No Surprises - Radiohead

If you are not familiar with the fantastic compositions of
RADIOHEAD
you are strongly advised to sample Creep and Karma Police
both available on this same link - ENJOY!
NO SURPRISES Link

With yet another pulse of unseasonably warm overnight temperatures,
again we activated the single Moth Trap but found in the first instance 'no suprises'.

 Although we have caught one of these already this year (Day One)

any Moth caught at this time of the year will qualify for publication!

 MOTTLED UMBER

 along with 2 variations of "we don't do Micros"

 LIGHT BROWN APPLE MOTH

Now, we did stipulate from the start

NO SURPRISES

but we were certainly dealt a couple in the form of a

GREAT DIVING BEETLE

and a

DOR BEETLE

 So, no alarms and no surprises, no alarms and no surprises,

no alarms and no surprises Please!

MUTE SWANs
cutting through the early morning sky.

and maybe it's the same afore mentioned temperatures keeping the
Gravel Pit
devoid of Wildfowl while "shrouded by fine mist".

Long overdue, even though the year isn't much more than a week old,

we would have expected our semi-resident male

KESTREL
to have shown long before now.
A heart that's full up like a landfill
a job that slowly kills you, bruises that won't heal.
You look so tired, unhappy bring down the government
cus they don't, they don't speak for us.
I'll take a quiet life a handshake of carbon monoxide!
With no alarms and no surprises, no alarms and no surprises, no alarms and no surprises
PLEASE!

Mixed Gulls at Eco Recycling and
among them a couple of

HERRING GULL
along with about a dozen Black-headed Gulls, or at least that is what was thought.
Even though there were so few on the first couple of passes we completely overlooked the

MEDITERRANEAN GULL

complete with 'ring' that we can make neither head nor tail of.

lurking at the back.

We thought that GREEN would be rather a good colour to
signify any creature that has already been recorded in the current year,
but not thus far within our Recording Area - here's another!
On our way back we paid a second visit to the Irrigation Pond
where this time we found a 'First for the Year

GADWALL 

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My List - The Killers

In the same way as the Post indicating the Moth Species that have been added to our Recording Area List during 2016, we now do likewise with the Birds. Any addition is a milestone as each time one is added so it becomes more difficult to add another. The total for the year of 8 new Species is considered notable!

 BLACK REDSTART

 POCHARD

 SHORT-EARED OWL

 SANDERLING

 PINTAIL

GREAT WHITE EGRET

SANDWICH TERN

WATER PIPIT

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A Walk in the Black (New) Forest - Horst Jankowski

It was a case of 'not letting the looks fool you' as the sun rose to wipe out the superficial frost, but there was plenty more of the solid slippery stuff beneath. On the strength of that and the lessons learnt from the previous days was to depart Parley Court Farm and head directly for the New Forest. One of Great Britain's premier National Parks planted (not personally) by King Henry VIII ostensibly to build warships, which is now generally a place of peace and quiet!

 Here Comes the Sun!

 Good start as we past Parley Pond there was a hunting

 CORMORANT
and where we turned of the A31 'trunk road' at Stoney Cross
we were not surprised to find a group

 NEW FOREST PONIES
an addition to the New Year Mammal List.
There was an opportunity to capture

FIELDFARE
 on video,

but a little precarious with some traffic obviously breaking the 40 mph speed limit.

 A little further along we needed to give way to a group of c5
INKY PINKY PONKIES
 before arriving at probably my favourite little nooks in the Forest

where we were met by a gathering of Waterfowl which contained
2 of our days 'target birds' both

MANDARIN
and
WOOD DUCK

 While an introduced species to our Sceptred Isles the
MANDARIN

is considered 'fair game' as an addition to the Year List but no

WOOD DUCK
ever recorded in Great Britain has ever been considered, by the authorities,
to be a true vagrant from the Americas.

Regardless of the status, they are fine looking Ducks and that is part of what brought me here!
While looking for the 'third' waterborne candidate, our attention
was turned to the usual throng of small (passerine) Birds.

 Among these

was a further addition to the

 Year List

MARSH TIT
while the others fitted neatly into the
Great to See You Again Category.

NUTHATCH

 COAL TIT
and

 female

 CHAFFINCH
 before a light whirring was heard from above, the first of the

 GOOSANDER

 seemed to be making sure

the coast was clear

before landing.

 Some of the exotics were perched

on the rapidly melting surface ice, preening as

c3 female

 
GOOSANDER

came in to land

and commenced 'fishing' operations.

Couldn't be certain, but it looks like a Tench they were fighting over?

Time for a quick look back over the shoulder before heading back to

Slight Return II

COWS 
with long horns

were now feeding from the hedgerows just before we passed by the

ROYAL OAK PUB

and an unknown

but certainly very expensive private dwelling!

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