After many days of wet, miserable weather, the sun finally showed itself. And with that it was off to Portland Harbour, followed by Chesil Cove, to see what was about.
It was quite hard to spot anything on the water in the harbour, as there was a stiff south-easterly gusting at around 40mph. Any diving birds that appeared on the surface, were extremely difficult to photograph as the waves lapped around them. Plus they were all very distant.
New species for my 2026 bird list were a
Great Northern Diver and several
Red-breasted Mergansers. All, as mentioned above, very distant.
This brute of a bird is I believe a....................
............2nd winter Great Black-backed Gull.
Other than the gulls, other birds like this drake Red-breasted Merganser and.........
.............Oystercatcher were all very distant.
Next stop was Chesil Cove. And looking west up Chesil Beach it was quite obvious the last three storms had had a profound impact on the shape of the beach. In fact there were several spots where the pebbles had been completely washed away revealing sandy beaches.
Ted on Black Barge beach. That snout of his was working overtime, but I have no idea what he was looking for!!
And anchored up in the harbour was the
Portuguese LPG Tanker "
Gaschem Baltic", to the rear, being refuelled by the
Maltese Chemical/Oil Products Tanker "
Monjasa Provider" prior to leaving for Dunkirk. More on "
Gaschem Baltic"
here and "
Monjasa Provider"
here.
