When the Levee Breaks - Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy

The seminal Husband and Wife 'Blues Howlers' who lite-up the early years of that genre!
 My memory was taken back earlier in the week when learning of the death of

BERNARD SKINNER

and how this volume

added so much to my education of the subject. 

In the early years of the 1970's, and fresh out of the Royal Navy, the whole new world of

LEPIDOPTERY

 was opened up before me and as remembered the 2 volume set by South was the only

Field Guide available on the subject. No disrespect meant, but having struggled with this

for quite some time SKINNER suddenly appeared which was akin to 

stepping out of a Ford Anglia into a Bentley.

I did have the great pleasure of meeting the Man Himself on just
a single occasion while 'twitching' the
Little Bustard on the Lizard Peninsular, Cornwall
on 29/10/1996.

Having seen the bird and walking back to the parked car, a gentleman of more senior years than myself was encountered and we broke into conversation. At the barbed-wire fence we helped each other surmount the obstacle at which point he asked if I had other wildlife interests outside of birds. By that time my answer was a positive "yes, I do dabble in Moths from time to time running a single trap in my garden in Wyke Regis" to which he replied "yes, so do I"! At the car he was thanked for his company and gave my name which he reciprocated but when he said Bernard Skinner it was completely overwhelming. In those days my dear friend Norman Hall was my mentor and with occasional truck with Barry Goater (both luminaries in their own right) I had heard many stories of the Great Man - R.I.P. Sir!

When the Levee Breaks (as above)

If it keeps on rainin' levee's goin' to break
If it keeps on rainin' levee's goin' to break
When the levee breaks I'll have no place to stay.

Well it has stopped now, but if we go back just a few days the levee 

didn't quite break but there was plenty of surface water and burst river banks.
The Parley Pond breeding pair of

MUTE SWAN
returned again over this period but only with one of the youngsters as

SNOWDROPS

started bursting from bund and lawn alike,
while a new arrival at Parley Court Farm added to my
Great Britain List

EMU

and there's said to be another on the way.

(PS - only 'serious' about the GB List)
The rain didn't seem to be much to the liking of this

WOOD PIGEON
but it may have been just that which inspired this pair of

COOT

to settle for a day or 2 on the Gravel Pit.

Not a sight here at during this time of year, in fact the only

Winter Record

ever for our Recording Area.

Flood Plain
caused by the banks bursting on the
Moors River attracting Gulls and Waterfowl alike to share in the
abundance if 'invertibrates' force to the surface.

Juvenile MUTE SWAN

More Water

and the first time we have seen any in the newly revamped
Balancing Pond at Bournemouth International Airport.

While talking of 'firsts' this is the first time we have seen the
Qatar Toy
out to play in 2017, must be short of bunkers?

While in the Solar panel Compound we found, without our knowledge,
the Late Iron Age Tumuli
has had a spruce up, all vegetation especially Gorse has been removed.

It would also seem

that the precipitation

has brought back the

GREEN WOODPECKER

to the Lawn Tennis Court.

The More Modern Version - Led Zeppelin

When the Levee Breaks
from the album 

Led Zeppelin IV 

released during 1971.

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