14th December

There were a couple of minor surprises to show from today's fieldwork with a Red-necked Grebe showing up for the first time this winter in Portland Harbour and a late presumably migrant Bullfinch dropping in briefly at the Obs. A couple of Redwings were also fresh in at Pennsylvania Castle, whilst Firecrests there and at the Obs, 12 Purple Sandpipers at the Bill, the Black Redstart at Church Ope Cove and 3 Great Northern Divers and 2 Black-throated Divers in Portland Harbour were all still about. Seawatch reports included 5 Red-throated Divers and 2 Common Scoter through off the Bill.

Whilst fishing around for some other photographs today we came across these rather lovely blast-from-the-past offerings that long-time Obs member Alan Hold had allowed us to copy earlier this year. Alan features third from the right in this gathering of likely lads at the Bill in 1960:


...whilst this soiree in the Obs lounge must date from a year or two later since it features Peter Morgan (second left) - now our Chairman but then the first full-time PBO warden; we can also identify David Godfrey (front left) and Dave Paull (front right), both of whom are still occasional visitors to the Obs:


We do always ask when we post photographs like these but if anyone does have prints/slides/cinefilm from the early years of the Obs we would love to see them - digital images are so ubiquitous these days that it's easy to forget just how few folk carried a camera back in the 1960s.