Then, Like All Rare Things, It Was Gone!

Refering to the 'open flight' video clip of yesterday's Airbus we feel sure that most of our diligent Readers must have heard, at the end, the calls of a Wader? 99% sure it was a Green Sandpiper was not enough to commit it to the Year List so consulted 3 friends who all agreed. What a bizarre way to add a further species!

 It is far from unusual to hear

TAWNY OWL
singing during the wee small hours of the morning but to record

NUTHATCH
joining in at 05:30 is without parallel - a most welcome record and we just cannot resist the

Early Morning Skyscapes
from the doorstep. On the way south, not unusually the

BLACK-HEADED GULLs

were occupying both post and wire while further on

CORMORANTs
a complete 'handful' were noted back a the traditional roost site.

Also in the same area half a dozen

LAPWING

were noted before the frost had time to thaw.

It was up north that the few

REDWING
were logged and unusually just about

outnumbered by an influx of

DUNNOCK
while on the Heath there was little more 'birdwise' than a brace of

unusually bold

STOCK DOVE

along with the striking

Winter Vistas
It was while clicking these that from a

grey and overcast sky blocking out the Sun that a

fairly vibrant

(all we could see of the Sun behind a part Mackerel Sky)

SUN DOG
The current situation, it would seem, (little in the way of Wildlife) has seen the
'Hits Count'
tumble to double figures getting close to being unviable so pulling a Rabbit out of the hat might help?
Of the 2 rarest Birds ever to visit our patch Short-toed Eagle has already featured across these pages but the other, as far as our memory allows has not. It was something of a 'wake-up call' while researching this that it was found to be 'over' 3 years ago that a

SIBERIAN STONECHAT

visited the

Heath

staying for a full 2 days.

a memory jerker to say the least and even showing the

diagnostic dark patch of the underwing.
The videos show this far better which cannot be glued on as oversize.

In the Mooo-d - Glenn Miller

Half a decent morning again on Monday and with an overnight of +6°C, dropping a few

degrees by dawn it was thought worth running one Moth Trap but enticing only a few more Flies.

With no more than a

MEADOW PIPIT
 up to and including the patch opposite Eco it was novel to see an

AIRBUS A340

in open flight heading into the westerly breeze soon after take off from
Bournemouth International Airport

before shaping up for Malasia and another cargo of PPE, rather than the usual point blank views from the caravan window on take-off.
Again the Irrigation Pond drew a blank but just around the corner the pair of

TEAL

with a very smart male

with his overly coy

Lady Friend had returned to the Gravel Pit.
Met at the gateway to the heath by the seemingly fractious

OLD ENGLISH WHITE STEER

there was very little else to keep us entertained only saved by an

obliging but lone

STONECHAT

The Sun drenched Oaks at the Moth Monitoring Station while searching, without success, for
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

along with this equally static

ROE DEER
along with a brief return to Sunday's visit to a windswept
Longham Lakes

with a selection of the very few Birds we saw there including, as they appear,
Cormorant, Tufted Duck, Little Egret, Black-headed Gull and Great White Egret
before returning to find one of the ever increasing herd of

LLAMA
as a welcoming committee!
We feel a visit to the Archive coming on if things do not buck up!

See My Baby Jive - Wizzard

The day certainly started brightly enough

which lasted until about mid-morning, allowing for some coverage, and bringing with it
a couple of decent returns! Heading in the first instance to the Southern Sector it was plainly clear that there had been a decent fall of Northern Thrushes overnight

with feeding

REDWING

outnumbering their larger close cousins

the tree-bound

FIELDFARE

by about 10 to 1.
Across the whole ofthe northern area, including both ponds, there was nothing in range save a single

GOLDFINCH
which had to be dragged from the archive to make up the numbers.
All of that paled however when reaching the Oaks at the northern paddocks which is usually a
Hot Spot for the

'Tree Mouse'

which on the day was just shimmying up the trees seemingly just waiting for us with

TREECREEPER
joining the 'year list' after an unprecedented 15 days.
Another little sparkler awaited us on the a now

REINDEER LICHEN
peppered Heath as the best

DARTFORD WARBLER
so far this year lingered just long enough.
However, had we been paying attention, the whole year thus far would have palled against
the pristine, adult male

MERLIN
perched on a fence post just a few yards away.
We managed no more than a 10 second glance of the bird that took to the wing flying, at ground level, to its next perch where once again we were a mile too slow.
That event occured twice more but we have to look on the bright side in hope of it staying and maybe we can secure our first video ever of Europe's Smallest Raptor. The image is the closest we could we could find on-line which comes nowhere near the real thing.

WE LIVE IN HOPE!

 D'Yer Get It - Merlin is a Wizzard
Having met Roy Wood (left) a couple of times in his favoured watering hole, The Bull at Repton, Derbyshire, he comes over as a very nice and down to earth bloke!

PS - We did make a stab at the Siberian Chiffchaff at Longham Lakes with weather conditions like the the birds name suggests, absolutely no directions and not a fellow Birder in sight to aid our cause, the attempt on the Needle in a Haystack was quickly abandoned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPSZJ3xH5sA

All Quiet - On All Fronts

 Not a lot about yesterday but what little we had did see showed a degree of quality. Nothing but a handful of Mallard on the main pond along with this rather elegant

MUTE SWAN

with the cupboard then remain bear up to and including the
Gravel Pit.
Just beyond the Sewerage Works Fence Line it is said that it is a hooligan in a beaten up 4 x 4

who is chewing up the margins

while at the same time destroying the pipeline supplying water to the Sheep troughs.
However, and while not condoning the vandalism, this has already attracted a number of

MEADOW PIPITs

to a patch that has traditionally been a feeding ground for wintering

Green Sandpiper.
They have been a long time coming, but on the day we also made contact with the

'first of the year'

DARTFORD WARBLER
maybe as many as half a dozen in total but all in dull plumage, almost totally uncooperative and
showing for no more than a few seconds at a time.
We were rather running out of puff, just half way through the morning, and considered we could be better employed back at Slight Return, but on the way there was another welcome

Turn Up for the Book!

SISKIN
high in the Moors River tree-line brought another addition to the

Year List
on a day that was Short and only you, our valued but again rapidly dwindling audience, can decide if equally Sweet!