Swan Song - Led Zeppelin

 A couple of days adrift, but fortunate given yesterday's foul weather, there has been the occassional report from the Dorset Bird Club website and from fellow enthusiasts, of the 'rare' Swan still visiting Longham Lakes and the adjoining Water Meadows sporadically, and nothing vital to keep us on home turf we thought it best to give it another try.

Hardly through the kissing gate this

GREAT WHITE EGRET
(scarce as only having established themselves in Great Britain in recent years)
flew in and landed almost at our feet and considered a

Good Omen.

Followed by what looked like an agitated

CORMORANT

A couple of high-flying Swans of the wrong flavour seemingly having left their

progeny (this years)
MUTE SWANs
to fend for themselves, while the next contender was beyond belief not ever having seen a

GOLDENEYE
on this reserve, while all else included a brace of fine looking juvenile

GREAT CRESTED GREBE
and a rather malformed

CANADA GOOSE
before arriving at the pathway that overlooks the
Hampreston Water Meadows
where there were thought to be Swans but only represented by the smallest of 'white dots' so distant were they. Using the camera as a telescope there looked to be one rather like the objest of our desire, but if we had walked away then it certainly would not have reached the pages of the notebook
Enter Stage Left My Saviour!

A gentleman with the very best of telescops allowed me a peek to confirm the suspicion of the

WHOOPER SWAN

a resident of the High Arctic during the warmer months and over-wintering across a large scattered area with us just on the westerly limits!

A most welcome end to yet another adventure but not closed until admitting that the images have been plucked from the archive, and more particularly our visit (with Dave Foot) to Suffolk last year.

PS

We almost forgot to add this clips

and a still of what may have been a second
GREAT WHITE EGRET

THANKS FOR TUNING IN!

Guantanamera - The Sandpipers

 Since the First of the Month and by definition the First of Winter when WE managed to coax c3 species of Moth into the traps ("yes we are claiming credit for that") there hasn't been another sniff until now! Nothing new but last night another couple of

DECEMBER MOTHs

paid us a visit before we headed north and paying a visit to this small tract of land

where over the last 3 months mechanical plant and other tools alike have been stowed, the security fencing left of picture, while major maintainance has been underway across a number of the Solar Panel Compounds. Now completed, we did spend a bit of time surveying the area and considered this has to be an ideal location for any self respecting Wading Bird? We didn't have to wait long!
Continuing the rounds at both Ponds there were less Waterfowl than the previous day but still the

IRRESISTABLE c2

STONECHAT
juvenile looking

and just look at those claws!

A young looking male type

with similar appendages and both at the
Sewerage Works

in company with this sun-soaked,

Gaping and Chattering
ROBIN
There was no way we were going to overlook the afore mentioned land on the way back, and immediatly found movement close to one of the puddles, but only a

MEADOW PIPIT
but a little more patience

proved profitable

when finding this

COMMON SANDPIPER

only concerned with feeding

while we took full advantage!

Adrian, the Land Manager and David the RES Maintanance Foreman have untertaken to place these redundant Cable Drums at the edges of the Woodland hopefully to be found useful to nesting or roosting small Birds, which they used to do similarly in other parts of the property!

There was however a Part II to the day which involved something of a
Mini Local Twitch
which we will use as padding for tomorrow's Post in case things dry-up for us!

WE DO HOPE OUR HOST OF NEW READERS ARE ENJOYING THE GIG,
AND INFORMING THEIR FRIENDS!
"MANY, MANY THANKS"

Clutching at Straws - Marillion

 A more than recommended Album, along with Misplaced Childhood, who's title adequately describes the day, with the first straw to be clutched being the Micro Moth

RUSTY DOT PEARL
which is one of only a very few that we can recogise and the only Insect on parade! Up north there were little signs of life with the inanimate being represented by our pal from the

 from the land of the

Land of the Crooked Spire and a Little Mirth
CHESTERFIELD

with yet another 'high freeboard load' of Fence Panels.

The first, and almost last of the

WILD THINGs
(The Trogs)
was this preening

MEADOW PIPIT
before returning once again to the inanimate!

The striking line of

OAK TREES

boardering the Moors River

along with yet another 'faller'.

Along the return track a small flock of
SISKIN

already tucking into the winter groceries.

All else amounted to just this small herd of

ROE DEER

(of course we've heard of Roe Deer) taking advantage of the Maize Stubble at 18-Acre.

Seven Wonders - Fleetwood Mac (The Beat Goes On)

Good Morning All and a suggestion might be that our new regiment of Highly Valued Readers ‘scroll back’ to Sunday, 31 October 2021 or ‘search’ Seven Wonders - Fleetwood Mac - Part One, and follow on subsequent Sunday’s to catch up on our Central American adventures!

Costa Rica cannot claim, as a country, to having the most Species of Birds in the World, a distinction held by Colombia with a total at time of writing of 1878, but at 857 are well placed to claim more species per acre (hectare since we have been forced into going foreign) than any other, especially our own humble 266’ish. It was this fact that was foremost in our minds while crossing the border with Nicaragua as the penultimate Country on our weeks long journey. This took a while as the unmentionable 'C' word was upon us and among others the

FAITHFUL

along with the Three Wise Men hampered our progress a little - Great Buzz!
  but took no more than a few minutes to add the first new Bird to the World Lists the

outragously beautiful and bizarre, at the river crossing on the border,

SUN BITTERN
  (what a start but borrowed images)

Once again Billy got the 2 of us (Jim having had to return to medical duties on the Foating Production Oil Platform Buchan Alpha in the North Sea - bit of a culture shock which would also soon be awaiting us)

the best of accommodation but before even putting our bags down there was an alert to launch the Crash Boat!!

A life lost at sea is not part of the makeup for a Mariner and our new found pal here was soon Returned to the Wild.
  The 2-pronged thrust of our short stay was a no-brainer as priorities were the still active

VULCAN ARENAL
and Wildlife continuing with

GREY-HEADED CHACHALACA
with the hotel able to provide a guide for both if we were happy joining a small group,

Lead on MacDuff but this was to be something extra special. Guides in such countries are usually good at worst, very good like the young boys we employed previously but this chap was off-the-scale, with a technique never even heard of before. Issuing the few of us with an on loan Field Guide

GREEN HERMIT
at each bird found

MASKED DUCK
he would relate the page and plate number

SCARLET TANAGER
so none of us should have difficulty in ID'ing the bird and committing it to the log.

THREE-TOED SLOTH

VIOLACEOUS QUAIL-DOVE
hoardes of

BLACK VULTURE
some even seen on bird-tables.

CAPUCHIN MONKEY

RESPLENDENT QUETZAL
which is not only the national bird of Guatamala but also the monetary unit
and from a down-right beauty to maybe the

direct opposite

MATAMATA TURTLE
and this was also notable for our first ever attempt at Digi-Scoping,
offering the camara up to the telescope with sometimes, after practice, to great effect

BARE-SHANKED SCREECH OWL

GREAT POTOO

GOLDEN-HOODED TANAGER

GIANT ANTEATER

BLACK-FACED SOLITAIRE
also known as the Garden Gate Bird as sounding like a rusty one swinging in the breeze, and to finish this instalment the mighty

GREATER HORNED OWL