The Bagsy Blog: On the First Day of Christmas

Monday, 6 April 2015

On the First Day of Christmas - Trad

A mini tribute for starters to

Bob Burns

original drummer with Rock Legends

who died in a car crash in Georgia State, USA on Saturday.

The band name originated from a bastardisation of the name of one

of their despised school teachers

Leonard Skinner

who it is said, in later life, became one of their firmest friends.

The back panel of Slight Return II is in part inspired by their seminal track

FREEBIRD (Link)

and of course KASHMIR - Led Zeppelin.

Be a 'Freebird'

Bob Burns, Original Drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dies

Read More: Bob Burns, Original Drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dies | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/bob-burns-lynyrd-skynyrd-dies/?trackback=tsmclip

It's alright for those of you who have been on holiday, but here at Parley Court Farm the 'shoulder' continues to be firmly 'to the wheel'. No slacking on the Moth Traps although Saturday saw a meagre return for the plod around 5 traps, but once again our friend Dave Foot was here to share the load. A

COMMON BUZZARD
past overhead at first light and even before reaching Trap #1 a

SEVEN-SPOTTED LADYBIRD
was found on a fence post.
Within there was a fine example of

COMMON QUAKER

and although as the name suggests 'plentiful', was though worthy of inclusion.

TWIN-SPOTTED QUAKER

was an addition to the Year List, but pride of place fell to

LEAD-COLOURED DRAB

a widespread Insect but

locally common.

Catching this has been something of a labour of love,
but more particularly Dave, as it is a New Catch for us both.

The confusion species is
CLOUDED DRAB
with Dark and Grey Forms shown here (left) for comparison.
Also of great interest was the Larvae (Caterpillar) thought to be of a

Burnet Species
which, found on Heathland would be unusual for any of them.
It is now being nurtured by Dave who will let us know the outcome
if and when available.

An all too mobile
CRAB SPIDER

along with an interesting, but unidentified
FLY
were also captured.
Back to the birds and our first visit was to the back of the
Eco Recycling Plant
where the c2 Little Ringed Plover of recent days were found, but no longer there.

We did check the 'sitting'
LAPWING
which is still there and then drove off to take a look inside the
Solar Panel Compound. Immediately on arrival there c3

LITTLE RINGED PLOVER
were heard overhead

with this one landing close by, another much further away as the third
made off into the distance.

While observing these one of very few
STOCK DOVE
also landed to feed and allowed a couple of shots

before heading off again.

It looked every bit as though the third

LITTLE RINGED PLOVER
had landed at the Irrigation Pond

and even though further away than its companions a couple of images were secured.

Regular readers may remember the

COLTSFOOT

being in full bloom a couple of weeks ago?

But this was the picture yesterday
Seed Pods every one.
That was the moment Dave caught sight of a first

SWALLOW

of the year for both of us. At great altitude it could only just be seen
let along photographed, so we return to the archive for illustration.
WE have seen c2 others since.

At the other side of the River Stour, on Common Land the Farmer

has now allowed his
FRIESIAN CATTLE
'free range' range to graze while later we noted the handiwork of the

GAMEKEEPER

with these c2 'sleeping'
MAGPIE

No more than fine subject matter this
BLACK-HEADED GULL

looked a picture perched on a tree-stump firmly embedded in the river bed.

Not an unusual sight at the Flight Pond a
HARE
but less so were c2

GREYLAG GEESE
Also in this area we saw about 2 dozen Common Snipe along with c4
Jack Snipe
wondering just how much longer they are going to be with us?