Let It Be Me - The Everly Brothers

 With the temperature lingering at an unseasonable +5°C at 18:00 on Sunday, and shooting to +7°C by midnight on went a single trap. Surely a Moth was due to be caught somewhere across the county, under such favourable circumstances, and woke up singing the Everly’s classic as above and later it turned out with a single

WINTER MOTH

we await to see if we were alone in this? We had driven across a frost bitten New Forest the day before but with the pond at

no more than a

Skating Rink
we high-tailed it homeward.
However, given the circumstances of the previous night and a more

favourable looking sky the following day it seemed well worth another go.

NEW FOREST PONIES

ROYAL OAK

and a little more open water on the pond and few people so pole position at the feeding station.

First up came

NUTHATCH

closely followed by

MARSH TIT
but overall there were very few small birds.

A few more

NEW FOREST PONIES

before the only c2

MANDARIN DUCKs (male)

were coaxed out of cover on the far bank
(pair)

with a few slices of Mr Warburton's finest.
(female)

and on the way back roadside
CATTLE

along the beautiful avenue of trees.
The 'reserve' at Blashford Lakes remaines in full Lock Down so again resorting to peeking throught the hedgerow to spy on

GOOSANDER (female)

pair and

(male)
while a little close to our station a male

WIGEON

along with a female.
Kingfisher Lake at the end of Hurst Road at Ringwood has been for many years the
Winter Dwelling Place of a male

FERRUGINOUS DUCK 

a bird of Mainland Europe and Africa which was always difficult to see but even more so since the owners rigged a canvas screen around the perimetre fence. While we would guard the right of such people to errect such a thing it does seem a little churrlish to do so, but darn right illegal for those  likely porporting to be Bird Watches to cut great holes in them!
The only images we have ever secured of such a bird come from our 2006 Morocco trip so will have to surfice (males).

Apologies for the late arrival the Master at Arms has me booked to appear before the Captain at 10:30!

The King Will Come - Wishbone Ash

 With overnight temperatures still firmly locked in minus figures it is mighty unusual that we are able to start today's post with a Moth! Not, we hasten to add, of the recently caught variety but one that suddenly and unexpectedly emerged from a larvae at the home of one of our Weymouth agents.

Not just any old Moth the

BLEACHED PUG
is seriously rare across Great Britain and has never been recorded in our home county Dorset!

While the Moth was completely unexpected it was by no means the only surprise of the day as approaching the Chicken Coop this

BROWN RAT
scurried across the path before us and after yet another rendezvous with the now considered

Resident and Obliging

HERRING GULLs

at the Main Pond

from where also came perhapes the biggest surprise of the Year so far let alone the Day!

POCHARD
(this a male)

has been recorded on but 3 previous occassions but never this far south

and on a watercourse bounded by continuous heavy traffic

it was thought unlikely to stay long

but did see out at least all daylight hours - Nice One!
Heading north, there were found to be dozen upon dozen of evidntial heeps showing that

Mr and Mrs MOLE
had been active overnight.
Otherwise, save for this mangy looking

FOX

there was little to keep us there but over the course of the afternoon

2 distinctly different

SPARROWHAWKs
pitched in directly outside of Slight Return II our caravan home.
We end in similar fashion to which we started with images sent to us by a second
Weymouth Correspondant
the first 2 being from the stretch of sea water know as the Fleet which seperates mainland Weymouth from both the 18 miles long shingle spit known as Chesil Beach and the
Isle of Portland.

Both featuring

overwintering Wildfowl, mostly Wigeon with the odd Pintail, in the lagoon

along with this plaque attached to the recently refurbished
Cutter Inn, Weymouth which holds many a memory for myself.
Once owned by my next door neighbour on Portland, Mike Newton it was the hostalry where we would frequently meet the enigma that was Simon Regan a.k.a. 'Scalliwag'. The tales are far too many to relate but as a world and war correspondent correspondent for most of the broadsheet newspapers his CV was second to none! Forced to abandon Fleet Street over an embarrasing matter involving Charles and Dai he ended up exciled to Weymouth and by another amazing quirk of fate started his own local newspaper - SCALLIWAG - sold by undecover venders so controvesial were some of the articles. It was trouble with the MoD that took me into his circle and caused him the same when reporting the whole crooked matter to the outside world. R.I.P. Simon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vSfvNn29MY

A Trilogy of Medievil Battle Anthems

Original line-up of this magical duel lead guitar band, Ted Turner - Lead Guitar, Banjo, Vocals, Martin Turner (no relation) - Bass Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards, Steve Upton - Drums and Andy Powell - Lead Guitar, Vocals, Mandolin.

As for the plaque, it was always KG II who most interested me with the film of nearly the same name being among my favourite top 3. Being unable to use the title “The Madness of King George II” for fear of the Americans particularly not going to see it before they had seen ‘Part I’ there is one scene that has remained with me ever since.   

The 2 butlers seriously naffed off with his behaviour were discussing other possibilities of employment elsewhere when one said to the other, “yes a good idea, but you will never make a living out of selling groceries Fortnum”! A Crippler!

Simply Red (and Crested)

Once again with interest across our own Recording Area amounting to no more than a couple or 3

MALLARD

HERRING GULL

braving the marauders plus the now resident

MUTE SWANS
down south and the north throwing up no more than the first

Mountain of Fencing Panels
along with poor views of a single

REDWING
it was time to play the Ace up our sleave! With 'rare Ducks' at Longham Lake our visit started

with a far better look at
GREY HERON

than the extremely distant 'first of the year bird'.

Once a Mega-Rarity itself in Great Britain it is now almost impossible to miss

GEAT WHITE EGRET
but we had already spotted the objects of our desire but as usual with such things
just about as far away as they could possibly be!

Some consider such things as

RED-CRESTED POCHARD

as 'plastic' which describs a bird as "not of wild origin" maybe escaped from captivity

or due to it World distribution unlikely to be of wild stock we don't subscribe to the theory.

RED-CRESTED POCHARD female

and male

and talk about a lucky break

caught in the 5 second act of copulation!
Aware of being accused of 'overload',

it would be a shame

just to delete the remaining stills and vids!

fem diving

and feeding.

All else were the Doorstep
BLACKBIRDs

awaiting their mid-day hand-out.

You Can Only Report What's There!

To say that yesterday was a 'struggle' would be a mojor understatement, with little or maybe nothing right across our Recording Area. Of note, it would seem

MISTER RYAN
may be back in business out of Bournemouth International but out in the field there was little more than this lone lady

TEAL
and the long redundant

AIRBUSES
still confined to the pan - desperate time need desperate measures, time to break out the

HOVIS
A few slices of liberally scattered slices just outside the door of Sligh Return and down they came.

As is usual it was greedy

BLACK-HEADED GULLS
first to appear followed in quick succession by eqally voracious

STARLINGs
The local

WOOD PIGEONs
also got in on the act but it was something of a surprise to note a

HERRING GULL
so close to home and just to pad it out a bit more

BLACK-HEAD

activity

and apologise for dropping so much excitement on you without prior warning, especially if you are at the breakfast table!