wind, I decided to catch the fall of tide at Ferry Bridge it being just one day after the New Moon producing some of the highest (and lowest) tides of the year.

A second day with a large number of BRENT GEESE on the foreshore

but a little flighty, seemingly without reason.

The PALE-BELLIED BRENTs remain there too

along with a few male and

female RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, but looking across Portland Harbour there was something, potentially, more interesting.

Joined by The Secret Lemonade Drinker (Gary White) we headed for The Verne, a high vantage point at the north end of Portland. The views alone are excellent value, looking across the harbour to the National Sailing Academy (centre) and the Fleet Lagoon (distant) nestling inside the Chesil Bank, but it was of great coincidence that my suspicions were confirmed.

Laying there at No. 1 berth Queen's Pier was none other than the ship I will be boarding early next month.

There was some reluctance in reporting this to the readership, as not to spoil the impact of my day to day posts during the trip, so will make the following suggestion:-

It would be simple enough to identify the vessel, visit the appropriate web-site and obtain the full itinerary, but suggest you don't do that maintaining the daily surprise? It's up to the individual of course!

A closer look at the Fleet Lagoon,

as a light rain squall crossed the harbour leaving just a traces of a RAINBOW in the otherwise bright sunlight.

All else to see was the familiar sight of the old 'Round Table Class' Landing Ship Logistics RFA SIR TRISTRAM, now used for Special Operations Training and the

DISTANT RANGE which once stood as a Torpedo Firing Facility for research purposes.

Secret dropped me at Victoria Square to catch the bus home, where I decided to photograph this old ADMIRALTY PATTERN ANCHOR which is now more ornament that functional. Crossing back to the Bus Shelter I encountered a young man who in all respects looked Filipino, which he is.

MARK is a Steward on the very ship we had just been viewing and will likely add to my enjoyment onboard. We had a good chat on the way to Weymouth where he was going to spend his off-duty hours looking at our town. Not enough time really, but secure in the knowledge we'll likely meet again, hope to see you soon Mark.

Magic - A Flock of Seagulls

A spectacular start to today's post, but it will rapidly go down hill after, as Paul Harris sends me these terrific images of

HOUBARA BUSTARD

from his, and wife Annie's, recent short break in Lanzarote. If that were not enough he also reports seeing c9

Cream-coloured Courser as well - Phewww. So many thanks for that Paul! The photograph comes from Wiki as illustration of such a fantastic bird. My own day was full of much less drama, but started with over

30 CARRION CROWs settling briefly in trees near to home. A nice day, with temperature higher than recently, an overcast sky and little in the way of wind. As usual the first stop was the cemetery where most notable was 'hearing' the feeling flock of Long-tailed Tits, so quickly onward.

Cetti's Warbler, Water Rail and Bearded Tit were all very vocal before even reaching the shelter on The Loop at Radipole, where the biggest flock of Gulls I have seen this end of the year took to the wing.

A good proportion of these were MEDITERRANEAN GULLs along with as many newly arrived

 COMMON GULLs which in my view are always good to see.

Plenty of small birds too, but all of the common kind, with CHAFFINCH most numerous followed by Gold and Greenfinch.

DUNNOCKs and Robins were being particularly bold

while this pair of TEAL seemed little perplexed at my approach.

Also newly arrived it seemed were these c3 SHELDUCK, likely just back from Heligoland.

 

Otherwise, it was down to the usual resident Ducks and Grebes to make up today's numbers such as this pair of MALLARD,

a long staying rather strange Hybrid?

 TUFTED DUCK

LITTLE GREBE

along with the familiar sight of the male HOODED MERGANSER which was today distant and uncooperative.

 

Awaiting the bus to Portland, another familiar sight during the winter months, over 60 CARRION CROWs.

The Bill was just about devoid of small birds with just Goldfinch, Pied Wagtail, Starling and Rock Pipit on show,

but the LITTLE OWL in the Observatory Quarry was there to make up the numbers. A coffee at an also subdued Bird Obs, where only a handful of birds had been caught, then quickly onto another cup at Secret's house.

There, WOOD PIGEON, COLLARED DOVE and STOCK DOVE (all plural) were taking advantage of the corn provided, while a female Greast Spotted Woodpecker spent prolonged periods on the nut feeder and in nearby trees.

Remember - Jimi Hendrix

I start today's post with the great pleasure of welcoming the 175th country to our readership by way of

 SWAZILAND

a country I was most pleased to visit back in November 2006 accruing no fewer than 30 new species on the World Bird List including, Speckled Mousebird, Purple-crested Turaco, Gorgeous Bush-Shrike and Greater Scimitarbill. We welcome our new reader and hope the LINK The Bagsy Blog can be passed to others in that fine country.

Yesterday was a bright sunny and calm day, ideal for my first visitation attending the Remembrance Day Gathering. More people about than I remember on any previous such Sunday and as a result the

FARMER'S MARKET on Westham Bridge appeared to be doing very well.

As ever there were lots of vintage military vehicles

and as mentioned before lots of people. However, that's when I started to loose the plot arriving for lunch with Lesley and the first bottle of wine. By the time I got home it was slightly 'one over the eight; hence none publication of these shots along with a couple of other items.

Weather wise, today has been the complete opposite of yesterday with heavy rain continuing right up to the time of publication, but allowing for more investigation and planning of the upcoming trip and selection of a few more shots from the archive which seem to be going down well with many of you.

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (September 14, 1769 – May 6, 1859) was a Prussian geographer, naturalist and explorer and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Hunboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of bio-geography. Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America, exploring and describing it for the first time in a manner generally considered to be a modern scientific point of view, leaving many creatures bearing his name such as the

HUMBOLDT PENGUIN (also known as Peruvian Penguin or Patranca) first seen by myself in 2003,

 with these images being taken subsequently in 2010 at a Peruvian Rookery.

BARE-EYED THRUSH

MUSCOVY DUCK

PUMA

RUFESCENT TIGER HERON

 SPOT-BREASTED WOODPECKER

SWALLOW TANAGER

 

CARIB GRACKLE

YELLOW-HEADED CARACARA