3 Jan 25

Portland Castle Beach and Portland Marina

Today was my first day driving my car since my Op on 22 Oct. And apart from a faulty glow plug light flashing on the dashboard (The car needless to say is in the garage now) it went very well.

So as not to over do it, my first visit was to Portland Castle Beach and a short walk to Portland Marina and back.

Main highlight was watching a Bottlenose Dolphin "playing" just off the Mulberry's for at least 10 minutes.

Other highlights were my first Great Northern Divers for the year with at least 4 birds noted, a Little Grebe just off one of the Mulberry's, a dozen or so Cormorants, 4 Shags, 5 Black-headed Gulls, 4 Great Black-backed Gulls, a Pied Wagtail in the car park, and 2 Ravens over the Heli-Ops runway.


Mammals Recorded:
1 Bottlenose Dolphin

This Bottlenose Dolphin...........

..............seemed to be enjoying itself.

Eventually it ended up next to the Mulberry's where..............

..............it continued breaching, spinning and diving.

Birds Recorded:
4 Great Northern Diver
1 Little Grebe
12+ Cormorant
4 Shag
5 Black-headed Gull
Herring Gull
4 Great Black-backed Gull
1 Pied Wagtail
Magpie
Carrion Crow
2 Raven

I counted at least..............

...............four Great Northern Divers in the harbour.

A short video of a Great Northern Diver (slo-mo and silent).

Shags on the Portland Marina breakwater.

An adult winter Black-headed Gull.

And an adult Great Black-backed Gull

And a male Pied Wagtail running around the car park.

2 Jan 25

Wakeham

Well that was a better start to the day, with the resident Robin singing away in the back garden, several House Sparrows chattering away on top of the privet hedge and two fly-by Goldfinches.

Late afternoon my bird count for the year increased further with a Wood Pigeon on my neighbours roof, a Great Spotted Woodpecker which across Bumpers lane estate towards the Lower Horse paddocks, a Chiffchaff calling away just a couple of metres away in my neighbours garden, 3 Long-tailed Tits moving through the garden and a Carrion Crow.

Birds Recorded:
8+ Herring Gull
1 Wood Pigeon
1 Great Spotted Woodpecker
1 Robin
1 Chiffchaff
3 Long-tailed Tit
1 Magpie
1 Carrion Crow
7+ House Sparrow
23 Goldfinch

My first Carrion Crow of the year sat just a few metres away.......

.........................from these Goldfinches in my neighbours Sycamore.

1 Jan 25

Wakeham

Well Happy New Year to you all, from a very wet and windy Isle of Portland.

I did venture out into the back garden for 30 minutes this morning and sat in the relative shelter of the arbour, where I managed to spot 5 Herring Gulls and a Magpie. Unfortunately that was it.

Happy New Year from a very wet and windy Portland.

It's still quite mild and the roses are still in flower. When are you supposed to prune them back. Hopefully the cold spell forecast for next week will slow the growth down and pruning can commence.

The last big storm, when I was in hospital, brought these two 6ft panels down.

And here are the replacements, two trellises to let the wind through. Just got to find someone to put them up.