Caspian Gulls ~ Dungeness, Kent - 28.10.17

With winds of 20mph from the west and an incoming tide it started off a normal day for Dungeness, upon arrival though the activity out on the sea was far greater than normal with a 100+ Gannets feeding close in and two large rafts of Kittiwakes easily 500+ along with higher numbers of passing Med & Common gulls and much higher numbers of large gulls seemed promising for the afternoon ..

It wasn't until later that the beach became clear of fishermen that the gulls settled and after a few mass feeding frenzies that the numbers begun to build with a large roost on the beach and a large raft on the sea ..

The first caspian to show up was the regular bird at the moment and a rather smart 1st winter bird it is to ..

 

Same bird in Storm Brian ~ 21.10.17

Sme bird ~ 30.09.17

   

Next up was a rather nice 2nd. winter 

not as regular as the younger birds and a joy to see when they appear on the beach .. bird #5

 

A new 1st winter bird seemed to stay distant on the beach only coming close when in with the melee .. Bird #6

Very late in came another 2nd winter, a small bird with a equally small bill that I had my doubts about mainly due to bill size but the facebook group backed up the caspian id and so it was bird #7

   

Four Caspians in a day doesn't happen to often at Dungeness and considering the amount of gulls the most so far this season but still probably not yet in to four figures for the beach and only a few ringed birds amongst the the large gulls ..

Other notables two 2nd. winter yellow-legs and a 1st with a juvenile Arctic Skua passed ..

Wine Cellar Project

Once the dig was complete I took over the design and build of this Wine Cellar holding c.900 bottles ..

Above shows the multiple membrane's and the screeded base at nearly 3 meter's down at the bottom ..

The design was drawn out on to white correx to workout the best storage per section, the sections was then mass cut and assembled on site ..

The spiral staircase was an off the shelf kit which was adapted for this wine cellar .. 

Below shows the routered groove for the L.E.D lighting and ventilation holes .. 

 Below the base sections are complete with treads but here without all infill as in the above image ..  

With the membrane folded in the concrete was poured and reinforced .. 

The membrane was folded back and the top section got underway ..

As the sections went in so the treads were cut in and in went the cables for lighting ..

Ventilation pipes all hidden between sections ..

The rest of the treads were cut and positoned for a mock-up before the completion of the top section ..

Once all the top sections were fixed so was the treads and the remainder of the cables, the membrane was folded in again and the top section was then pour with concrete ..

The top ring was 3 layers of 25mm ply the  radius routered on site ..

Another 3 layers of 25mm ply formed the finished radius and door shape also showing the concrete backfill ..

Floor re-instated and two-part filler begins..

This shows some of the Beech veneer applied and cut-outs for Soss hinges .. 

The first layer of the 3 layer ply doors

Close-up showing the make-up of the 3 layer doors ..

This shows the half door and split quarter door ..

19mm toughened glass dry run and lights on with the laminated floor installed and protected with correx ..

Acrylic white primer ..

Dark Grey Oil primer ..

Lights on !!

Linear Actuators open and close the two doors automatically ..

And to say that i'm pleased with the finished result is an under-statement, I was given free rein to design and build for GPML and the client ..

It looks stunning ..

Caspian Gull ~ 1cy ~ Dungeness, Kent - 30.09.17

Saturday proved more successful than Sunday with more gulls to sort through ..

Notable was a small arrival of Yellow-legged Gulls ... 1x Ad, 3x 2nd.W and 2x 1st.W birds over the two days ..

Bird of the weekend was on Saturday when another 1cy Caspian joined the melee ..