28 Oct 21

Old Quarry Lane, Wakeham Meadow, The Windmills, Wakeham Railway Cuttings, Penns Wood, St Andrew's Church, Church Ope Cove, Church Ope Cove Wood, Penn's Weare, Penn's Copse, Rufus Castle and Portland Museum

A typical Autumn day, cloudy, grey with the occasional glimpse of the sun. Main highlights, on another mid-afternoon walk, were my first "visible" Redwings with 6 along Old Quarry Lane, 2 Firecrests in Penns Wood, a Lesser Redpoll over the Railway Cuttings, 4 Chiffchaff at various locations along my walk and 5 Rock Pipits on the beach.

Yet again no butterflies recorded, just the one bee seen a White-tailed Bumblebee, a few Common Wasps, 2 Marmalade Hoverflies and 2 Chrysolina banksii beetles.

Birds Recorded:
Gannet
Herring Gull
Wood Pigeon
5 Rock Pipit
Dunnock
Robin
Blackbird
6 Redwing
4 Chiffchaff
2 Firecrest
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Wren
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw
2 Raven
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
1 Lesser Redpoll
2 Siskin
Goldfinch

A few Rock Pipits are starting to appear at the cove now.

Bees Recorded:
White-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lucorum)

Just the one bee seen today, this White-tailed Bumblebee

Wasps Recorded:
Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris)

A Common Wasp in flight.

Hoverflies Recorded:
2 Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)

And a Marmalade Hoverfly, which I just managed to photograph as it hovered in front of me.

Flies, Craneflies, Gnats and Midges Recorded:
Kelp Fly (Coelopa frigida)


Bugs and Beetles Recorded:
Leaf Beetle (Chrysolina banksii)

This pair of beetles are................

.......................Leaf Beetles, Chrysolina banksii. More on this beetle Here.

Plants:

Japanese Spindle Tree (Euonymus japonicus)
Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum)
Hart's-tongue Fern (Asplenium scolopendrium)

This flowering Honeysuckle was in amongst the Japanese Spindle in Penns Wood.

This is Hart's-tongue Fern and this is..............

...........what it looks like on the underside.

General Shots:
Church Ope Cove

The wind was coming straight into the cove this afternoon.

And there was a fair bit of surf as you can see............

..................from this short video

Ted:

No waterproofs for Ted today, thank goodness. But it's certainly woolly jumper time. It was pretty nippy out there today.

Ships Today:

This is the Cargo Ship "Spanaco Fidelity" flying the flag of Antigua Barbuda. It is on its way from Teignmouth to Riga (Latvia). More on this vessel Here.

This is the Maltese Ro-Ro/Passenger Ship "Visby" on its way from Dunkirk to Rosslare. More on this vessel Here.