Hummingbird B.B. King / Les Paul

 With yet another +6°C on the temperature gauge it was still more about frustration than reality that we flashed up the Moth Traps again on Wednesday night. Thursday dawned as though it were mid-Spring rather than mid-Winter and stayed that way all day, with a 'blank' from the traps, but the effort seemed worth it when we heard from our friend John Gifford in Weymouth, that he had recorded a

HUMMINGBIRD HAWK-MOTH

in his garden

which is one of the few 'day-time flying' macro Moths.
"like the man said, you ain't going to catch owt if you don't flash the traps up"

At full daylight with frost still deep and crisp and even nipping the finger-tips, there came just a moment of magic with none avian fliers we have been hoping to capture for a couple of weeks or more since the newly liveried

DRAKEN EUROPE
trainer jets took over from the previous

COBHAMs
which we feel are the same aircraft as the company were taken over recently.

WOOD PIGEON
in the first rays of the Sun and then a thin veneer of ice now almost covering the surface of the

with not a Waterfowl to be seen which looked to have moved to the more open waters of the

TUFTED DUCK
a male was thought to be a new arrival

making an acquanitance with the
Little Grebes and other residents as well

but keeping more than a wings-length from the

hunting

GREY HERON

which will take a pop at just about anything while both

MOORHEN and COOT
remain resident.
Knowing 3 regular breeding sites across the Recording Area for the deminutive

Tree Mouse

more correctly the

TREECREEPER
it was thought, as usual, just a matter of time before it too joined the ranks of
First's for the Year.

Still a couple of

EGYPTIAN GEESE

along the course of the

MOORS RIVER
but seemingly gone, or in hiding, we have seen nothing of the Canada's lately.
It feels like we could do with a not to distant away-day which we will further consider over the   Week End - Av a Gudun'

Common People - Pulp

 Chill, Still and not much of a Thrill once again we are consigned to what we could find, highlighted by today's headline! However, once that 

Current Bun
starts to clip the horizen, clearing the overnight frost, it's all systems go!

Mist on the River Stour provided its own charm while we watched both

HERRING GULLs

and

ROOKs

alike trying to sustain themselves, in the neigbouring horse paddock, for another day.
Heading south a

MERLIN

of the none Avian kind clattered overhead while again, across more horse paddocks,

we found the first signs of
SPRING

as a few among the crowd of feeding

BLACK-HEADED GULLs
were already showing traces of their dark top-knots.
A small representation of

HOUSE SPARROW
which must amout to 1 or 200 across the board here with more numerous

WOOD PIGEON
soaking up the first rays of the day.

Further north it was aparent that the Irrigation Pond had been abandoned by the
WATERFOWL

as part frozen but not so the
Gravel Pit
where

a few

GADWALL

and
TEAL

male with female above still remain but no signs of the Little Grebes on the day.

Tales of Phileas Fogg

 With another heavy

overnight

GROUND FROST
we did undertake our usual rounds but the further we got the more dence became the

FOG!

limiting the number of Bird species seen but for the first time ever allowing us time and space to publish them all on a single post but in no particular order. From the garden the usual array of

HOUSE SPARROW

WOOD PIGEON

ROBIN

BLACKBIRD
and

GREAT TIT
Down at the Southern Paddocks the flock of

CHAFFINCH
remains at a considered +150 strong so maybe why this

KESTREL
was showing interest? while at the local Pond all that could be seen / found were a pair of

MUTE SWANs
along with an ever increasing number of overwintering

MALLARD 

and the stalwart

MOORHENs
Further afield a blank was drawn at the ever increasingly icebound

Irrigation Pond
while next door at the more open waters of the

Gravel Pit

things remained much the same, but at least there were Birds! with the

COOT

3 x LITTLE GREBE
along with c3 pairs of

GADWALL

and a single
TEAL
but far less expected a brief visit from a passing

HERRING GULL
while along the bridleway another visitor from outer space joined the still marooned

Number 6
but this time a

SAUSAGE
less than 50 yards away, and while had it not been for the humble

WREN
and a

CARRION CROW
the Sewearge Works Fenceline would have been devoid, maybe due the the heavy repair works having started there yesterday?
THAT'S NATURE FOR YOU, UNPREDICTABLE AS EVER!