Night Owl - Gerry Rafferty

OK, not quite an Owl (you'll see) but a GREAT, GREAT song!

Number 18 on my own personal Top Fifty of all time

Best Ever Hit Single Recordings

with the outstanding Mr Rafferty the only artiste to

feature 'twice' in that listing with

Baker Street (of course) occupying the number 12 slot.

Night Owl - Gerry Rafferty

Night comes down and finds you alone,
in a space and time of your own.
Lost in dreams in a world full of shadows.

Down the street the neon light shines,
offering refuge and hope to the blind.
Who stumble in with no thought of tomorrow!

Yes I get lonely when the sun gets low,
and I end up looking for some winner goal.
Yes I should know better but I can’t say no
Oh no no no, no no, no no!

A nice little fillip for the start of the new month, as it would seem someone (or two, or maybe more) did humour us and distribute our Blog Link far and wide resulting in well over 700 ‘hits’ yesterday. Our ‘stool-pigeons’ informed us that one of the likely candidates may have been a certain Wine’ing William and the other seemingly would not look a Gifford Horse in the Mouth? You’re both on the ‘hit list’ until proven innocent!

On yet another blustery day we raced around the traps in the hope 

of missing the rain, which we did, and to find 

New for the Year

RIVULET

 COMMON WHITE WAVE

 CYPRESS CARPET

 and

HEART and CLUB

It must be a long and laborious climb to get up the side of one of our

Moth Traps, negotiate the lip at the top before dropping down the inside. 

However, we do occasionally find

BLACK SLUG

within which are not noted for their Lynford Christie like attributes!

Directly after that it was a case of driving over to the Heath as quickly as possible

to meet some new arrivals

 OLD ENGLISH GOATS

We didn't want any of them to be put out

so each in turn

were videoed being released into their new home.
Fine Looking Beasts

 While there it was noticed that some of the

 GUELDER ROSE

is in bloom but that the

LOCUST TREE

a little nakedly doesn't look to be doing quite as well this year??

On the way back, a moment we have been waiting for ever since our first

visit here back in 2005,

 "Yes we could have done better but we can't say no".

 a

'point-blank encounter' 

with a

NIGHTJAR
(not a Night Owl) 

 Flushed from directly below our feet it just silently lopped off to a 

barbed-wire fence, just a matter of a few yards away.

Unfortunately, no time to alter camera settings as just these 3 shots were 

all it would allow before changing position for the shelter of a Silver Birch

where, best part obscured, it did allow for a couple of video clips!

 On the very same fence line, which separates the Moor from

Bournemouth International Airport,

 a number of

 SWALLOWs

 were titivating their plumage

On the way back to Slight Return II it was thought worthy of another
look at the Gravel Pit where the

LAPWING
 had been thought to be behaving a little strangely and
there was no 'sitting' bird.
 On closer inspection it could be seen that the perpetually 'calling'
adult seemed to have an extra leg sticking out from its breast, which could only mean one thing.

 She/He was shielding c4 recently hatched youngsters

We never did get them all together but nonetheless

 GREAT
 to see that they had made it into the World at all

and we will now be keeping a close eye on them.
Back at Parley Pond late morning and there was another
Strange'ish Visitation

of a small party of

 (once a skein and now a gaggle)

GREYLAG GEESE

one in seemingly aggressive mood?

Not at all a common place for then to be, given the vehicular and human traffic,
but there they were!
In the name of qualifying today's headline, Tawny Owls have started to become vocal overnight!

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