All the Young Dudes - Mott the Hoople

Of course penned by The Starman himself!
Lemmy, Bowie, Glen Frey and yesterday

 BUFFIN
from

MOTT the HOOPLE
What a Band!
(Dale Griffin just a boy at 67 centre)
'cus I'm a Dude man! LINK
Fairly quiet on the Farm and Merritown Heath yesterday but another

 DARTFORD WARBLER

the 'second' for the year

 poked its nose out of the Heather while a pair of

 STONECHAT

were hunting along the Solar Panel fence.

A welcome return to South Korea, a 'million' memories from Incheon to Busan.

Entry Pageviews United Kingdom 387 United States 212 Russia 192 Germany 142 Canada 12 Singapore 12 Estonia 9 France 7 South Korea 7 Poland 6

Over the Border - A Flock of Seagulls

Seems like they are falling like 9-pins as after

Lemmy and Bowie we now learn of the passing of

GLEN FREY

of The Eagles, there will certainly be a welcome at the

HOTEL CALIFORNIA

Only a 15 minute drive from Parley, it was thought worth a short look at Blashford, across the county border into Hampshire, to make what should be a few easy additions to the Year List and maybe even bump into a familiar face or two. In the event there was no one that was known to me but a few of the more common species were showing well.

 GOLDENEYE

 PINTAIL

 BLACK-NECKED GREBE

SLAVONIAN GREBE 
were quickly added to that list while overlooking the lake known as
Ibsley Water and crossing the road to the more vegetated part of the 
Reserve, it wasn't long before

 SISKIN

 SISKIN

 BRAMBLING

 LESSER REDPOLL

and

 FIRECREST

were added. A short interlude saw

 GOLDCREST
already seen at PCF but

 TREECREEPER
was a further addition. 

Crossing back into Dorset there were 2 options as far as the drive back was concerned. The one via Trickets Cross would most certainly be quicker, but in no hurry at all the Bournemouth Spur Road was the chosen option. Far slower as re-surfacing on both sides of the carriageway restricts vehicular speed to 40 m.p.h. so flicking on the cruise control this presented no problem. This would also take me close to the River Avon Causeway where rumour has it that there were plenty of birds to be seen. There were c8

 GREYLAG GEESE

among a flock of more that 60 Canada Geese and also part of the show
were c13 Egyptian Geese along with a few Mallard, Wigeon and Teal.
Most spectacular of all were an estimated 200

 BLACK-TAILED GODWIT

which also added to the Year List, Good Call.
A hearty welcome back to Singapore - more familiarly known to us Ol' Matelots as Singers!

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Australia	6

When Will I See You Again - The Three Degrees

The Sooner the Better LINK

Well, at last some good news on the weather front as at long last we have broken our duck, and on Friday experienced a completely 'precipitation free day'! It was even better yesterday but that is a Post which will have to wait for another time. As we go to press, once again the rain is hammering down so the 'dry spell' didn't last! However, also on the down side, for me personally at least.

Our final 'GOODBYE' visit to the York's at Kingston on Thames coincided neatly with Bernard delivering their car to Southampton Docks to be transported, by ship, back to Australia, so we were able to return him to base. The rendezvous could not have been any more pin-point and the slight delay for him to finalise the paperwork allowed us to add

OYSTERCATCHER
and

FERAL PIGEON
(if you go for such things)
to the Year List
while on route we spotted

COOT
and

TUFTED DUCK
on the reservoirs on the outskirts of London.

so here they are,  The Family York (pre 2014)

 LISA and BERNARD
a.k.a. Mummy and Daddy

 A visit to Kingston on Thames with Hugh and Janet

 THREE LITTLE BOYS
had

 THREE LITTLE TOYS

 This is what is going to be miss the most. Not just passing on my
limited knowledge
(which would take all of a nano-second) but bringing
to my Grandchildren an Awareness of what is around them.
Mum and Dad however will do that job adequately,
no worries about that!

 DAYTIME STORIES

 BEDTIME STORIES
Then on 30/04/2014
came the miracle of a little girl who like her Mum was
Born in England

 ELIZABETH LOUISE YORK

 already a BEAUTY

 and still growing.

4 Little Christmas Crackers.

 ALL the FUN of the FAIR
but by far the best moment for me was when

 FRED and ALEX
came to stay at Slight Return II when we were able to do a little

MOTHING

 TRACTORING

 ARCHERY

TWITCHING

and then to bed after a hard day in the field.
Pity it couldn't have been all 4, but who knows what the future holds??????
The first wave of Lisa, Fred, Alex and Elizabeth could be 'in the air'
as we speak, but as Benny has to have one more session of
chemotherapy before he is allowed to return to Australia he will
return with his Dad in the near future.
Bon Voyage!

It must be thought almost an impossibility, but we rather thought
we were going to miss the

RING-NECKED PARAKEETS

It is appropriate that Australia graces our 'Top Ten'

on this particular day as "our Loss will be your Gain"!

Take care of those Beautiful Little Bundles PLEASE!

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