"Rumours" - Fleetwood Mac

 We learn of the 'passing' of keyboard player and songstress

CHRISTINE PERFECT
who we first encountered during the '60 at the very first Bath Blues Festival then performing with STAN WEBB's (centre) CHICKEN SHACK

and on a number of occassions with
FLEETWOOD MAC

named by founder  Peter Green after drummer Mick Fleetwood (bottom right) and bass player John McVie (top left) above Christine who he later married and also standing next to American vocalist Stevie Nicks with fellow yank Lindsay Buckinghammulti instruments and vox (centre).

You brought us ALL a lot of joy and will continue to do so forever R.I.P. 

To continue, just after first light and having thrown a few scraps into the Chicken Shack (no relation) this attracted these c2

opportunist

HERRING GULLs
to the free meal and 'clicked' through the window while in turn we had to cadge another lift up to the Solar Panel Compound as to far a distance to walk for this Ancient Mariner!
Among the Traps we found a single

PINE CARPET

along with the now usual c4

DECEMBER MOTHs 

great to still be catching under such low temperatures and it would seem my Chauffeur was

rightly chuffed to view what is now considered to be the only

RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE
across the patch, strangely atop of a panel and similarly thrilled to view

the as yet small intake of just c2

LAPWING

and familiar to most a single

MOORHEN
while back at base and in line with a couple of other sites across the county a momentary glimps of a 'late' and perched

SWALLOW
(image from archive) on the soon to be stowed away tennis netting!

"Rumours" have it that the Strange Rover could be Back to Base today????

Don't Look Back in Anger - Oasis to Haiti - 2013

 Not unusual at this time of year as there was little to show for our efforts on the day, and still totally reliant on Shanks's Pony, but not wishing to disappoint our valued audience we plucked a few snaps from the archive to warm a chilly Sunday.

The dangers associated with the western end of the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola, namely Haiti, are well documented so there had to be a plan B! This, on landing in Port au Prince was to take a peak around the airport exit, get a feel for the place and then seek advice from within. It certainly seemed civiliased enough despite the squaller but the tall lean young man in the tailoerd suit in the foyer would know more about that. Summoning the local pastor

Ernso Jean Louis 

and also guesthouse owner, the most poweful man on the island outside of the government, things became much more relxed as he drove me through the bedraggled capital city of Port-au-Prince

and the ruins of the

CATHEDRAL

all ravaged by a number of earthquakes,

which didn't seem to have touched the

EUCALYPTUS GUEST HOUSE
but after that intro this now becomes focused on the
WILDLIFE
in the garden and adjoining woodland.

HOODED WARBLER

GREEN HERON

BUTTERFLY?

BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER

SHEPHERDs

AMERICAN KESTREL

VERDIN HUMMINGBIRD
the second smallest bird in the world after
Bee Humingbird an 'endemic' of Cuba!

CHARCOAL BURNER

COMMON YELLOWTHROAT

another
BUTTERFLY

PALMCHAT

A kind word to these local children, "more birds - more tourists, more tourists - more money, more money - better lifestyle"??

OVENBIRD

PARULA WARBLER

 A MOTH
(in one of our traps next please)

HISPANIOLA WOODPECKER

BLACK and WHITE WARBLER

DINING in the DARK

Good Food, Great Company and Decent Beer.

Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom - John Lee Hooker

 Were we commissioned to draw up a list of 100 Bird Species as the next likely addition to our Recording Area List 

the enigmatic

BITTERN
would NOT be included, until yesterday morning that is!

Stood on the doorstep long before daybreak 'as usual' listening for any signs of a dawn Chorus there came c3 quite distinct 'BOOMS' from the banks of the River Stour not 3 hundred yards away.

No points for guessing where we were at viewable daylight and with no Wellies we were soon well

above the

Plimsoll Line

in floodplain water.

While confident enough to add this to our own  personal list there will be  no submission to the Dorset County Bird Recorder
and now we can only hope for another encounter while the images are those taken from our archive!

Waist Deep? Well at least over the tops of the Sea Boots The End of the Line,

but not a bad start to the Winter!
Back to reality, with not a hope of upstaging that, just a single Insect from the c2 still active traps

another welcome

WHITE SPECK

which, being the first Moth for December amounts to us having 'caught' in every month of the year!
followed by a walk along the central path of the Heath via the party gate to find some of the largest

MOLE HILLs
ever encountered, a number of Fungi

BROWN ROLL RIM
and

CEDAR WAXCAP
along with an almost inanimate

KESTREL
while hoping not to bore you with another clip of THE equally motionless yet irresistible

FIELDFARE
(it won't be the last)