14 Dec 23

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

After an abysmal morning the sun finally came out and with it wall to wall blue skies, the latter a rare sight of late.

Well all the highlights were at the cove with 2 Pied Wagtail, 4 Robins, a pair of Stonechat, 3 fem/juv Black Redstarts, 3 Blackbirds, 4 Chiffchaff, 2 Goldcrest and 5 Wrens.

Mammals Recorded:
1 Grey Squirrel


Birds Recorded:
1 Cormorant
Herring Gull
Wood Pigeon
2 Pied Wagtail
Dunnock
4 Robin
2 Stonechat
3 Black Redstart
Blackbird
4 Chiffchaff
2 Goldcrest
Long-tailed Tit
Great Tit
Blue Tit
5 Wren
Magpie
Carrion Crow
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Goldfinch

A male Stonechat and his..........

................mate.

A fem/juv Black Redstart............

.........and another and.........

............the third one.

One of the Black Redstarts feeding on Kelp Flies on the beach. Just look at those flies on the beach huts!!!

One of the four Chiffchaffs which......

.............are all in this video. The fourth is top left briefly.

A slightly better view of the four Chiffchaffs.

At least one of the Chiffchaffs was slightly less active in this video.

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

I don't think I have ever seen so many Kelp Flies on the beach here.

Ted:

And Ted was definitely not happy about them either.

Ships Today:

This is the British Fishing Boat WH988 "Kelly Marie" fishing just Church Ope Cove. From what I can gather this is a newly built fishing boat made at Audacious Marine, Ramsgate Kent. Photo of it at Ramsgate here in July this year.

This is the British Fishing Boat WH22 "Marauder" on its way back to Weymouth Harbour. It is owned by Dorset Shellfish (Weymouth) here.

This is the British Fishing Boat WH148 "Rampant" on its way back to Weymouth Harbour. Here are a couple of photos of "Rampant" here and here.

This is the British Fishing Boat WH757 "Freeliner".