Here Comes the Flood - Peter Gabriel

I was sold on Genesis the moment I heard the first chord of
'Revelation" back in 1969
and having met the man wondered how Gabriel was going to get on in the fickle world
of solo artists. A single play of this most poignant track dispeled all fears!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb7htoJAK7g

 Lyrically, it don't get much better than that!

As Dennis left his mark right across the country, many far worse effected

than us rather lucky ones down here, we were only left with a few images of his

rampage and not much besides.

 Looking south across the Horse Paddocks to the

 RIVER STOUR

the bank is at the far end of the fenceline

 In the opposite direction and the same few yards from our front doorstep

The Main Pond

now well overfull

The hedge trimmers on behalf of the RES Solar Panel Company arrived first thing,

having had prior warning from head office to ask me if the time was right - good on them!

 The cutting also looked very much in sympethy with the lines of plants,

as though they had been clipped rather than slashed.

After construction of the Solar Farm, then the largest in Europe, both parent companies 

combined to plant 30,000 saplings sewn by the very talented and capable Chris Sugden. During the first year of growth I didn't find a single one to have failed - Magic!

Strange then in the following February the other company Brighter Green (footnote - neither Bright nor Green) summoned Chris to a site meeting to explain why so many of the plant had died. The company Wildlife representative pointed out that he could not see one singe leaf with Chris retorting, "they are all deciduous (Blackthorn, Field Maple, Guelder Rose et al) and it is mid-winter. Where do they get them from????

Other than that very few Birds and very poor Snaps and Vids!

With just a single Coot representing both ponds it was into the afore mentioned Panel Compoud where a couple of 

STOCK DOVES

were feeding, about 100 

REDWING

proving very flighty and uncooperative along with the first returning

 MISTLE THRUSH

and 

STARLING

flock

It was the Moors River that was to field the most interest

with the most birds which included at least 100

TEAL

a single

GREEN SANDPIPER

and what looked to be just c3

 COMMON SNIPE

 gathered at the base of a fence post

but on closer examination of the images were in fact c6.

With a fine finale, say it myself I shouldn't, as going back to the early morning of

6th of June 2015

in company with Dave Foot we stopped to take the mandatory look across the

Irrigation Pond on our way to the Heath.

With Dave quickly out of the car he turned to tell he had spotted what was possibly a 

Kite of sorts as reaching for his telescope. The superlatives are not printable but on his first look

he quickly changed his mind announcing

"no it's not, it's that

 SHORT-TOED EAGLE

That had been knocking about the County for some while.

It must be pointed out that the images are 'borrowed' just to emphasis the point,

but for it to grace our patch was quite miraculous.

It was immediately put 'on the line' and we did make a distant excussion to

relocate it but without success so back to the Moth Traps.

Not my words but:-

Short-toed Eagle Circaetus gallicus

Due to a dependence on snakes as a primary food source the Short-toed Eagle is restricted to the southern and eastern regions of Europe with the largest populations to be found in Spain and France. They also occur in other countries along the Mediterranean such as Italy, Greece and Turkey. In Eastern Europe they can be found further north as far as Belarus and occasionally, but very rarely, in the Baltic States while outside of Europe they are found eastwards to Kazakhstan and south to Iran.

All of these are migratory summer visitors although there is a sedentary population on the Indian Subcontinent. There are no subspecies and the closest relatives are the Beaudouin's Snake Eagle Circaetus beaudouini and the Black-breasted Snake Eagle Circaetus pectoralis, both are African species that were once considered to be subspecies of the Short-toed Eagle, but are now considered to be completely different species.