Red Funnel Dinosaur Island Archway Opening

These are the professional photographers photos of the Dinosaur Island archway.

Sheila has a pink collar and Shadow has a black collar.

The dinosaur handlers work with the dinosaurs at Blackgang Chine.

I had to have lots of photos taken.

This is a photo my mum took, you can see all the Red Funnel people with the orange coats on making sure I was ok.

I was allowed to walk the dinosaurs on the ferry. But because I was only little the people inside the costumes couldn’t see me so the handlers had to walk next to the dinosaurs so they knew where they were going.

Walking off the ferry.

Walking them on and off the ferry was the best part.

Red Funnel Ferries asked me if I would have my photos taken with Blackgang Chines dinosaurs. They wanted me to walk on and off the ferry with them and to stand by their new Dinosaur Island archway that cars have to drive under when they use the ferries.

I said yes, so they sent me some tickets to get over to Southampton. I really liked walking the dinosaurs on the ferry it was fun. We had to have lots of breaks as the people inside the dinosaur suits where getting really hot.
Here are some photos that the photographer took on the day.

Cormorant

This is how I found the dead cormorant on the beach.

This is the cormorant skull after it has been decomposed in my garden and then washed.

Needs a bit more cleaning up.

The length of the skull is 15cm.

The length of the skull is 15cm from end of the beak to the back of the skull.

The top of the beak is nearly as high as the beak.

You can see that the beak is longer than the head part of the skull.

View of the top of the skull.

We went to Thornes beach to look for fossils, I found some fossilized snail shells, turtle shell and crocodile skin.
When we were down the beach I found a dead Cormorant, it was already decomposing, so I took the head and put it in a bag. I have found quite a lot of dead sea birds this year, I don’t know why. When I got home I put it in the garden to finish decomposing, I put a crate over the dead animal so the flies can get in but nothing else can.
The photos show the skull after the flies have finished cleaning it up and I have washed it, I am going to think about whether to clean it up any more.

From the back of the skull to the end of the beak is 15cm.
Its beak is 78mm long.

Cormorants and Shags are like each other to look at, but Cormorants have white under their beak, Shags don’t, they have a black short crest on their head.
Cormorants catch fish in long underwater dives from the surface. It can feed in quiet estuaries and in lakes or rivers.

Nesting: They have a bulky nest made of sticks in trees and on cliff ledges, 3-4 eggs, 1 brood in April-May.
Length: 80-100cm
Wingspan: 1.3-1.6m
Lifespan: 15-20 years
Weight 2-2.5kg

Oyster Shell Fossil

This is me sitting in my garden cleaning my oyster shell fossil.

You can see the dentist tool I was using.

In this photo you can see the growth rings of the oyster. You can see that I have cleaned away all the mud.

This is the top of the shell after I have finished cleaning it.

This is a side view of the oyster fossil.

We went down Whale Chine on the Isle of Wight, it was very steep. We saw some Raven’s flying about and I found some of their feathers, they are the first ones I have in my collection of other feathers.
We could only get down to the stream at the bottom of Whale Chine because a big part of the cliff had fallen down and blocked the way down to the beach. Some people had climbed over it, but I didn’t want to, as it looked too scary. So we stayed at the stream and looked around there, I found a fossilized oyster shell half buried in the mud.

When we got back home I put the oyster shell in some water to soften the mud. I did this because the fossil was already wet, but if your fossil is dry then I would have wrapped it in a damp cloth then over a few days added more and more water, because sometimes if you get it wet too quickly your fossil can crack or split.
I soaked my oyster shell for a few days then cleaned off the mud with a dentist pick.

My oyster shell is 10cm long.
Name: Gryphea
Meaning: Grabber
Grouping: Mollusc, Bivalve
Common Name: Oyster, Devils toenails
Fossil size: Lengths can be 7-10cm
Habitat: Sea floor
Life span: late Triassic to late Jurassic, 220-140 million years ago.

Blackgang’s dinosaur release

The Blackgang Dinosaur being released from the crate.

Me with the Blackgang Dinosaur.

Me and the dinosaur

The skull of the whale

Me inside the rib cage of the whale.

The fin bones of the whale.

The tail of the whale.

On the 1st August I got invited to Blackgang Chines release of the Dinosaur. They are two big baby T-rex’s, like the ones in the show Walking with Dinosaurs, one is a girl they have called Sheila and the other one is a boy called Shadow. The dinosaurs are fantastic and look real, I really enjoyed seeing them and having my picture taken with them. The photos they took of me with the dinosaurs are to use for advertising, one of them is on Blackgang Chines face book page.

After that I was invited into the park so I could spend the day having fun with my family. There was loads and loads of things to do, but I loved looking at and sitting on the Dinosaurs in the park and the new Dodo land.
Blackgang Chine has been open for 170 years and is Britain’s oldest theme park, the first attraction was the skeleton of a whale that had got washed up on the local beach. I wanted to go and see the whale as I collect bones and skulls and I would probably never be able to get a whale skeleton, but I would love to have one. It was really big and awesome, I have put some pictures on my blog to show you how big it was. The tail had been preserved and it was interesting to read that Alexander Dabell who started Blackgang Chine, found the washed up whale and sold of all the blubber first then bleached the bones and put them on display.