The Bagsy Blog

Friday, 3 April 2015

April Love - Pat Boone

How's this for an April Fool's Jape?

Won't go into the Why' and Wherefore's suffice to say that probably

Dorset's most famous landmark

THE CERNE ABBAS GIANT

was joined by a furry friend on the day.

Rather than make a fool of myself on the first day of April, it was decided to do a Mini Twitch, that is see how many species of bird could be seen in just a single morning. As ever though there is the small matter of the Moth Trap where we had a little more success. Nothing totally new but a couple of new additions to the Year List.

CHESTNUT

GREY SHOULDER-KNOT

Something a little out of the ordinary, a Grey Form
CLOUDED DRAB
which I am not alone in thinking are rather 'stunning' compared to

CLOUDED DRAB
'ordinaire'.

First for the Year

RED CHESTNUT

and the Micro Moth

DIURNEA FAGELLA
All else was this

BLACK SLUG
how do they get in?
Just a little of what was seen around the farm.

HOUSE SPARROW
now well into "building a little home for 2 or 3 or 4 or maybe more,
in Love Land with me and my Gal".

An extract from the
Coot Chronicle in oppose to the Gadwall Gazette,
no eggs yet but getting things warmed up.

Arrival at the Irrigation Pond coincided with a photo pose from one of the resident

MOORHEN

and just around the corner it was good to find that another pair of

COLLARED DOVE
have moved in.
It was considered that any Ducks apart from Mallard would be hard to find
but........

just a 'pair' of

TEAL
had lingered as had c2 males and single female

GADWALL

female TEAL

Displaying

GREENFINCH

on the Deer Fence of the main Solar Panel Compound,

of which I have no received unrestricted access. A short Safety Induction,
something most familiar in a previous life, and entry in the Log (ditto) and
sign the form and that's me. Just need the Little Ringed Plover to show up!

In reality it was as quick as that, but not in the Compound.
Can you see them yet??

A short drive round to the back of the Eco Recycling Works

and there were c2

LITTLE RINGED PLOVER

just waiting to greet me.

Gentle manoeuvre of the St'Range Rover

had then at 'Point Blank' (Lee Marvin) range

in addition to which were c2

GREEN SANDPIPER

in the very same puddle!
A blink of the eye would have missed them as a 'pair' of

GREEN WOODPECKER

raced out of a Birch Wood, one continuing as the other took a breather.

Only 3 shots were fired before it too continued the chase.
With Goldbeck/Silverstone still extremely keen to maintain a photograph
portfolio of all wildlife in and around the panels, the 2 GREENS today,
Finch and Woodpecker
should go down very well. Just need to get the Sandpiper to cooperate now!

KESTREL

wasn't quite so obliging

but

we did our best and t least got something, another Day Tick.

What is effectively a 'Hedge' on this bank of the River Stour,

is exactly the spot were

TREECREEPER

nested last year, so here's hoping!

There are at least c3
NUTHATCH
there also with possibly double that number in Merritown Wood.

At least one
LAPWING

is now 'sitting' at the back of Eco, but at the distance

it is impossible to know what on, we will keep an eye and let you know.
The area in which the

MEDITERRANEAN GULLs
of the other day were spotted was thought worthy of closer observation,
and these 2 were found at 18 Acre. A drive along the adjacent
Horse Paddock appeared all too much for the small flock of

HERRING GULL
but in the next field

not one,

not 2 and not even

three but 4

MEDITERRANEAN GULLs

Still maintaining a fair distance from the track

but who cares when you have birds of this quality, and scarcity here, in your own
Back Yard?

Just one image allowed for comparison with
BLACK-HEADED GULL (left).
It was an afterthought that these few maybe 'overshoots' from the 200+
that have been a feature of Longham Lake, just 2 miles away, in recent days?

Coffee and Honey Flavour Smoked Mackerel Sarnies was followed by
Part II just before the heavy drizzle set in, never mind we clocked the

KINGFISHER

and ended up with 56 species including Common and Jack Snipe,

Dartford Warbler, Stonechat, Little Grebe, Bullfinch, Siskin and Lesser Redpoll

to name but a few. The latter being the first for more months than can be remembered.

Entry	Pageviews
United Kingdom	390
United States	250
Germany	102
Russia	102
France	25
Lebanon	20
Estonia	17
Ukraine	16
Canada	13
Japan	6

Wednesday, 1 April 2015

The Mediterranean - Beautiful South

It was yesterday's Readership Total, via the Stat Counter, that was the highlight of the past couple of days, with the steady but relatively low daily count suddenly, and seemingly without reason, TREBLING as can be seen on Total Pageviews! I guess, like myself, all BLOGGERS love to see a high turn-out and similarly like to advertise their wears, so here's your chance to disseminate our link, small return for the effort put in.

http://bagsy-thecaptainslog.blogspot.co.uk/

along with a HUGE Thank You for whoever is responsible for upping the Counter!

To contradict myself straight away, there was an equally joyous moment as we received communication from our dear friend Chris Cook in distant Japan. We keep in touch from time to time and receive equal enjoyment to learn of each others recent meanderings. For those who know Chis it will come as no surprise to hear that when work as Fashion Editor for the Tokyo News he has been 'out in the field'. Here are some of his findings.

SIBERIAN WHITE CRANE

SCALY-SIDED MERGANSER

and, dependant on 'point of view' best until last

BONIN WHITE-EYE

an 'endemic' of Hahajima Island, Japan.
The Moth Traps were a little devoid over the weekend with just

DOTTED CHESTNUT
of note from the Garden trap, so onward to the North.

At the Solar Panel Security Fence
it looked as though PHEASANT (ORDINAIRE) was trying to get out,
while one of the (Dark Morph) Hand Reared was trying to get in?

The scene at the Irrigation Pond was not a pretty one, it was immediately
noted that disaster had struck. Despite applying a couple of stout lashings
to counter the impending gale of Monday night, poor old
Tommy Chippendale had taken a severe list to starboard.
On the bright-side,

COOT
at both Parley Pond and here seem to have commenced 'nest building',
but thus far only exchanges of material between the pair has been noted.
In recent days we have been trying a new, to me at least, method
of Moth Catching using an

ACTINIC TRAP
A battery powered, 'low voltage' Fluorescent Tube is used in lieu
of the more usual Mercury Vapour Lamp, supplied from the mains,
with the first outing proving a
Great Success.

A good catch for here, although we did have one last year,

RED SWORD-GRASS

followed by a

Batch of Eggs
attributed to

COMMON QUAKER
for no other reason than they outnumber every other species 10 to 1.

CLOUDED DRAB

With the trap set close to Aspens we are ever watchful for the elusive

and similar Lead-coloured Drab.

Not this time Matey!

SMALL QUAKER

Another 'first for the year' the delightful

PINE BEAUTY
Then from within the Gorse the sweet refrain of our first

BLACKCAP
of the year.
There were in fact c2, both males, but as there was no evidence of a

Female
we draw on the archive to show the comparison between the sexes.

Male and Female

STONECHAT

have now become commonplace at the Solar Panel farm and are

thought highly likely to 'nest' there?

The past couple of days have also produced a prile of
'First of the Year' Butterflies.

SMALL TORTOISESHELL

SMALL WHITE
and

PEACOCK
while a

lone

STARLING
looked very handsome too.

A dedicated search was made yesterday to establish just how many

Northern Thrushes are still on the property with obliging

FIELDFARE

numbering 21 while Redwing numbers were considered to be double that.

The Noise Abatement Society was represented by this

Swiss BOMBARDIER BD-700-1A10 GLOBAL 6000

being put through its paces, landing and taking off continuously

throughout the afternoon from

Bournemouth International Airport

right next door.

Not enough din to flush the small party of Gulls favouring one of the

Horse Paddocks, but they were jittery. Unfortunately distant among

the Black-headed Gulls a rare visitor here, a

MEDITERRANEAN GULL

not only that but an adult (right) in

Full Summer Plumage

The accursed aircraft's persistence eventually paid off, putting them all to flight, but a close eye was kept as the target bird appeared to land behind the Manor at 18 Acre. This, of course, was followed up only to find a further c2 (in similar plumage) along with a 'sub-adult'. To afford a closer look we delved into the archive.