Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be - Max Bygraves -

But more particularly Children, not like when we wuz Kids.

Now, lack lustre, lazy, disrespectfull, we won't go on as you will get the picture, 

and here's the Livin' Proof!

 Apprentice number 2, by age

Oliver

 recieving the 

Young Player of the Year Award

from none other than Football Manager and Local Resident

Harry Redknapp

 (just goes to show the lad remembered everything I showed him)

Secondly and finally as we don't like to keep on, we gave our redundant cameras and binoculars to Senior Apprentice Chloe (she of the recent gig to Morton) 

to do with as she pleased either use herself or pass on to other deserving parties!

This is what you get in return from a couple of Children I have never met.

 If just a Thank You wouldn't warm the cockles of your heart,

this was the inscription........

It is hoped one day to redress that balance, and oh how we would welcome those 2.

I do believe there is an appeal to everyone here should you have a redundant 

'anything' in your cupboard which may prove useful

"just pass it on to a YOUNGSTER, the next David Attenbourgh  (or other)

is waiting somewhere in the wings" 

Around the Moth Traps!

Talking of which we continue to trap reatively low numbers of the

same old, same old but then you just get that little tickle and

BINGO

the delightful

JERSEY TIGER

 is added to the 'year list'!

Additionally, there was the capture of one of my sure-fire favourites which both

Dave and Phil have caught here this year, with the image not really showing the

Full Picture.

In the right light

WAVED BLACK

is a real stormer!

 As is the rather prehistoric

COXCOMB PROMINENT
Up on the Common it was gratifying to find both

 LITTLE GREBEs
back on station, not that it's thought they have been anywhere,
but still both seem reluctant to get back to the nest/s!
What we haven't seen this summer and a long time before is the humble

 DUNNOCK

(Hedge Sparrow, Hedge Accentor call it what you will)

 and really have no idea what is going on with this young bird?

We cannot even find a convincing last date in the log!
Before leaving the pond there was also a rather brighter

GREEN SANDPIPER
which like the above didn't hang about very long.

 It would seem, according to local websites, that there has been a bit of a rash of

 WILLOW WARBLERs
across the county, like this juvenile above and an adult below

 but these made up all of our part of the gathering

 on the 
Heath

although the was a 'songster' in the garden while monitoring the
Moth Traps there, only the second we can recall!

It would like be readily agreed by all dedicated 
Wildlife Watches
that the best Bird Hide in the World is you motor car,
and a nice little excuse for us Lazy Gits but nonetheless it surely works.
Along the fence line of the Solar Panel Compoud up ahead we spotted this

 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER

seemingly nibbling away at the Insects sheltering inside the fence posts.

 while it did linger for 15 to 20 minutes

there were also a number of sorties

 back and forth into the trees

which gave the impression that it was

 Not 'rare' or even 'uncommon' but what a pure delight

 to just sit and watch its techneques and little

 nuances until eventually it

disappeared

altogether!
On the way back to base a short visit was made to the
"all to long neglected"
Sewerag Works
(a daily MUST in the winter)
where lightning certainly struck for a second time and where another

 juvenile

DUNNOCK 
was found but, without doubt
"Best was saved until Last"
when encountering 2 Lovely Ladies walking the Bridleway.
It was, like the film of the same name, an all too 
Brief Encounter
but we all had a good old (young in their case) laugh and would love to see them again.
It somehow made me think of Kate.

You pick up a paper you read a name.
You go out it turns up again and again.
You bump into a friend you haven’t seen for a long time,
then into another you only thought about last night.
You hear your sister calling for you,
but you don’t know where from.
You know there’s something wrong,
but you don’t want to believe in a premonition.
We raise our hats to the strange phenomena.
Soul-birds of a feather flock together.
We raise our hats to the hand a-moulding us sure-’nuff,

"om mani padme"!

Strange Phenomena - Kate Bush from the album The Kick Inside

undoubtedly the most sensual collection of songs ever written!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGZG5zQSkB4

om mani padme hum (Tibetan)  

“that in dependence on the practice of a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha"

Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia - and it’s all a little spooky.

In June 2007 Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour played 3 one night solo concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London, with each featuring a guest artist’. Additionally, Richard Wright, keyboards and backing vocals with Floyd, also played as did a number of other ‘Floydian luminaries. By a serious quirk of fate I was only able to secure 2 tickets for the second night which my then lady-friend Lorraine and I were looking forward to with great anticipation! Who the guest artists were was a closely guarded secret with no one knowing (save the obvious) that Robert Wyatt was to perform at the first and Bob Geldof the finale, both of whom I could well do without! Almost verbatim Gilmore took to the microphone and announce that they were now going to perform a little know song to which he felt he could not do justice vocally so would invite Kate Bush to the stage to sing ‘Comfortably Numb’ - we almost melted!!!! The spooky bit comes when trying to find any recollection of this on the internet only being able to find a single and poor recording by a member of the audience on their mobile phone????

Nevertheless, We Wuz There!

The Ballard of Bethnal Green - Paddy Roberts

Once again at dusk things didn't look at all promising,

which was the way it turned out,

 but by dawn, well let's just say,

"you could wake up to a far worse vista than this from your front doorstep"!

Nothing new, and close to nothing at all but feel we should keep the

Moth momentum going with the occassional daliance with

All Our Yesterdays!

 POPLAR HAWK-MOTH

common and caught frequently along with the

 larvae / caterpillar

of varying forms.

Before leaving one of the 'horse ladies' found a

 HEDGEHOG

 something we have only heard tell of across the

Recording Area

so something of a minor 'tick' for me.
They now fall into the 'endangered- catagory!

 

 GOAT MOTH

best described as sporadic but good to see when one does turn up!

First stop was the Gravel Pit where there was something of a suprise 

 in the form of half a dozen

 SAND MARTIN

as they have not bred here for 3 or 4 seasons now it was thought

these may well have been early breeds and their juveniles

making an exit for the wintering grounds while the going is good?

ORANGE SWIFT

which is also plentiful.

 The, or another

GREY HERON

 was also on site

 maybe the reason for the total absence of either

eggs or humbugs of the

Little Grebe Clan.

OAK EGGAR

again not rare.

 While monitoring the traps on the Heath we encountered c2

 BADGERs

on oppositg tracks

DEATH'S-HEAD HAWK-MOTH

there cannot be a Moth'er alive, who has not caugh this beauty,

who doesn't have this leviathan firmly at the top of their

Want's List!

This specimen was caught by our friend Paul Harris some years ago when he

immediately transported it to my home in Weymouth then as knowing full

well it would be of Great Interest to me!

"I'm still smarting Bomber"!

 As far as Avians were concerned it was yet another case of 'same old'

but nonetheless satisfying for all that.

A male 

 LINNET

with a 'tick' at the base of the bill and

another close to the left eye appeared to be supervising

the

Juveniles

as a

 COMMON WHITETHROAT

put in no more than a

one minute appearance,

and representing the more delicate 

Moths

MAIDEN'S BLUSH

common but delicately beautiful! 
An old time ditty came to mind when spotting this

Tail-less Male Stonechat!

Adapted from

THE BALLAD OF BETHNAL GREEN
by
Paddy Roberts
I'll tell a tale of a ‘tail-less’ male and a maid of sweet sixteen
He was blond and dumb and he lived with his Mum
On the edge of Bethnal Green
He worked all week for a rich old Greek
as his dad was on the dole
And his one delight on a Friday night
Was to have a bit of rock and roll.

Chorus

To my rit-fal-lah, to my itty-fal-lal
To my itty-bitty-fal-dal day.

Then one fine day in the Month of May he found his big romance
She was smart and sleek, with a scar on her cheek
And a pair of drainpipe pants
And he thought ‘with you, I could be so true,
Through all the years to come’
For he loved the gay abandoned way
she chewed her chewing-gum.

Chorus...

It started well because he fell for all her girlish charms
But he had some doubt when he caught her out
In someone else’s arms
And he said, “Look here, you know my dear,
This is going a bit too far
And he went quite white and he sloshed her right
In the middle of her cha-cha-cha.

Chorus...

So he went before a man of the law who said, “This will not do
I’ve had enough of the kind of stuff
as I get's from the likes of you.”
And he was peeved when he received
A longish term in clink
In a fit of pique she married the Greek
And now she lives in mink.

Chorus...

A Trick of the Tale!