20 Feb 20

Penns Wood, St Andrew's Church, Church Ope Cove Wood, Church Ope Cove, Rufus Castle and Portland Museum.

A break in the weather and an opportunity for Dawn and me to walk down to Church Ope Cove for a beach litter pick. Its amazing how quickly you can fill 2 carrier bags with washed up plastic bottles, golf balls, fishing line and dozens of rubber straps stripped off the Lobster Pots.

Our walk took us through Penns Wood and it was good to see that there was at least 1 Firecrest still present here. In fact most of the birds I saw were in singles, with a single Goldcrest also in the wood, a lone Rock Pipit on the beach and a single Great Black-backed Gull keeping an eye on a Shag which was fishing just off the beach.

Birds in double figures were a party of Long-tailed Tits in Penns Wood.

Here are a few images from today:

A Great Black-backed Gull just off the beach

Just the one Rock Pipit at the cove today.

And still more empty Whelk egg cases being washed up.

Also on the beach was this "Mermaids" Purse, which of course is either the egg case for a ray or shark. This looks as if it could possibly be the egg case of what sea anglers call a Dogfish. The scientific name would be Scyliorhinus canicula (Small-spotted Catfish), but there are other similar catfish. Here's a useful website from the Shark Trust. Click Here.

Another "Sea Fern"

So much rubbish on the beach, mainly plastic bottles and this Golf Ball.

And a couple of bags of rubbish from the beach.

Birds Recorded: 1 Gannet, 1 Shag, Herring Gull, 1 Great Black-backed Gull, Wood Pigeon, 1 Rock Pipit, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Firecrest, 10+ Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch and Goldfinch

Ships Today

This is the British Buoy-laying ship "Patricia" in Weymouth Bay. More on this vessel Here.

This is the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship "Lyme Bay" in Weymouth Bay. More on this vessel Here.

This is the Liberian Tanker "Soho Square" on its way from Jorf Lasfar (Morocco) to Rotterdam (Holland). More on this vessel Here.

This is the German Tanker "Paulin B" on its way from Hamburg (Germany) to Cork. More on this vessel Here.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On this day..........
2019
Today's Sightings Here.

2018
Today's Sightings Here.