What's Another Year - Johnny Logan

By the time we publish our next Post the year will be well and truly over for sure, but we still have one in the locker just to bid farewell to a none to shabby 2021.

Once again it was

"an orangy sky, always with some other guy. It's just a broken lullaby, bye bye Love, bye bye Love".

from The Cars eponomous debut album The Cars 

Between this image and the next Sky shot came something of a miracle in the form of only our second ever, across the garden, or even the southern section of our patch a

WOODCOCK,
a borrowed image,

followed by more minor wonders from the Moth Traps including

WINTER MOTH
only the second of the year after the first trapped on the 10/01/2021.

SILVER Y
a brace of

DECEMBER MOTHs

along with the tiniest of Slug and

SNAIL

racing along at the

Only Pace it Knows.

At the main pond the only thing to delay us was the local female

KESTREL
in the continuing gloom while up north the

MOORS RIVER
now looks to be in full spate which hopefully, given the continuing heavy rain,
will soon metamorphose into Water Meadows and the usual attraction for more
WILDFOWL.

At the Sewerage Works this

WOOD PIGEON
was snooped upon while having a Bath 'n' Dhobie until a second minor miracle occured as the Herdsman showed up to repatriate the 2 escapee

BELTED GALLOWAY
(maybe a minor miracal on its own)

but had we not stopped for a CHAT (no pun intended) the likelihood of spotting this lone

BLACK REDSTART

may never have happened?
This bird being of the Chat family.
Finally, the mirical of them all as considering it safe to make only my second visit to a 'brand new human being', to whom I have been given the Highest Honour of being Uncle Bagsy!!!!

DYLAN
seen here with Dad Loz and named after BOB himself

Once upon a time you dressed so fine,

threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People call say “beware doll, you're bound to fall”,
you thought they were all kidding you.
You used to laugh about,
everybody that was hanging out.

and with Mum Chloe (once one of my Moth Appretices - Be Back Soon) and UNCLE Bagsy!

Now you don't talk so loud, now you don't seem so proud,
about having to be scrounging your next meal.

How does it feel?, How does it feel?
To be without a home, like a complete unknown,

like a rolling stone!

Also in attendance his older brother Ethan who had arrived to open his 'C' word gifts which, as can be seen, amounted to a full James Bond wardrobe.
That picture is oh so clear as back in 1962 after the showing of the first Bond film Dr. No and as a raw Boy Seaman there was never a chance of seeing me withoutsipping a

Vodka Martini -
Shaken not Stirred
always packing a

Walther PPK
and when asked my name it was simply
"Bond, James Bond"

but you can call me Premium!

Bitter Suite - Marillion

 With nothing in the Moth Traps other than a most nifty

NURSURY WEB SPIDER
one of the arachnids that bucks the trend of spinning a web, relying entirely on its own speed and agility to capture its prey, which was not the only one bucking the trend.

A spider wanders aimlessly within the warmth of a shadow
Not the regal creature of border caves
But the poor, misguided, directionless familiar
Of some obscure Scottish poet

Masked up like a Rag Man's Trumpet we left the Recording Area behind in favour of Longham, where the lakes are close to the general public as Bird Flu had struck. Fortunately, the adjoining footpath to the Hampreston Water Meadows is still open and the gateway to almost a dozen

WHITE-FRONTED GEESE

a borrowed image to emphisis the point

along with the reasonably long staying

WHOOPER SWAN
Apart from Greylag, Egyptian, Canada and often many hundreds of overwintering Brent
'Geese' are at something of a premium this far south so well worth the short drive.
Back to base and more Tales of the Unexpected as we found this

STONECHAT
in the southern reaches of our area

an occurance that has only been noted once before from thereabouts!
Otherwise, it would seem, the

CORMORANTs

have re-established thier Winter Roost on the distant pylons
as one of the local

PIED WAGTAIL

foraged for survival at the dung heap.
Without expectation the day ended almost as excitingly as it had begun during a dusk stroll along our beat of the River Stour where this

BARN OWL

was quartering the banks.

The mist crawls from the canal
Like some primordial phantom of romance
To curl under a cascade of neon pollen
While I sit tied to the phone like an expectant father
Your carnation will rot in a vase

Marillion

Take a Look - Level 42 (Part III)

 To complete our trilogy of the visit to the Somerset Levels it was decided that the last few hours of daylight should be turned over to a dedicated search for the seemingly elusive

COMMON CRANEs

Starting at this vantage point above a rather nifty
Farmstead

where, if you look really closely you will see c2 Cranes to the distant right and a single to the left? Not exactly satisfactory, after clocking both

BULLFINCH
and

NUTHATCH
we wandered back to the bridge featured in the previous post

and where his

DAVESHIP
'who else'?

picked out c3 targets of our desire

crossing an increasingly cloudy sky.

A brief intermission to enjoy another couple of most welcome

and beautifully liveried

TRAINs

Into the distance, a ribbon of black,
stretched to the point of no turning back.

 

 A flight of fancy on a windswept field,
standing alone my senses reeled.
Fatal attraction is holding me fast,
how can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky,
tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I.

which drew our attentions to a much larger pod

of no fewer than

48 individuals

recalling the adage
"all things come to those who wait!"

Leaving our vantage point the track back home took us through the small town of

Langport, Somerset
stimulating memories of our annual visits there in days gone by to add

CIRL BUNTING
to our Year Lists the species being extinct in our home county of Dorset.
Not to put the hex on it, we are doing very well as far as visitations are concerned, but 'More would make the Merrier! Please pass the link on to your friends - Thank You One and All!

Take a Look - Level 42 (Part II)

 With the delights of the murmuration, Water Pipit and mass throngs of Wildfowl behind us we took the sort drive to this

BRIDGE

in the heart of the
Somerset Levels
which has, historically been the best vantage point for spotting the delightful Common Crane, but not on this visit. Nevertheless, there is always something to survey from this vantage point such as the

WITHEY BEDS
presumed grown for the likes of basket making?

which this year were of just one colour unlike last when there were rows of diffent hues.

Also the general vista was worth a click or 2

with someone's
FOLLY

A Vantage Point like no other

and a
Church Ruin on the Knoll
with the lack of avian activity being adequatly compensated for by these nifty looking

TRAINs

having always agreed on the superb livery.

presented the same dilema, few birds and nothing new, while to make matters worse the weather was also closing in,

but did resist the temptation of a pint and a pie!
Satisfaction can never be Guaranteed but hopes were high for our final venture to these parts as the objects of our desire had been broadcast on the website for weeks now and no prizes for guessing who spotted the c10

WHOOPER SWANs

first

yes his

DAVESHIP
and not content with that he went on to locate not only a

JUVENILE

WHOOPER
(to the right on this clip)

but also a

BEAN GOOSE

I was almost beginning to be pleased

I had brought him along and Goose images from the archive due to weather and distance!
HERE'S to the NEXT TIME!