Born Under a Bad Sign - Albert King

"If it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all"
Cut my 'BLUES' teeth on the likes of Albert from about the age of 12 years. 

 Wot a Dude!
Rather think this is his 'home made' axe, certainly not a Gibson Flying V

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Py37G9qsfY

While hope always springs eternal here at the Bagsy Blog we also have to be realistic and realise that things are likely to get worse before getting any better. We are not talking here particularly about the state of the nation, but more about the impending ‘cold snap’ that is now upon us and forcing us to shut down c4 of our c5 Moth Traps.

Additionally, migration is always slow to reach our part of the world, despite only being little more than a stone’s throw from the coast, but we always have our almost inexhaustible ‘archive’ at hand to weather such stormy waters!

For however long it takes, we will field what highlights we have, on a daily basis, before reaching for that wealth of images within the external hard drive!

The only minor gem to come from the traps has been

 SATELLITE

named thus from the 2 tiny white specks seemingly revolving around the orange Planet.

Now, in a random sequence a few 'goodies' from around our own 

Planet.

The Grand (3 month) Tour of South America 

was an ambitious and open ended one except for the first 2 countries.

The last 10 days of 2009 and the first 3 of the following year were spent

on a dedicated Birding Tour across much of northern Colombia before

crossing the border into Venezuela. There I had commissioned the sevices of the highly

recommended David Escanio as my guide abley assited by his side-kick and driver Bruno ?

The time spent with these 2 'top of their game' micky taking and jolly Herbert's was, to say the least, an absolute delight! However, what I hadn't considered in the full equation were flight availabilities

to carry me on to my next destination Quito in Ecuador. As if he had somehow predicted this, David had presented me with his telephone number and a assurance that should I get stuck simply to give him a ring. 

Not that the birds etc of the 

Parqu Del Este

in the heart of the capital Caracas were not enough (6 species of Macaw alone)

there was no knowing how long the delay might be. Back to David and he soon had 

 BRUNO

whisking me off to the  

Hato Pinero Reserve 

some 220 miles south of the capital.

Guides, transport and full board were a part of the gig and there were few other visitors,

surely we can let the images do the talking!

With first up

BUFF-NECKED IBIS

 YELLOW-CROWNED PARROT

and

 PEARL KITE

 before preparing for the nocturnals and

managing to catch the

 COMMON PAUAQUE

 bedazzeled in the headlights.

No sooner had we recovered from the excitement of this relatively numerous Nightjar

of far, far more value was an

OCELOT

 watched for a full 15 minutes and allowing for a very flakey video clip,
it is difficult (ney impossible) to contain one's self under such circumstances!

 afterwhich it was back to the

BEER BAR

bright and early the following morning it took no time at all to add the likes of

 ORIOLE BLACKBIRD

CAPPED HERON

BROWN-THROATED PARAKEET

SHARP-TAILED IBIS

Mammals were represented by

 WHITE-TAILED DEER

and the largest living Rodent in the World

CAPIBARI

unsurprisingly still the birds kept coming such as

 YELLOW-KNOBBED CURASSOW

 SAFFRON FINCH

 WHISTLING HERON

YELLOW-HEADED CARACARA

and

JABIRU

Reprisentatives of the Reptilia included

 the totally bizzare and mind-blowing

 MATAMATA TURTLE

along with an extrdiary and long lasting exhibition of fish catching  by the local

CAIMEN

On the final day of 3 my transport was due at 10:00, so a few hours to capitalise

but who could have predicted they would be the very best of the trip let alone this all too short stay

 GREAT POTOO

one of my favourite family groups,

the fairly ordinary looking

 SUNBITTERN

 until it does

this

however, with its prehistoric pedigree and prehensile claw the

HOATZIN

knocks the Sunbittern off its perch for my money even securing a

FEATHER
for the Dream Catcher the skinny brown fella at 1 'o' clock, Capercaille at 5.

 I had been held up in a few facinating places across World

but nothing quite like this!
It was a stranger who turned up in a huge wood-trimmed shootingbreak to return me to the capital
with an absolute gobsmacker to end mu stay. Pulling into a garage to re-fuel I nipped off to buy the coffees. On my return the guage read 50 litres the cost of which was half that of the 2 beverages!
Absolutely nothing to do with 'vote catching'
President Chavez
keeps the overwhelming oil production in the country to no more than a small donation at the pumps!
Equador, Peru, Chile and Argentina still lay before me but there was time to muse

"Thank Heavens for Bad Luck"