Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones

An almost balmy day with little or no wind, full cloud cover but no sign of rain where in the cemetery Blackbirds and Carrion Crows were most numerous and to keep things in the 'noir' mode a

female Blackcap was enticed from cover by a little gentle pishing. At Radipole much of the lake remains frozen forcing the small numbers of wildfowl to clear water and much easier to see. However, the news is not good there only being about a dozen Pochard

7 Shoveler, a handful of Teal, 13 Gadwall and 5 Shelduck. It would seem the days of 200+ Pochard and dozens of Wigeon are long gone? The male Marsh Harrier was still holding station at the north end of the reserve, but there was no sign of the Pintail except long after my visit there was a report of it skulking in the reeds close to the tennis courts.

Canada Geese totalled 3, with these 2 beating a retreat before the best record thus far. Looking skyward a party of small birds were heading in from the north and soon alighted in a reed-bed.

They were seen to be at least c15 Reed Bunting which may once again point to the rather more severe weather further up country.

As the Moorhen Acrobatic Team were in attendance today

it was worth stopping to witness the

'high wooded fence' act as wings were stretched while balancing on one foot.

The Coot and

the Feral Pigeon were rather a case of because they were there, but I did rather like the plumage of the latter. Next move was directly to Portland Bill where soon after arrival a

Red-throated Diver flew by (can you see it yet?)

closely followed by 3 Turnstones, much closer but still out of photograph range.

Both Little Owls were showing in the Observatory Quarry, with one posing in the more usual 'letter-box' slit while the other

was perched just below. My late 'duty' of the day was to go and share an egg & bacon toasted sandwich and coffee with the Secret Lemonade Drinker, which along with a good deal of stimulating conversation was to the accompaniment of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Don't you just love Metal Postcard? While munching away we recorded what between us was considered to be 12 Great Tit, half a dozen Chaffinch, c4 Robins plus Wood Pigeons, Magpies and

c9 Stock Doves all in Gary's garden.

Metal Postcard - Link

It would be impossible to play only one Soiux number, so the 'bonus track' is

the Beatles penned Dear Prudence