Quick trip to Dorset. Lots more mediocre pictures.

Well, this is a busy time of year, isn't it? My time has been eaten by christmas parties, the inevitable useless 24 hours post-party, decorating trees, shopping, rehearsing, gigging... and all squeezed in between visits to Dorset and pointing my camera at anything with feathers. And I'm this busy, without having a family or a massive house or whatever it is that proper adults have to use up their time.

We were down in Swanage again at the start of this week and were fairly lucky with the weather. By that I mean there were a few times when we could venture outdoors without being blown off a clifftop or instantly soaked by sideways rain. This does provide a partial excuse for the woefully poor pictures I took though, and while 50mph winds and horizontal rain are undoubtedly challenging conditions in which to take pictures, I'm aware that it's taking me longer to learn this lens than I'd expected. Still, nothing that practice won't sort out, I'm sure.

A couple of visits to Studland beach provided waders and truly excellent views of black-necked grebes along with mergansers, shags and a late sandwich tern. I don't often see black-necked grebes - the last one I saw was quite possibly at Studland or in Poole harbour last winter - so it was especially good to see the birds at Studland as they fished extremely close in to the beach which, due to the weather (high winds and rain) we had to ourselves. We counted maybe 6 birds present, but the reports at this time of year can top 50. Deeply unpleasant in some ways, yet one of the most fun half hour's birding I've done in a while. 

Arne and Durlston had everything you'd expect bar the spoonbills at the former and peregrines at the latter; ravens, waders, auks, mergansers, bullfinches... all a very nice way to sink a few hours, despite Durlston's best efforts to piss me off by closing my favourite path. The path along the top of Tilly Whim and up to Anvil Point lighthouse (black redstarts, good views of auk colony, peregrines) was closed completely, meaning our walk was all but cliff-less as we were routed along a path that cuts back on yourself and goes directly up to the carpark. Visitors following this route - the only one that seems obviously available should they leave the new visitor centre and head perhaps inevitably straight to the clifftop - could easily visit and hardly see the site (or cliffs) at all, which is rather shitty. Hopefully this is temporary; maybe it was even weather related. Whatver. As I say, rather shitty. We ended up walking along the meadows at the top, which was pleasant, but not really the main attraction at Durlston. By comparison to the walk the newly renovated Durlston Castle, to which the visitors centre has been relocated, is truly excellent, if a little cheaply finished. Well worth a look-see.

You can do landscapes at 400mm. Sort of. Corfe Castle, from Coombe Heath - about 3 miles away.

Awful picture, but mixed wader flocks are awesome.

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Spent half an hour watching the river on the falling tide today - final counts of 5 dunlin, lapwing, c30 redshank, 3 wigeon, 5 teal and a gadwall were pretty good for the time of day/tide. This isn't interesting to anyone, and I'm under no illusions about that, but I'll write what I like. Gadwall is number 57 on the flat list. Another "interesting" sighting on the river is the bridge that fell off of HMS Belfast a couple of weeks back. It went downriver on a barge yesterday and, last time I looked (before the tide), was currently moored off a bouy between Grays and Tilbury. Just so you know.

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As we were packing up after a rehearsal last week we overheard someone in another room make what has to be one of the finest speeches ever made in the English language. A true masterpiece, dripping with class that paints such a vivid picture I feel almost duty bound to share it.

Because I am incredibly puerile with a mind like a drain, it has been playing almost on loop in my head and every time it goes around I have a little giggle when he gets to the bit where he uses "wank" as a noun.

"She's a lovely girl, but, I mean, you wouldn't, would you? You just wouldn't. Even with a paper bag. You wouldn'd, she's a proper munter. Munter. Anyway, she's well pissed because she caught him wanking the other day. She come back in, opened the door to find him, fag in mouth, can of beer in one hand, a wank in the other, porn on the laptop. She was pissed, I tell you. Proper pissed."