my mate martin tells me these are sweet violets

enjoyed the sun feeling almost back to 100% now. saw a handful or brimstone and peacock and nice to see these violets (some form of dog violet?)

must have been a bare minimum of 30x siskin and maybe close to double figure long tailed tit flock feeding on the alders on the E side of the buddleia loop

the marsh harriers were displaying at the N end of radipole

the red rumped swallow didnt come as low for us at lunchtime but was nice to see, habitat reminded me very much of west rise, sussex where they also often stick.

still a better photo than i got recently by some way! seemed to be going GND distances out then. were certainly more common when i moved here in 2019 and always seem to hang around toward the bincleaves area.

just a BNGrebe off the bench, slav grebe toward bincleaves, couple GND, possible BTDiver off sandsfoot. BTDiver portland castle and a couple of GNDiver. mostly birds horribly distant in choppy water. hopefully my virus is fading to enable more trips out now! preferably without rain!

its avoiding me lol, nice pics phil, surprising just how lightish brown the head looked in johns pics

birds had dispersed back in the harbour today, just a couple of GND off portland castle and maybe 3 off hamm beach and a BNG too, all distantly. main novelty was the first dabchick i have seen for a while at osprey quay

John sent me his photo of his BTDiver there so maybe it drifted out or behind the quay

2 more close in opposite the sailors return, quite a few about looking at debbies earlier tweet

this distant individual caught the eye as a potential contrasty BTDiver until you had a closer look

at least 7, probably 9 GNDivers off portland castle today.

glad you saw them nicola and are out and about again, in admittedly choppy conditions tother day i saw neither and was starting to doubt if they existed given a slim extremely white flanked GND and a couple of puny scrawny GCG!

well i can send messages using an anonomiser, really these new rules and the threat of banning us from tw1t by the govt are ridiculous really when so easily circumvented! lets face it how many u-18 actually use tw1t/bsky!

not saying they are not present but just have my doubts

has anyone seen any photos or know who put out the slav grebe & BT diver since the new year, there is a skinny GNDiver with a lot of white along the flank and a couple of pretty small poorly marked GCGrebe but had a very good look in admittedly slightly choppy conditions with no joy yesterday.

you miss the point phil, the link they use to verify is what is showing up as a dodgy website and therefore wont even let me connect to that stage to start any verification. graham has an issue as he looks under 18 of course

@support.bsky.team when i try to age verify to enable messaging the link you e-mail comes up as a threat so nothing connects, please advise!

need to try and collect some evidence martin!

a couple of GND off the tourist information centre and another distantly off hamm beach as was a BNGrebe, disappointing considering how far you could see in calm bright conditions.

whilst seeing martin and dawn out and about today was the best thing, fluking a bottlenose dolphin entirely way out of the water was next best, opposite the sailors return,

at the third time of asking got a record shot of one of the kingfishers opposite the sailors return after missing off the tourist centre and also the sailing academy car park. unfortunately just after martin adlam left.

never did post these from christmas morning, santa failed to deliver anything despite helpful conditions but enjoyed seeing the med gull feeding frenzy, so the E obviously delivered for someone!

not had one since moving here but used to remove them myself. if you can identify the virus then you should be able to google removal from phone/laptop. most tecchy sites make it pretty easy to follow. presume it got past your anti virus, would recommend avg free.

i do wonder if the wind picking up ENE will be enough to blow the harbour birds in close at hamm beach christmas day morning, not the best of timing for most folk but i will certainly be going and having a look. only seen it happen once before so no gimme but must be a chance

nice looking bird phil but i think last years male in the same spot was a smarter looking bird.

just sit on the rock nearest the sea at the N end of church ope cove and it should come to you sooner or later, you get the other birds in the vegetation to entertain you anyways

plenty of other birds enjoying the flies off the washed in vegetation in church ope cove, 1cy grey wagtail the pick of them but stonechat, rock pipit, pied wagtail and wren were knocking about and could hear a chiffchaff in the background. surprisingly no butterflies at all.

not sure about the photos but nice looking bird. btw they have closed off a small stretch of the footpath if you are thinking of going, you can get round or take the slope down to the back of the huts, which given how slippy it was today was probably the more dangerous option ;)