One of the problems of buying a second-hand car, is that sometimes you find something which isn't quite right. And so it was with the Kia I bought last Tuesday. The garage had washed it and waxed it prior to me driving it away, but so much water had leaked into the offside front light housing that a couple of Goldfish wouldn't have looked out of place swimming in it.
So it went back to the garage and whilst it was being looked at I walked from the Ferrybridge along The Fleet before crossing over and walking along the old railway track towards Hamm Beach. At the beach Dawn picked me up and later I returned to pick up the car.
Highlights were the dozens of Little Terns in the Fleet. There were so many I just couldn't keep count. In amongst them were at least 4 Sandwich Terns. There were no waders on the sandflats, though an Oystercatcher did fly over to the Portland Harbour side. Having said that when I picked my car up a lot later in the day, the tide was almost up to the Chesil Beach Visitors Centre and in the little bit of mud left were a dozen or so Dunlin and a Grey Plover.
Other birds of interest seen were a male Wheatear at Hamm Beach, several Swallows making their north and at least 3 male Meadow Pipits singing along with a pair of Skylarks.
Here are a few images and videos from this morning:
A pair of Sandwich Terns on one of the boat moorings. It's tipping
And here is one in flight.
............males would come in with gifts, only to be.........
.........warned off by the male on the left. The fish is a Sandeel I believe.
Here are a dozen or so Little Terns having a wash and preen in the shallows.
At Hamm Beach was this very dark male Wheatear.
Here is a short video clip of it feeding
And all along the paths were Meadow Pipits with a few males singing.
And another.
And one more.
Not a Meadow Pipit but one of the 2 Skylarks I found lurking in the low lying vegetation.
Wakeham
Early this morning a Peregrine Falcon flew very low over the back garden with a Pied Wagtail in pursuit.
Later in the day there was one hell of a commotion by the gulls just beyond the new housing estate behind us. I had hoped it was a raptor passing through. Sadly the new homes blocked off my view, but as I stood there, just hoping for a glance of the mystery bird, a Swift, my first of the year flew over my head.
And the Great Tits are still bringing nesting material to the nest box. This is going to be a late brood, which makes me think that they may possibly had lost the first nest elsewhere. Who knows!!
Birds Recorded today on my travels: Peregrine Falcon, Oystercatcher, 1 Grey Plover, 20+ Dunlin, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, 20+ Little Tern, 4 Sandwich Tern, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, 1 Swift, 2 Skylark, Swallow, Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Dunnock, Wheatear, Blackbird, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Linnet and Goldfinch
Bees Recorded: Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)