A Bird in the Hand is Worth - Part I

Foregoing the Current Crisis

one of, if not ‘the’ best benefit to any Birding Enthusiast, has to come from being a member of the

Portland Bird Observatory

With a subscription of less just £20.00 annually it includes, under normal circumstances, reasonably priced and comfortable accommodation (another ‘world tick’ for most sleeping in a Lighthouse, which I once did just for the craic) including full lounging, cooking, free parking etc but for myself it is ‘free pratique' if there at the right time, to view

Birds Close Up in the Hand.

Another dull day in the field forces our hand just to show a small example across the years of just that.

BARRED WARBLER

YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER

BEAREDED TIT

WHINCHAT

BLUE TIT

SUBALPINE WARBLER

BRAMBLING

SPARROWHAWK

COMMON REDSTART

PIED FLYCATCHER

FIRECREST

PALLAS'S WARBLER

GOLDFINCH

PADDYFIELD WARBLER

LESSER WHITETHROAT

MARSH WARBLER

NIGHTINGALE

MELODIOUS WARBLER
and talk about leaving the best until last!
If my memory serves me

Martin Cade Warden of the Portland Bird Observatory
recieved a telephone call from a lady saying she had found a bird in her garden at
Langton Herring just a few miles to the west.

No one could have predicted the species had they been given 100 gueses each,
'outrageously' a

PALLID SWIFT
It is only 'pure good luck' that puts you in that sort of possotion!

Johnny the Fox - Thin Lizzy

 As the Weather Forecaster so rightly predicted there was a balmy +8°C persisting throughout the night, full cloud cover and on the down-side quiet a lot of rain. Luckily they made something of a blunder with the latter which amounted to very little at all but still every reason to get all of the Moth Traps fired up! Staring through the perspex collar of the first brought on a feeling of contentment as

YELLOW-LINE QUAKER

finalised our urge to catch at least one Macro Moth during each month of the year, but it didn't end there. Among the collective was also a single

DARK CHESTNUT

c2 PINE CARPET

c4 DECEMBER MOTHs

and a
RED-LINE QUAKER
Don't know the season for such things as

STRIPED MILLEPED
but it felt like it shouldn't have been there but most welcome as  both

MINOTAUR BEETLE
and

 DOR BEETLE

were quite expected but it has been a full 9 days since we have caught anything at all.
Bit of a shift around of the Wildfowl on both ponds as a pair of

TUFTED DUCK
seem to have displaced the previous female on the Irrigation Pond, which we rather like to think was the the one now gracing the

Gravel Pit
while a 'spring' of 20+ flighty Teal still remain there.
As far as avians on the Heath were concerned it amounted to no more than a single each of a

KESTREL
in flight

and a

feeding and vocal

GREEN WOODPECKER
No more than a whim took us back to the

Gravel Pit

where a
GREEN SANDPIPER
had moved in but far more likely to have been overlooked in the first instance.
Back to base and another

BROWN RAT
this one far more lively than the dead one of yesterday

 likely getting more bold finding food as the weather cools?
and finally, maybe the unseen yapping

FOX
of yesterday as well - satisfaction all round!

I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' - E Fitzgerald 'n' L Armstrong

 The common consensus between those who fielded an opinion on yesterday's

STRANGER on the SHORE
was that it had something of the Pintail about it, which shows where that leaves me, considering Pochard, but we haven't given up yet. There was no sign of it yesterday, through more dence mist/fog, so now hopes are high of a return and better images. Thanks to Paul and John.

The silence of the early morning (04:30) was shattered by the persistent yapping of a nearby,

FOX
leading to thoughts of safety of the Chickens, with

DAWN

bringing with it it's own frosted beauty across the tennis court and

Spider Webs alike.
Maybe not quite in the same division of beauty a dead

BROWN RAT

close to the Rat Runs outside the coup where the

CHUCKS

past full muster of c13.

The first avians to show were the resident

COLLARED DOVEs
at the Eco Recycling Works from where things petered out somewhat!
To kick-off with the

IRRIGATION POND
was also covered with a thin veneer of ice and totally devoid of Wildlife with only the
Usual Suspects across the open water of the

GRAVEL PIT

where the c3 Little Grebes continue to thrive

juvenile

adult

juvenile.

Elsewhere  things were slightly better without being outstanding but the

MOTH TRAPS
looked forlorn with thier veneer of frost but with the

temperature set at +7°C just before swinging into the ‘mick’ it was decided to just flash up a single just in case. The outcome was no more than a single

HARLEQUIN LADYBIRD
which have been something of a scarcity this Autumn with just dozens rather than the usual plague of Hundreds or even Thousands.

Otherwise, if we dare publish another

STONECHAT
(there were in fact 2) along with both

vocal

ROBIN
and similarly single and vocal

WOODLARK

which we have told time and time again
"not to sing with their mouth full".
Always happy to add our favourite of the

Rare Breeds Cattle

SHET

especially when they end up

secure right alongside like a Frigate in harbour.
Last but not Least were these c2

STOCK DOVEs

but then to find that overnight temperatures are likely to wallow between

+8°C and +10°C

for the rest of the week, but here’s the rub, “with heavy and sometimes persistant rain".

Here's Hoping