Sooty...but not shearwater

This is what I looked like on both Saturday and Sunday evenings after we spent most of the weekend ripping out my fireplaces....only dirtier. First to go was the sitting room one, easy...smashed up the concrete and took out the bricks.

Sitting room fireplace - easy peasy

Next to go was the kitchen, now this one had plastered over then wallpapered, so when I discovered the original stone lintels, i decided to open it right out and put a wood stove in there. Well we did the impossible, we emptied out three times as much brick, stone, dust, soot and plaster as there was possibly room for. We managed to fill a skip, a hole in the ground and have enough spare bricks to rebuild the house.....then there was the dust, it was everywhere, not only on everything in the kitchen but also on and in us....black bogies was just the start!!!

Kitchen fireplace, complete with tools for the job - hoover, brush and shovel, bucket and STELLA!

So, as you can imagine, I didn't get much birding done, though I did sneak down to Dru on Sunday to clear my lungs. It was very bright and very breezy, so no good for ringing (and Saturday was write-off due to rain. Not much to report either...very quiet.

This ship has been lurking in the bay for a week or so, I thought it might be surveying for windfarms. She is called Tridens 1, so I googled her and found this amazing website which shows all of the ships moving around the coast http://www.shipais.com/ zoom in on the northeast to see what's about. Tridens 1 is a fisheries research vessel from the Netherlands:

Name: Tridens 1
MMSI: 245245000 [NL]
IMO: 6812833
Callsign: PIAO
Speed/Dir: 3.6 kts / 328° NNW
Status: Underway
Dest: Blyth
ETA: Aug20 08:00
Type: Dredger/Underwater Ops. (33)
Details: Fisheries Research Vessel
Size: 61m x 10m x 4.4m
Tonnage: 934gt
Built: 1967
Received: 22:15:07 11 Aug 08 BST

Amazing eh?

maybe it's looking for my killer whale and dolphins which have now all gone, there were 2 harbour porpoise on Sunday though.

Here are some pics from Friday morning:

reed bunting

lesser whitethroat

meadow brown

small skipper I think...though am happy to be corrected......