Beyond the Horizon - Bob Dylan Part I

 As introduction to yet another proposed 3-part Sunday exposé of what is intended to be, a pictorial of Wildlife at Sea, we lean heavily on the magical lyrics of Led Zeppelin to paint the picture. 

Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face, and stars that fill my dreams. I'm a traveller of both time and space, to be where I have been. To sit with elders of the gentle race, "this world is seldom seen". They talk of days for which they sit and wait, "ALL will be revealed"!  

Of course restricted to Crew Members and Associates only, as far as Wildlife is concerned it is a Forsaken Place but with instinct so strong to cross for instance the North Sea and even Oceans we find a whole new world of Migrants, almost in alphabetical order.

At 08:00 precisely on Saturday 13th May 2017
Deck Foreman Ricky (The Hammer) Grant 
 depressed the PURPLE BUTTON onboard the

Semi-Submersible Oil Production Platform

BUCHAN ALPHA 

 anchored 120 miles North East of Aberdeen in the North Sea, effectively bringing to an end a 37 year long struggle to produce oil from a water depth of 131 metres, with no fewer than 150,000,000 Barrels of Brent Crude being produced over that time span! 

(or, in approximate terms, 4.1 million barrels per year at a day rate of 11,106 barrels)

 Neatly, and almost in Alpha-Betical Order, this compossision was one part of my extracurricular duties, to be presented to Conservation Groups and other Interested Parties shore-sides, with the other being Author and Producer of the satirical monthly magazine

‘The Buchan Ear’ 

which captured the foibles and/or mistakes made by ALL and ANY crew members, and visitors alike, from the Rig Manager to the lowliest Dung Beetle - myself included, with never any shortage of libellous material!

ATLANTIC GREY SEAL

often watch from our Sub-Sea Camaras at maximun deapth catching the abundant Coal Fish.

ARCTIC TERN

picked up by one of the Roughnecks, nurtured and sent on its way.

BARNACLE GOOSE
never any shortage of this species and no fear of humans as is the case ashore.

BLACK GUILLEMOT
considered a magical shot.

BLACKBIRD.

BLACKCAP
in the hand and

DITTO 

(soixante neuf)

BLACK-HEADED GULL

catching, killing and swallowing whole an unlucky Brambling,

a far luckier
  BRAMBLING

BRAMBLING
partially albino.

CARRION CROW
not often thought of as migrants.

Yes, there were 'thousands' of Casualties which before the arrival of Bird Flu
were all sent to the laboritory in Aberdeen, with a well oiled system between Ourselves, Bond and Bristow Helicopters not even having to manifest them for transpotation, in the name of Science!

CHIFFCHAFF
this individual being captured with a 6 inch length of what could only be described as 'cotton' down its throat. Undoubtedly we extended its life!

COALFISH or POOR MANS COD
would occassionally come to the suface on warm and sunny days.

COLLARED DOVE
another seat taken on the 'chopper.

COMMON SCOTER
suprisingly only very occassional visitors.

CONVOLVULUS HAWK-MOTH
not alone in its appearance, but did lead to a cameo part for myself in a BBC TV nature programme.

CROSSBILL
(female)

and some time later a male which was at first sighting a Heart Stopper! No doubt about the family group, but at distance looking to have 'white wing-bars' it could only be a 'rare'

TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL
on capture the 'white' was seen to be paint, looked good for a minute or two! 

While the weather picture looks none to cleaver at least you have the Bagsy Blog to cling to!!

HERE ENDETH PART ONE!

Away Day Part III

 With continuing failing memory, those of the same vintage will know only to well, there was a brief encounter with a passing

RED KITE
before arriving at

with a jauty welcome from the Warden and

our first batch of

CATKINs
for the year, and where there was some repetition of Bird species but mostly with far better views such as

PINTAIL

feeding with Wigeon in the foreground

and at much

Closer Quarters

The

almost

mandatory

MARSH HARRIER

Along the dyke the 'squeals' of an unseen

WATER RAIL

almost blanked out by what is believed to be the

DEVON AIR AMBULANCE

before reaching my own finest hour. Thus far Dave had spotted or heard everything 'first', "no point in having a Gilly and doing all the work yourself " as alerting me to a 'booming' (their song)

BITTERN

(these 2 'stills' from the archive for clarity)

but it was me, me, me

who first spotted it

In Flight

Every Duffer has His Day!

From the same vantage point close to the

WATER MILL

stunning views of

GREAT WHITE EGRET

almost bringing our ditty

to an end but not before making mention of all the lovely people we met en-route.

Goodbye to Glastonbury Tor and the company of King Arthur and Guinevre, the Nature Reserves and the Wildlife, but again more particularly the Beautiful People!

Away Day - Part II

 On leaving Grey Lake a somewhat better view of

COMMON SNIPE

with a welcome but brief

bonus appearance of a

CETTI'S WARBLER
neither of which, although reasonably common, have not yet graced home turf.
En-Route to

this

COMMON BUZZARD

was considered worthy of a

Click 'n' a Clip
before the 'high jinx' started while scanning this

Field of Sheep 

and spotting one in distress unable to get back on its trotters so step foreward

His Dave-ship, with much farming experience in his youth, to right the matter knowing personally if I saw him bearing down on me I'd be up and off like a shot!
From the same spot we got our first sighting of

GLASTONBURY TOR
steeped in Arthorian myth and legend and thought we might pop over and have a cuppa with he, Guinevere and his old dad Uther Pendragon later?
The next encounter was with c3

CATTLE EGRET

stoping just briefly

to

capture them but

completely upstage just 10 minutes later as looking into this farmyard

to find another posing with a

BOVINE
Finally, for this leg of the visit at least, another 'targeted' semi-rarity in the form of a

BEAN GOOSE

at great distance which looked fine through a telescope

but not to clever otherwise but maybe these 2 from the archive

might help?

With Part III hopefully with you sooner rather than later?
THANKS for TUNING IN