The pressure of work & windy weekends made weekend visits to St Aldhelms in August largely impossible this Autumn. It wasn't until the Bank Holiday weekend, that the pressure of work started reducing back towards normal hours & the weather improved. That provided a chance to get out onto the patch, with the added bonus that I could head out for pre-work visits to St Aldhelms (as far as Trev's Two-barred Greenish quarry). So, far in Sep, I've been able to get out on a bit over half of the weekday mornings, as well as, longer visits at the weekend. But this morning, I'm fogged in with 200 metres visibility in the house. This happened on the 3 Sep, but I went anyway just for the exercise: a couple of miles of exercise with less than 100 metres of visibility & nothing of note seen.
The start of the track at St Aldhelms: Normally, I should be able to see for 2 or 3 miles in every direction, whereas the tree in the middle of the track was 30 metres in front of me (3 Sep 20)
This is what the visibility should be like at this point: Visibility of over two miles, albeit without the snow (2 Feb 19)
Trev's quarry: I never thought I would tire of looking in Trev's quarry, but maybe that changed on 3 Sep
Fortunately, the visibility on other visits has been much better. One of the great things about the St Aldhelms patch is it is a stunningly beautiful site to watch.
St Aldhelms: Looking down Pier Bottom Valley from near to Trev's quarry (30 Aug 20)
The coastal footpath: The Southern end of Pier Bottom descends down steep steps, before ascending again equally steeply on the other side
Pier Bottom Valley: Social distancing on the coastal footpath isn't easy, so I tend to roll under the barbed wire fence & walk through the field to the sets of bushes I'm interested to check out in the valley
The Front Quarry or Quarry Ledge to give its other name: This always looks like it should be an excellent migrant trap, but migrants rarely stick in it
Hopefully, the weather will be better tomorrow.
