Theme For An imaginary Western - Mountain Part I

There are but 2 songs in our inexhaustible repertoire that have been
laying dormant for long enough, just waiting to feature on a suitable Post.
The day has come for the first

but even then, to fit the bill, we have had to juggle with it a little!

This poignant song, which has never failed to reduce me to tears,

was penned by CREAM bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce and cohort Pete Brown

(ex PIBLOKTO) who in turn 

handed it over to American 'Hard Rock' band

MOUNTAIN,

for whom Cream had been a massive inspiration and long standing friends, for them to record.

It formed part of their album 

Mountain Climbing

(arguably) their 'finest hour', and featured l to r

Corky Laing - drums, Felix Pappalardi - bass guitar, lead vocals and piano,

West on lead guitar and vox with Steve Knight - keyboards,

 There are but a few video recordings of this 'magical' composition in existence so, with no disrespect to the other band members, that is where the 'juggling' crept in. In 1970, when the album was released (7 March), hedonism ruled the day with West being somewhat suppressed on the original version. Later, Mountain were reformed under a number of reincarnations especially with West fronting most, this is one of them. We don't know who the vocalist is in this version but one thing is for certain he wasn't even born  when this first hit the streets and was played at Woodstock!

 Theme For An Imaginary Western - Leslie West

 (PLEASE do not overlook this Link)

WE WERE ALSO HEADING WEST ON THE DAY

SO NO MORE THAN A 'NATURAL' CHOICE.

Another 'out of the blue' telephone call from our dear friend Dave Foot had me pondering for a little less than a micro-second (we don't do Micros) before his generous invitation was accepted. His plan was to travel, in the first instance, to Cornwall and then retrace our steps back to Devon all in the name of searching of 'rare' Birds. There were initially just 2 'target' species but in the mix were also a few not so common others that we might pick up across the whole of our predicted journey. The time set for our rendezvous in Weymouth was 05:30 which for me meant springing out of the hammock at 04:00 to ready myself before undertaking the one hour drive to the meet. It has always been considered a good omen should something out of the ordinary be seen, under cover of dark, on such a drive and maybe reason enough for being on the wrong side of the road for much of that time? Candidate sometimes include Barn Owl or Woodcock et al but on that particular morning and after just 30 minutes it was BROCK who strolled out into the headlights! At a slow pace and affording excellent views we thanked our lucky stars we were not 10 seconds earlier, for surely it would have died, and that we were cruising at economical speed.

BADGER
Crossing the Devon / Cornwall border and a few more miles down the road
it was readily agreed that a 15 minute detour to a damp and dismal looking

DOZMARY POOL

might prove beneficial in adding the first 'rare' bird of the day to the notebook.
Not one of the 2 in our sights, but nonetheless my Gillie was quickly set to work
but taking an exorbitant 8 minutes to locate the tiny 'dot' at the other side of the pond,
glad that he was not on a hourly rate, the dot quickly manifested itself into a fine looking male

 LESSER SCAUP

 A resident of The Americas these Ducks do make occasional visits to
our shores with this particular bird have been 'overwintering' here for a number of years now.

After that initial excitement we quickly moved on to the tiny village of

 pronounced Mau-zal, and after clocking a couple of additions to the

Year List

from the car park such as

 GANNET

  KITTIWAKE

 and

FULMAR

 our 'target bird' presented no problems with being located.

 Said to have been fed Meal Worms almost constantly

 since its arrival here, by comparison who in the Human World would 

want to move from a 5***** Michelin Restaurant serving 'free groceries'?

 Yes, the

EASTERN BLACK REDSTART

seemed more than happy

to have arrived in Cornwall.

At the time of writing the EBR remains a SUB-species not qualifying to be added
to such lists as World, Country, County etc in its own right so for now at least
it is simply appended under Black Redstart but who know one
day that may change. A new
Definitive List of Birds of the World,
miraculously agreed by most authorities, is due for publication in early 2018
so we'll wait and see what they have to say about this matter.

(COMMON) BLACK REDSTART

for comparison.

We were now eager to crack on to our next location a couple of hours drive
back in the direction from  whence we had just travelled but not before checking out
what else might be close at hand and of interest.

Additions to the Year List included

 TURNSTONE

 These 2 short clips show just why these

Dapper Dudes of the Foreshore

 were considered for such a name!

 SHAG

 ROCK PIPIT

and

OYSTERCATCHER
On a last look round over on a craggy islet we noted a number of

 ATLANTIC GREY SEAL

PS - for information Piblokto, also known as Pibloktoq and Arctic Hysteria, is a condition most commonly appearing in Inughuit societies living within the Arctic Circle. Piblokto is a culture-specific hysterical reaction in Inuit, especially women, who may perform irrational or dangerous acts, followed by amnesia for the event. Piblokto may be linked to repression of the personality of Inuit women. The condition appears most commonly in winter, and is considered to be a form of cultural bond syndrome, although more recent studies question whether it exists at all. Piblokto is also part of the glossary of cultural bound syndromes found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

MUCH MORE TO COME so BE SURE TO TUNE IN

and WHY NOT SHARE the LINK with all those people
you don't like, or others, that should teach them a lesson!!

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