Monday, February 12, 2007

Half Term

A wet weekend in Weymouth. I got out to Castle Cove on Sunday Morning. I gave the undercliff close scrutiny for the wintering Yellow-Browed Warbler, but after an intensive five minutes search gave up and watched the bay instead. I had a smashing Great-Northern Diver pointed out to me in a conveniently flat Portland Harbour, and then down at the Yacht club was shown a pair of Slavonian Grebes close in, and further away a pair of Black-Necked Grebes. I got a bit of a lesson on the BNG’s, as at first inspection they had the same clean black-and-white appearance as the Slav’s, but on closer inspection the profile was distinctively different. I also had the wintering Velvet Scoter pointed out to me but at that distance I couldn’t honestly get anything on it. Otherwise a couple of handfulls of Great-Crested Grebes, lots of Mergansers, a couple of Shags, and amongst the gulls a number coming into summer plumage.

Later in the day we went to Worbarrow Bay, but the gale-force wind limited time on the beach. I got to try out my new Camera – a Canon 30D no less – but sadly the same old photographer.

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