The Bagsy Blog

Friday, 7 April 2017

Kites - Simon Dupree and the Big Sound

Later to become the sensational
GENTLE GIANT
The Brothers 'Shulman' - Kites - Link
While there were precious few Moths in the traps, there were another

couple of items of interest which we had to send to our friend

John Gifford

for confirmation of identity.

BUFF-TAILED BUMBLEBEE

have already been abundant across our area but this

ICHNEUMON WASP

OPHION OBSCURATUS

is a First for the Year.

Just because there had been a deficit of Moths in the traps wasn't to say that

there were to be no Moths at all, but we will come to that later.

Time to catch up on the Daily Rounds, which was also by and large deplete,

but we did receive a call from Dave Foot to say he might be in our area later in the day.

GADWALL

(male)

are still occupying the Gravel Pit

(male preening and cavorting)

and looking splendid in the process

(female)

The 'pair' with Moorhen.

so we live in hope of a First Breeding Record this year??

Other Common Fare included this fine specimen of a male

STONECHAT

commuting between the Heath

and Solar Panel Compound fence

and seemingly finding no difficulty in catching a breakfast delicousy or two.

Singing male

CHAFFINCH

hunting

SONG THRUSH

HERRING GULL

with interloping

Black-headed Gull
in Eco,

(which can now only be viewed from the top of the bund due to

a far higher volumn of traffic across the whole area)

A View from the Top

of just part of the

Solar Panel Farm

and for the very first time from our

Recording Area

some modest footage of foraging

LESSER REDPOLL

A short stop at the

Bournemouth International Airport

perimeter fence gave a chance to watch the 'in house'

FIREFIGHTERS

going through their drills.

The Fire is Set and the Alarm Sounded

Followed by a Rapid Response.

It was at this point we could have chucked a couple of SPUDS into the blaze,
but it was quickly extinguished.

Return to Base.
A reminder of my Oil Rig days when each crew member would
have to attend such a Fire Fighting Course - no exceptions!

To give myself credit, my predictions of where and when Dave might arrive

were both spot on as he was located close to the tributary.

There he is!

Always a great pleasure to be in his company but a little galling (only joking) after spending
the whole morning looking for New Wildlife Arrivals to meet with this sequence of events!
Before even getting out of the Strange Rover he was pointing and shouting

"COMMON HEATH"

a 'daytime flying' and new Moth for the year and having had my fill

he grabs me by the collar, directing my gaze upwards, and indicating an overflying

RED KITE

which was our First for Dorset

and the Recording Area this year as we had seen them earlier on our

Norfolk Trip.

As if that were not enough, and being a man who loves his hat-tricks,

he goes on to find and capture a specimin of

ORANGE UNDERWING

which you may remember as having a modicum of doubt as to posative
identification associated with our first sighting some days ago.

This is not the first to be recorded here, but certainly the first to be photographed!

ALONG WITH DAVE WE CAN ALSO ANNOUNCE THAT
WE ARE ABOUT TO EMBARK ON AN
'OUT OF DORSET ADVENTURE' BUT WILL KEEP OUR DESTINATION
UNDER WRAPS UNTIL OUR FIRST POST FROM THERE!

Entry	Pageviews
United States	661
United Kingdom	371
France	112
Russia	70
Germany	61
Venezuela	56
Estonia	38
China	17
Italy	11
Turkey	9

Wednesday, 5 April 2017

On the Road Again - Canned Heat

Every Day is a New Adventure, but beware of the Unexpected!

EARLY THORN

and while we have to say it again

"we don't do Micros" we have it on good authority that this is a

BROWN PLUME

(Stenoptila pterodactyla)

and a sleepy

ROVE BEETLE

Always delighted with something new for the year, but our merriment was to be

short-lived as we headed for the Common where almost immediately caught sight

of this time an addition to the Recording Area Year List.

Not in the best of positions, we loosed off a couple of 'record shots' of the

RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE

through the windscreen

before attempting to manoeuvre the Strange Rover into a more open situation.

Applying just 10° of port wheel and then hard 'a' starboard we found

our self in a perfect position to continue clicking away at the now feeding bird.

However, what wasn't immediately apparent until we decided to continue our passage,

was that we were firmly aground. Not for the first time this year

(our regular readers may remember) we once again summoned help from Gavin,

Hugh and Janet's younger son and Father to Be, and let me tell you, if

Gav cannot get you out then you are 'stuck' there for life!

During the amazingly short wait for assistance this

FOX

put in the briefest of appearances with the

Partridge continuing to perform perfectly

in the now sunny conditions.

COLLARED DOVE

also fell to the view-finder and within 40 minutes we were

On the Road Again

(Link)

Continue watching for some amazing footage of the build up to Woodstock!

I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
When I asked him where are you going
This he told me.

I'm going down to Yasgurs farm
Think Ill join a rock and roll band
I'll camp out on the land
I'll try and set my soul free.

We are stardust, we are golden
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

Woodstock - Matthews' Southern Comfort

albeit a little crest fallen and a little muddy under the arches!

This unfortunate delay did, like most clouds, have a

Silver Linings

giving chance to inspect some of the hedgerows planted last year and

estimated to be having a 90%+ survival rate!

Bird's Nest Next Year?

A bright, sunny day so no surprise that

PEACOCK

and

BRIMSTONE

Butterflies, in quick succession also joined the list.

SLOW WORMS
Irony was, to end the day, that on our way back to base we found a trench
had been dug across the edge of the marsh we had been stuck in earlier.

The groundwork for more hedge planting, had we been a little later or the
workforce a little area there would have been no access to the bog anyway!!

Woodstock - MSC (Link)

Entry	Pageviews
United States	836
Russia	444
United Kingdom	402
France	130
Venezuela	75
Germany	67
Estonia	37
China	12
Turkey	11
Italy	10

Monday, 3 April 2017

The Woody Woodpecker Song - Glen Miller and his Orchestra (feat) Marion Hutton

At a local level with rare and 'firsts for the year' Birds aside there is little here that gives us more pleasure than a 3 x Woodpecker Species Day! Thus far in 2017 this has not happened once, nor twice with the complete hat-trick being completed just a couple of days ago. Two of these not over easily accomplished visions came from within the bounds of our Recording Area while the third was at Oakers Wood no more than a 40 minutes drive from Slight Return II. On one of those occasions, a morning when the Moth Traps produced a 'blank', our first interesting sighting was this redundant fuselage of a