Sunday 2 February 2020

Night Owl - Gerry Rafferty

ALL OUR YESTERDAYS
As something of a 'filler' as we continue to get to grips again with this infernal machine,
we head back in the first instance to 07/09/2018 when on our usual 
Daily Rounds inside the Solar Panal Compounds we came across this stricken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vTnff0pkgs
(Night Owl Link - We Think)
BARN OWL
However, what we would really liked to have shown,
in addition and had such a thing been in existance,
would be a video clip of the palava it took to capture the hapless bird.
Armed only with the Butterfly / Moth net
it took a full 20 minutes to take it into care.
On arrival at Slight Return II
friends rallied round with 2 of them transporting it to the
Owl Sanctuary at Ringwood, Dorset
where unfortunately it died overnight.
During the same year the following Moths were added to the 
Recording Area (RA) List
White-pinion Spotted
Beautiful Carpet
Pauper Pug
Lesser Cream Wave
Pretty Chalk Carpet
Valerian Pug
Unfortuneately our own specimen was damaged on capture so
resorted to the Internet for an image.
While the
WOODLARK
once again successfully procreated within the RA.

Let's Twitch Again

Like We Did Last Summer

As far as the weather was concerned it was perfect for a Twitch or anything else for that matter. However, with overnight temperatures still hovering in low double figures it was though that too may have attracted a Moth or so but no such luck.
We are blessed with having all 3 of the more common Owl species (Tawny, Barn and Little) either resident or of the latter semi-resident, so no surprises then when the Twitch kicked off with the familiar hooting’s of the former, which is the usual way of things on such days.
TAWNY OWL
Rising properly at 06:00 from Song Thrush to Blackbird were either seen or heard from the doorstep before venturing to the bank of the River Stour no more than 300 yards away. The much hoped for Reed Bunting and Kingfisher were both ‘no shows’, the later remaining that way throughout but the Bunting being ‘ticked’ later at the Irrigation Pond. The Cetti's Warblers have not returned so far as we can tell.

WATER RAIL (heard only)
 COAL TIT
GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER  
A Cormorant made the usual meal of getting airborne we had reached the point of Common Buzzard. Only Mallard and Goldfinch were disappointingly addition across the southern part of the RA so time to venture into Bournemouth International Airport territory which all counts. There, a number of considered new-arrival Lesser Black-backed Gulls had seemingly moved in since our last visit with the almost guaranteed Stock Doves and dozens of Rooks hitting the log almost simultaneously.
LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL
Driving to the northern part of the property the least expected and ‘the’ bird of the day started ‘singing’ as walking the bridleway and soon showed itself as a male Blackcap. Not unusual for one or two of these Warblers to overwinter here but a bit of a task locating them. Tufted Duck numbers had for the second day running increased by one, this time a male, while the Little Grebe prove to be no problem at all so onward, at 11:00 to the Sewerage Works fence-line where expectations are always high. All species up to Chiffchaff, which have now reduced to about a dozen or so, where seen here with the Long-tailed Tits being almost in blizzard proportions.
BLACKCAP
 TUFTED DUCK
 STARLING
CHIFFCHAFF
 FIRECREST
GOLDFINCH
 GOLDCREST
 LONG-TAILED TIT
Our beat of the Moors River also came up trumps with a nice bunch of Teal along with the first Geese (Canada's) of any description for a couple of weeks now plus the only Mute Swan of the day which is unusual. Expectations from the Heath were nonexistent as it has been by and large baron of late produced just singles of Stonechat and Dartford Warbler making for ideal ‘bonus birds’. 
NUTHATCH
 GREENFINCH
 DARTFORD WARBLER
Controversial or not, the smart looking Feral Pigeon joined the list before an all too long lull, after which both Kestrel and Grey Heron were seen from the homestead. The Twitch ended on a none too shabby 53 from this relatively tiny postage stamp - if I have counted them correctly??
PS - some of the images are from our archive to spice things up a bit……..