When Will They Ever Learn - Pete Seegar

  from, Where Have all the Flowers Gone?

In SOLIDARITY with the people of UKRAINE we have plucked their national flag from our collection

of Countries Visited and placed it in a prominent position on the door.What else can you do?

LEST WE FORGET!!

 Before commencing our Daily Doings we have a couple of Catch-Ups to publish with the appearance and only a brief glimps of a 'brace' of

TYPHOON
Fighter Jets which we might have captured ourselves had it not taken a full 10 minutes to rise from the couch, we have to thank the local aircraft photographic brigade for the ID on our description, while late afternoon the

LITTLE EGRET

flying to roost above the River Stour was not quite so lucky to avoid us!

Back to the day in question, which started with a -2°C and followed at 04:00 by a rendition from one of the local Tawny Owls, we were underway again at first light.

It has become custom at that time of day to be fore-warned by the honking of

GREYLAG GEESE

presumed flying between roost and feeding grounds and even alighting on occassion.

A lucky strike at the main pond where this
GREY HERON

had already secures its breakfast and where it was notced that the
Parrot Feather Pond Weed seems to be commenceing coverage far earlier than is usual?

Another minor 'stroke of luck' further south with a small influx of expected and welcome

LAPWING
had shown up, maybe as many as 30? while at the Irrigation Pond it was always considered that the absent male

COOT
was rather in hiding than having abandoned ship!

This proved to be right as it is spending much time among the dead reeds (left of centre) hopefully applying for a mortgage on a new nesting site?

Next door, where the 3rd COOT still lingers, love seemed in the air as one of the

MOORHENs

was raising its wings slightly and flurrying its whiter tan white under-tail feathers in didplay.
The find of the day showed itself as we viewed one of the hard-standings in the
Solar Panel Compound

SMALL TORTOISESHELL

which shouldn't come as a surprise as they may be seen in the UK during any month of the year.
At the last knockings we found the company of the afore mentioned Photograph Phans who were waiting patiently for this

DREAMLINER
(bound for Barbados - they have all the info)

and the occassional

ALPACA
One of the group being an ex RN'er like myself which feels like there should be a visit to the
Pig and Whistle in the none to distant future?

Beyond the Horizon - Bob Dylan Part III

 Having given Bob and Zep a fair crack of the whip across our humble

BUCHAN ALPHA
trilogy thus far, we thought it appropriate to clue it up with a riff of a similar nature from Pink Floyd.

High Hopes

as they always were:-

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young, in a world of magnets and miracles. Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary, the ringing of the division bell had begun!

YET ANOTHER 'FALL' OF MIGRANTS

WATER RAIL

which were only occassional.

and considered unusual a
MOORHEN

but nowhere as unexpected as this
BLACKBIRDS NEST

found in the manifold area with eggs 120 miles from land may have been a spoof by one of them there Roughnecks??

Rule Number One = You don't give The Hammer the run-around even if you do happen to be a

PEREGRINE FALCON

catching a

GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL 

on the Helicopter Safety Netting before catching a second in the Moon Pool                                   (the central square cut out of the centre of the rig through which the pipework runs to the seabed)

as most Rig Rats know that is my Part of Ship as well.
(a juvenile as wide as we are tall - and there's the distant Standby Boat the Far Seeker)

He soon had it in captivity, a make-shift cage knocked up and placed in the luggage compartment of

the next 'chopper - no travel docs or manifest required! While in 2005 we had no luck capturing or 'clicking' the only known

PALLAS'S WARBLER

to grace our decks

Eye-brow, crown-stripe and wing-bars in oppose to the many dozens of

YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER's
across the years. 

Along the long road and on down the Causeway, do they still meet there by the cut? There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps, running before time took their dreams away! Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground, to a life consumed by slow decay.

Pink Floyd from the album - The Division Bell

More night-time activity attracted to the Flare may have included this

Silver Y Moth

RED ADMIRAL

STARLINGs

scarce
PIED FLYCATCHER

THE HOVERFLIES
(Syrphus Ribsii)
and

REED BUNTINGs
but not the

PIPE-FISH
most likely Gull assisted? and unfortuneately, like many, many others a deceased male

REDSTART
and a final flurish of

SISKIN

TURTLE DOVE
and female

WIGEON
to name but a few.

 After my departure from the Buchan Alpha and the North Sea altogether, to persue further travels, Dave Penny confidently took over the reins adding

LAUGHING GULL

with photographic evidence and not surprisingly as
from the America's an addition to the North Sea List,
along with a second

OSPREY
image from the archive as having lost the original.

until the unfortunate demise of the North Sea Bird Club - all that money swilling about in that industry and they couldn't sustain the club despite it being an integral part of Aberdeen Univercity??

and ending with something of an irony as it wasn't any of the crew that saw the last of Buchan, but Dave Foot who was Birding in the area of the

KISHORN BREAKERS YARD

and YES we are consumed by Rock 'n' Roll lyrics particularly when there is a subliminal message as attached,

which is why part of Zepellin's Kashmir is tattooed to the stern-sheets of our stately home.

With my Shipmate Jim the Medic we did step into Kashmir for a short while when travelling through and across India back in 2004, just for the craic and in recognitian of this song.