Enigmatic Endemics

On another bright, sunny, cool and much more windy Autumn day it is unfortunate that all of my attentions have had to be directed elsewhere. The only real item of news is of a slightly sad nature as

NODDY

Jen and Janet

has been 'sold on'.

His new home has been well scrutinised and opinions are he should be 

happy there

here's hoping!

With a hope of some 'normal service' being resumed tomorrow, and not wishing to disappoint the Readership today, we give you another dozen

Endemic Birds of Madagascar.

 MADAGASCAR PARADISE FLYCATCHER

(White Morph)

 MADAGASCAR BEE-EATER

 MADAGASCAR BUTTONQUAIL

 MADAGASCAR FISH EAGLE

 MADAGASCAR KESTREL

 MADAGASCAR LITTLE GREBE

 MADAGASCAR MALACHITE KINGFISHER

 MADAGASCAR MANNIKIN

 MADAGASCAR PLOVER

 MADAGASCAR SANDGROUSE

 MADAGASCAR SWAMP WARBLER

MADAGASCAR WAGTAIL

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Two Little Dicky Birds Sitting On A........

Autumn proper arrived with a bit of a 'bang' today as the sun continued to shine, sky half covered with fluffy white clouds and the wind 'backed' to the north east. Having increased in strength, it brought with it a cold draft, while the leaves continued to brown and fall. No date was kept, but Moth Trapping on the Estate started early October last year with one of the first Insects caught being the beautifully marked and scarce

MELVEILLE du JOUR

today's specimen was just 2 days later this year.
Not a particularly active day for me today, in fact just a wander
around the Parley Pond in the hope for something of interest.

Male MALLARD in the Sunshine

The New 'Permenant' Bridge onto what is now

ALPACA ISLAND

 GIANT TERRAPIN basking in the sun and
 MOORHEN

GREEN WOODPECKERs

It's not that late yet, still time for the odd

SMALL TORTOISESHELL

One of the Goats 'Fiddling on the Roof'

WOOD PIGEON
Still in for a 'little loving' despite the change of season.

ROOK

PIED WAGTAIL

and from one of our dedicated readers this image and the
request for a suitable caption! I feel sure 'she' could have sorted it?

 An e-Mail winged its way to me from sunny Portland to show the
high point of yesterday's birding there.
THRUSH NIGHTINGALE aka SPROSSER

© The Secret Lemonade Drinker.

A bird I have not yet seen on Great Britain and this is the 'third' to show up on the Island. However, it does generate a little humour value concerning the only one I have seen in the world. On a one week birding trip with both good friend and accomplished 'birder' Ken Parker, he managed to find one in bushes on the side of a deep ravine along a hillside track. Great for us both as this usually skulking bird afforded good views (long before either of us started camera packing) but to further increase the experience a small group of other bird watchers turned up. After bathing in the moment the group moved on and after another long look so did Ken and I. The conversation that followed amounted to "Sprosser, Sprosser, Sprosser", which after 5 or 6 miles started to subside, that's when I realised my telescope was not where it should have been, on the back seat! Fortunately, when we arrived back at the site there it was standing in the middle of the track which saved the insurance company, or more likely ME £1,500.

'GREAT' TITS!

(Parus major that is)
and while we are at it here are a further 6 images from
MADAGASCAR
all bearing the names of those who first found and/or described them to science.

 ALAN'S GALLINULE

 WARD'S FLYCATCHER

CHABERT'S VANGA

 HUMBLOT'S HERON

APPET'S GREENBUL

FRANCE'S SPARROWHAWK

Must away now as I'm about to serve the last 'brace' 

(for now at least) of

 RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE

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Looking For A Good Time - The Partridge Family

I for one don't see too many Partridges in the 'field' these days so it was a coincidence that Mousey the Game Keeper delivered a couple of brace of Red-legged's here this morning. From a prestigious 'shoot' in the north of the county (Dorset), owned by an Arabian Sheik, it is probably only these institutions that keep the populations going these days.

 RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE

All 4 were quickly made ready for the oven with a Madeira jus.

Something of a 'RARITY' and a 'quality' catch

BLAIR'S MOCHA*
has to be on the 'Want List' of every Moth'er the appropriate
annotation has been made!

DEEP-BROWN DART

DELICATE*

One of several variations of
BEADED CHESTNUT

DUSKY THORN

Unfortunately, a very worn specimen of
SMALL MOTTLED WILLOW*

The Mocha, Delicate and Willow, all 'migrants' combine to make what has been described as a "pretty damn good migrant night particularly so far from the Coastal Fringe"! * denotes New to the Property List which, after just one year trapping, stands at 182.

 The coincidence mentioned above came on arrival at the
 
 KEYHAVEN and PENNINGTON NATURE RESERVES
Barely out of the car a gentleman, with a telescope, the other side
of the gate got me onto a lone

GREY PARTRIDGE

well viewable through his optic but a little distant for the best of image. Lacking what is often described as an inverted, deep chestnut coloured 'horseshoe' on the belly this was likely a juvenile bird.

GREY PARTRIDGE (Wiki).

These days I rather favour this reserve as being just a 30 minutes drive from the farm and requiring a minimum amount of walking to access all areas. Not particularly a 'twitch' (the practice of racing off to see a rare bird reported earlier) but there was an 'evens' chance of happening upon an American vagrant. One problem, this bird has been reported from both Keyhaven and Pennington, adjoining reserves, with a pinpoint being

BUTT'S LAGOON

There I was re-joined by the man with the 'scope and AN Other making life a little easier "many eyes making light spotting"! First up was the most unusual sight, one which none of us had encountered before of a

WATER RAIL bathing - novel!

MEADOW PIPITs
were numerous along with good numbers of Skylark and Lapwing
and just a small trickle of Swallows.

In total we managed to spot among the Dunlin and Redshank
c3 LITTLE STINT

in company with
BLACK-TAILED GODWIT

and COMMON SNIPE

During this period we had also picked up on a medium size Wader
mostly hidden by reeds in a crouched position with head under wing.

In company with another Common Snipe it looked to be smaller and brought back memories of a similar bird at Lodmoor in 2011 which at times favoured tall vegetation. Eventually in emerged to reveal itself as the relatively long staying

LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER

occasionally standing close to REDSHANK for comparison

or allowing other good views.

An image of the 2011 Lodmoor
LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER

and short video footage of the same bird.
PS - The Partridges 'ate' a treat!

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