Garden - Groundhogs

It has been busy out there, no complaints about that, but maybe time for a short sabbatical, with no pay and no foreign travel as is the norm! In fact just the wanderings around the 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdI2aRDEBZ4

GARDEN - GROUNDHOGS

over the last few days as something of a filler!

My garden is all overgrown and the weeds are creeping up on my home.
Grass has grown over two foot high and the trees are blocking out the sky.
French windows won't open any more  from the moss that's grown outside the door,
A hundred birds are nesting in the trees, looks like a wild-life sanctuary.
Along with the Cettis Warbler/s, Tawny Owl, Kestrel and the odd Common Buzzard

Pride of Place has surely gone to the occassionally seen

FIRECREST

and a fine looking male at that

and not to be outdone there have also been multipuls of

GOLDCREST

probably amounting to a minimum of 4 individuals which together with the above make for  

Great Britains smallest birds. The ubiquitous

HOUSE SPARROW
is ever present making daily sorties to the inside of the Chicked Coup to capitalise on the groceries, but not so the

GREENFINCH

which departed en-massbefore the month began,

good then to 'clock' this individual.

But I'm not going to cut a single blade of the grass, 

my garden will look just like the distant past.

Before the days of agricultural land,

before the time when pebbles turned to sand.
When I leave this house I'm going to stay,

I'm forsaking my comforts to live another way,
Get my clothes from heaps, my food from bins,

my water from ponds and have tramps for all my friends.

We hear more

DUNNOCKs

than we see, as was the case in this instance,

with yet another vocal bird.
EVER PRESENT

BLACKBIRD

and

SONG THRUSH

numbers are slowly being augmented by cousins from the north

but what we are awaiting now are other relatives such as
Redwing and Fieldfare
which we will endeavour to bring to you on arrival.
Not giving any one of these a moments peace is the ever watchful

KESTREL
remembering
"the hungry must be fed"!

Under Cover - Selina Gomez

 PS - Our friend John Gifford has kindly identified the Hawk-moth and Grasshopper on yesterday's Post for all interested parties - with Thanks!

After the "No Alarms and No Surprises" of Saturday there we none of the former

but a couple or 3 of the later yesterday as we kicked off before dawn with

the distinctive vocals of one or more

 CETTI'S WARBLER (s) 

which require a great deal of patcience to clap eyes on.
Not what we would commit to the catagory of surprises but it has been a fair few days since we recorded the first Autumnal Bird.

Combining all c5 Moth Traps to one report we start with a "we don't do Micros" but make a small exception when the likes of the bizarre and almost prehistoric

COMMON PLUME MOTH
shows its hand while the 'first surprise' was not far behind.

A sort after Insect by many Moth'ers we are blessed with

SOUTHERN CHESTNUT
hereabouts which only comes to light sparingly but annually.
Otherwise, and maybe as a bit of padding we also secured yet another

L-ALBUM WAINSCOT
We have been anticipating the arrival of any of the more common Wildfowl,

but to record c6

EURASIAN TEAL
(never in a tight group)

in one pod was not only a 'surprise' but also a recordbreaker!
On the Heath it looked rather as if Johnny the Fox

had hit the hammock with a full belly had he taken the rest of this
RABBIT
but on the brighter side the

DOG ROSEHIPS

looked Ripe and Resplendent
Being Sunday, it is usual to turn the Reptile Covers but given the
time of year and the chill would it be worth it? Wot else were we going to do........

SURPRISINGLY

there were no fewer than

THREE

SMOOTH SNAKES
recorded with the minor bonus of a 

BROWN-LIPPED SNAIL
but the

VICTOR LUDORUM

fell to a SURPRISE

LONG-TAILED FIELD MOUSE 

With no Alarms and no Surprises, no Alarms and no Surprises, no Alarms and no Surprises

PLEASE!

 Creep - Radiohead

No Woman, No Cry - Bob Marley and the Wailers (Finalè)

 It would seem, at first glance, that Charlie and Julie Anderson had invested their

 New Found Fame and Fortune

SCARLET MACAW

(by no means a)

SNAIL KITE

wisely into a home that was once accommodation for Senior Officers of United States Forces in the

suburbs of Panama City.

(conventional garden)

BURNISHED BUFF TANAGER

in a crescent of similarly designed houses.

WHOOPING MOTMOT
Unarguably the COOLEST place in the Country let alone the City from certain vantage points the

PANAMA CANAL
could still be seen and even a

DARCETA SPHINX HAWK-MOTH

A hearty welcome indoors - Charlie and Billy

RED-EYED GRASSHOPPER

Charlie (eager to show us his recording studio) and Moi

WATTLED JACANA

The Full Anderson Crew

COLLARED ARICARI

A bit of a 'sing-song' in the studio, just up my street,

SPOTTED TODY FLYCATCHER

afterwhich, a visit to his nextdoor neighbour whose hobbies included

nursing back to health sick and/or injured
HARPY EAGLES
(the largest Eagle on that continent and one of the largest in the World)

He told that he recieved an average of c3 each year, of these near threatened

and declining birds of prey, and when brought back to full health would present the survivour
to one country or another. This individual was detined for Coosta Rica.

STRAIGHT-BILLED WOODCREEPER
We had enjoyed one hell of a time, but the afternoon was getting long, and being dropped outside of an icecream parlour we of course 'did the honours' but the day was not over for me.
While Billy returned to the Guest House I wander further into town to pick up one or 2 things, but picked up one thing that could not have been imagined.
There stood in the middle of a very busy road was a lady trying to coax a

TREE-TOED SLOTH

back to the safety of the jungle.

With both of us reluctant to touch it we did manage to get it to cling to this 

crowbar and get it to the verge.

From there it did rather look as if it was trying to hitch a lift but,

with a little gentle pocking and proding was returned, hopefully to stay in its
Natural Habitat.
Hands up all of those who have had 3-toes Sloth 'in the hand'?

THE LAST of the RASTAS