Love is in the Air - John Paul Young

 It is said that we are all never more than a few yards from one, so really no surprise when we happened upon yet another

BROWN RAT

en-route for the Heath where it was no surprise either to find the
take was low from the Moth Traps in view of the fall in overnight temperature!
Best we could muster were, once again,

half a dozen

CLOUDED DRAB

a lone

YELLOW HORNED
along with an equally singular

ICHNEUMON WASP
On the remiss side the little beauties that are

NUTHATCH

have been singing their hearts out and tapping away at nest holes

singing

without even a mention across these pages,

so useful to have SENILITY on your side!
Rather than increasing, Bird numbers have been declining with only this single male

STONECHAT
on show over the past week or more which is the same for the far more gragarious

STARLING

which may have been overlooked

rather than absent, but what a beauty!
However, moving down south the deficit was reduced somewhat when happening into

first of all

this

BROWN HARE

gamboling around the margins of a recently sewn field before

playing our part in
Grey Squirrel Family Planning.
Before leaving the area we came across the first

CELANDINES

of the year before witnessing the

Mass Migration

across the

Plains of Parley

of c5 ROE DEER
while it looks like the ornimental

GUINEAFOWL
may also be considering procreation?

 More on the Chinese Encounter of yesterday to follow if and when we ever get the images sorted - Great Day!!

Angel Dust - Gil Scott-HERON

With a battalion of Lookouts stationed on both port and starboard bridge wings, crow’s nest and even a Lifebuoy Ghost, stationed at the stern of the vessel in the eventuality of a ‘man / woman going overboard’, our ploy finally paid off yesterday! A text from the landowner at 16:52 simply stated, “watching

GREY HERON
on River Stour from lounge window".

Have you ever seen a Fat Lad running?

It has taken a full 89 days to clap eyes on this huge and common bird which would normally fall to the log well within 86 minutes on a New Years Day Twitch, or any other for that matter.
(PS - it didn't hang about for a photo either hence archive)

Otherwise, there was little or rather no action at the Moth Traps unless you include me struggling into my Chief Engineer's overalls to top up the Oil reservour in the generator which has been coughing, spluttering and even stalling in recent days - seems to be OK but fingers still crossed! Again with not a sniff of a migrant at least the 

ORNIMENTALS
seem to be incubating while finding the first showings of both

DAISY
and

COLTSFOOT

(Thanks John)
at the pondside while it would seem the male Coot at the Irrigation Pond has abandoned ship and Little Grebe numbers reduced to one as prospective breeding

CANADA GEESE
appear to have taken over

as usually striking this pose, nostrils just above the surface, pre-nuptuals and to the accompaniment

of that lone

LITTLE GREBE
Deathly on the Heath where the

BAGOTs

continue sparring,

ASPENs
start to show just a hint of green,

LINNET (singular)
continue the vocals with these mysterious and unidentified

EXCAVATIONS
are popping up all over the place and the

Rare Breeds Cattle
OLD ENGLISH WHITE

and

SHETLANDs
turned up just in time to underpin this wilting post!

An extremely poor attempt at capturing last night's a very bright pass of the
International Space Station.

It's Just a Matter of Time - Brook Benton

Eerily yesterday morning there was not even a peep let alone a full blown Dawn Chorus, which may have had something to do with winding the clocks forward??

Unlike the previous evening when once again we visited

The Dark Side of the Moon

(90% Waning Gibbous)

as watching Pink Floyd's live rendition of

Deliate Sound of Thunder (second only to Pulse)

and featurning Tim Renwick (ex Southerland Brothers and Quiver and Procol Harum) on lead guitar along with Guy Pratt who has virtually fill the vacant position left by Roger Waters on bass guitar and who went on to marry the daughter of keyboardist Richard Wright. Just the mention of Floyd, who take thier name from a combination of 2 black blues legends Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, drums up a thousand memories but none more so than that of our dear departed friend

SAM FOWLER
who was not only a widely lauded Jazz Musician haveing jammed with the likes of Humphry Littleton, Chris Barber and many, many others but also established the annual Swingtime Music Event in Dorchester Borough Gardens, set up both the amazing Weymouth, particularly, and Dorchester Steering Wheel Night Clubs and Music Venues but was also Coxswain of Lord Louis Mountbatten's official Barge at just about every Cowes Week Sailing Event. Across the 80's there were a number of us who would alternate Sunday Dinners at each others homes which was an event not to be missed. However, of all those stories my favourite remains the one of the 60's Rock 'n' Roll luminaries he would coax to the town which included The Hollies, Gerry and the Pacemakers and a very embrionic Pink Floyd just between their first release of the massive See Emily Play and the slightly dark Arnold Layne. He would tell of the difficulty of getting the band out of their Dressing Room a.k.a. The Gents and how they would be kicked out if not striking up within 5 minutes. We think it is safe to say the Sam Fowler was the only man on Earth to ever threaten to 'SACK'

PINK FLOYD
Nick Mason (drums), the long lamented Syd Barrett (multi instruments and brilliance), Dave Gilmour (lead guitar / vocals), Roger Waters (bass and vocals) and Richard Wright (keyboards).

It was difficult to concentrate on Wildlife with all that jingling inside ones head but the immediately recognisable song at the Gravel Pit of our first 'true' migrant of the year a

WILLOW WARBLER

soon brought us back to our senses (or as close as we can get!)
Also there and seemingly alone was this male

TEAL
which instantly climbed the bank and started preening,

as if to order for the sake of a video clip, but not so lucky with the huge

Royal Airforce Cargo Carrier
that was masked by the low cloud.
Next door at the Irrigation Pond it looked as though 'the'

COOT
was back but as the first was a male,

which had waited so long,

the minute his back was turned she turned up!
 The previously posturing

CANADA GOOSE
seemed to have been a little more lucky as she had found her new Beau and we predict a clutch in the very near future?

With all that it took some time to reach the Heath, but more particularly the Moth Traps but well rewarded with a First for Year

EARLY TOOTH-STRIPED
but little else until the

ATLAS CI (A-400 M)

hove into 'view' this time

across a clear blue sky.
The theme continued to be "on the wing" as our first

SWALLOW
of the year was spotted cutting across the Moor from the south

with not even a 'by your leave' and certainly not as the archive images depict,

while on the down-side the

STOCK DOVEs
seemed a little miffed about the absence of their traditional nesting site in the fuslage
of the now cleared away old aircraft.
It was also considered that we may have seen the last of the early nesting and surely incubating

WOODLARK
until we located this single and very vocal bird among the Heather.
Returning to base we stopped to admire

our own flush of

MARSH MARIGOLD
and am beginning to wonder if we are getting it right when suggesting these 2

MUTE SWANs

are in fact both

MALE

as they embark on a second attempt at
Nest Building?
The Day, but not the Post, ended with a couple of 'clear blue' passes of the

Royal Air Force Cargo Carrier
interspursed by a contribution from Cobham Aviation of a

Dassault Falcon 20

No, we end the Post with what might be described as a
Floydian Slip
or maybe more accurately as
BRAIN DAMAGE
the 9th track from the bands seminal album
Dark Side of the Moon

The lunatic is on the grass, the lunatic is on the grass (BRIDGE)
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
Got to keep the loonies on the path

 You will all doubtless remember the quip on the Post of Thursday last reference the                  PANAMA CANAL

which was meant to be witty but seems only left egg on my face as John Gifford wrote to inform me that it is in fact the SUEZ CANAL that is blocked and me an Ex (everyone must be thankful for that) Navigator!!

The lunatic is in the hall, the lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
and every day the paper boy brings more

"THERE IS NO 'DARK SIDE' of the MOON REALLY in FACT IT'S ALL DARK!"