On the Road Again - Canned Heat (Part One)

 It took a full 3 attempts to finally get to grips with a much needed Away Day which, by the time we had got just half way around our own Patch the foul weather had driven us back home. Day 2 was dogged by taking the wrong exit at the major roadworks west of Ringwood sending us into the heart of Dorset and again foresaking the quest, while it was Third Time Lucky the next day and while still early it was thought best to give the

FERRUGINOUS DUCK
(not to be confussed with this stunning image of a male bird just to illustrate the point) at Kingfisher Lake, Hurst Road, Ringwood the first go! This individual must have been returning to its favoured Winter Retreat, from mainland Europe for over a decade now which seems not to have been to the likeing of the owners. In latter years a 'canvas-like' screen has been errected, which is quite within their rights, not allowing for any views at all until the vandals cut sighting ports in to it allowing for just brief and by no means addiquate sightings - but at least we saw it! Just a little further down the road

comes into view with the biggest surprise, given there were no restrictions, not seeing a single soul during the whole of our visit - unheard of!

The empty but open hide did add a degree of difficulty as having to find and pick out the birds one's self 

with the c2

GREEN SANDPIPER
presenting no trouble at all as with a

GREY HERON
marching past the window at little distance at all, which were the only close quarters birds this side of the reserve. Reaching for the archive images again we did claim

across the wide expance a number of

PINTAIL
(male right and)

(female)

and a short 'clip' across the gathering gloom,

and just maybe

RED-CRESTED POCHARD

and also likely the
YELLOW-LEGGED GULL
(archive image and where's Dave when you need him?)
Back across the road, where all the other hides were found to be locked,

some of the more common fare here

but scarcities in our own backyard

LESSER REDPOLL

along with

far more numerous

SISKIN

Out on the Wiley, Windy Moor

 Drifting back to Sunday, which may be a waste of time in its own right, our daily 'rounds' started on the right note with c6

DECEMBER MOTHs
(one escapee)

with the best across the rest of our patch resulting in little more than these

2 Male

pugilistic

PHEASANTs
along with no more than a dozen

REDWING
Desperate measures had us zooming round to the heath, if only to recover the remaining items of Mothing equipment prior to heading for a Winter Drydocking, but only to find thins little better.

Across a full 90 minutes

no more than c5 Birds of c4 species were logged starting with this

CARRION CROW

Bournemouth International Airport Runway.

MEADOW PIPIT

Looking towards the now bare
ASPENs

MIPIT
repeated.

Very active Airbuses awaiting turn-around while we couldn't even capture the in-flight

HERRING GULL
dragged from the archive.

Bristlebent Field

HEATHER
awaiting that flush of purple next Spring.

WOOD PIGEON

While through the trees we encountered what were thought to be the 2 'escapee' Rare Breed

BELTED GALLOWAY
cattle which are not suppose to be in the watermeadow either!
A bit of a Downward Trend which is hoped to be "On the Up" tomorrow!

Common People - Pulp

 With the Bird Flu having now reached serious proportions we have now surrendered our position as Chief Chucks Wrangler, but not Bird Watching from a safe distance. The day could be described as plentiful in that direction, but only of the more common type, but all are welcome in our World of the Wild.

First up and as part of our final visit to the

Chichen Shack
a couple or 3

BLACK-HEADED GULLs
closing in on the chicks breakfast while one of the new arrival

BLACKBIRDs
helped itself to the equivalent of an early morning coffee.

One of the now re-established 2

GREEN WOODPECKERs

was 'clicked' at the favoured feeding station which is the
Tennis Court

while further north we had a more than 'close encounter' with this
MOORHEN

usually the most timid of birds.
The BEST find of the day came soon after when meeting up with c3 Engineers from Northern Ireland, but more particularly citizens of Londonderry, a city that most Submarines have great affinity with, and who are constructing new pathways around the perimeters of the RES Solar Panel Compounds.

In days gone by there was a huge Landing Craft secured alongside the wall of the

RIVER FOYLE

HMS STALKER
which served as a hotel for crews returning from northern waters after a 5 or 6 weeks patrol.
Unlike these modern day Underwater Gin Palaces 'nuclears' the one commodity, on 'conventional boats' that was most precious was water with each crew member only allowed to wash face, hands and teeth each morning and evening and never take your cloths off during such a trip. Manned by ex-Royal Navy personnel it was as clean, warm, comfortable and welcoming as any ***** hotel while the 'Runs Ashore' (Night's Out) in the city were as good, or better, than any other across the UK and probably needless to say the 4 of us hit it off from the start and on leaving they presented me with this

LITTLE GIFT!
We will certainly be seeing more of each other in days to come!
but we digress........ In the main Solar Panel Compound the

RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE

was showing far better than those few days ago 

while a

COMMON BUZZARD

was not being particularly shy either,

while all the other panels lay bare and the

male

TUFTED DUCK

remained on the Gravel Pit.

Common Fare - but a - Worthwhile Day.