FROZEN (Adapted from the Snow Queen)

 The main thrust of yesterday's outing were c3 small birds that should have been consigned to the Year List before now, but nothing can be guarunteed in this game! For the first 2 the small stand of

OAK TREEs

within and adjacent to the the now frozen

NORTHERN HORSE PADOCKs
with the first, a very vocal

NUTHATCH

consigned to the log before even shutting down main engines, while a short time later at the

Sewerage Works first a female and then a male

FIRECREST
were coaxed out of the brambles, while the third hopeful will have to wait for another day.
Within the seemingly even more frozen

Solar Panel Compound
(earth stood hard as iron water like a stone)

just a single
LAPWING

turning our thoughts back to the Spring youngsters

and the final sighting of

3 or 4

MEADOW PIPITs

Hear Comes the Flood - Peter Gabriel

A Glow in the Sky and another Frost on the Ground it was a
 day with very little to report (no wonder the Blog is Dying on it's Feet) with our first sighting at the new Lorry Park which was pedicted but hoped not to manifest itself we found the

first signs of litter in line with the lane leading to the Eco Works also knee deep in it!

A now compleatly frozen surface to the

Irrigation Pond
and again frozen padlocks at the Solar panel Compound within were found just c2

MISTLE THRUSH

both seemingly still showing signes of juvenile plumage?

as the Floodplain increases within attacting the first ever 'landed'

MUTE SWAN
at the site

along with a similarly 'first' male

TUFTED DUCK
maybe the same now absent individual from the
Gravel Pit????

Ice Cold in Alex - Christopher Landon

 

With the first -3° now behind us all we can be sure of is that there will be more to come before

winters end. The bout of cold was enough to stop the tumblers turning on the padlocks that secure the Solar Panel Gates so somewhat lucky that the resident

RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE

(centre)

was close enough to 'snap' through the bars. Also within one the irresistable

HERRING GULLs
in close-up and at altitude a

BRITSH AIRWAYS AIRLINER
which we seen very few of even though they were once rumour as joining the fleet at 

Bournemouth International
While we caught

Torville & Dean
on the now totally iced over Irrigation Pond the Gravel Pit still had open water supporting the likes of

COOT (left) TUFTED DUCK (right) and one of c2 LITTLE GREBE (centre)
while on the Moors Flood-plain a couple of further additions to the Year List

a female accompanied by a male

WIGEON
and a lone male

SHOVELER
and a far less gloomy picture

on our return to base.

Through the Trees - The Hansome Family

 The first vestiges of what might be considered a Dawn Chorus met our ears as we swung out of the Hammock, provided in turn by c2

ROBINs
and a backing track from one of the local and most raucous

KESTREL
No signs of life within the now single Moth Trap, and not even any rain water, but looking along the line of security cameras

we found the return of the first

RAVEN
of the year at a favoured perch but with nothing else to delay us, not even the Red-legges Partridge we left to investigate the cacophony of a Waterfowl Chorus coming from what was previously the Moors River which has now become an even wider spread Flood Plain. First to show through the dense barrier of trees something of a rare visitor to our 'patch' a male

GOOSANDER
not only a first for the year, but the first for a very long time!

The 'honking' came long before we clapped eyes on a decent number of

GREYLAG GEESE
which some readers may remember as the 'first species of the year' while the full beat of the watercourse is difficult enough to survey

through the trees with a number of the

SILVER BIRCHES
now adorned by deformed growths known as

WITCHES BROOMSTICKs

Finally, we decided that it might be 3rd time lucky if we made another seach of  Bounemouth International Airport Buisiness Park where stands the offices / workshops of

HONEYWELL
which bring back memorise as being the providers of the Station Keeping Equipment on all 3 of the Floating Semi-Submecible Oil Rigs on which we served. Also within was the object of our desire and yet another addition to the Year List

a couple of grounded (usually on the rooftops)

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLs

7 Drunken Nights - The Dubliners

 While we are not exactly snowed under by new additions to the Bird Year List it was a little sad that we forgot to add yesterday's

GREENFINCH
by virtue of the fact that it was at the same perch, singing its head off, the following morning.

Otherwise, things were laboriously slow with a pair of 

MALLARD
cosying up on the float at the Irrigation Pond while it can now be seen that the

PUDDLE of MUD
is a flatterned area of road shavings.

Better news at the Gravel Pit where our second addition to the Year List awaited with 2 x

COMMON SNIPE
feeding 'line astern'.

Across the Southern Paddocks the

FIELDFARE
remain feeding in treble figures, while the

CORMORANT

on the Main Pond was about as obliging as it could be.
Of all the Bird Species recorded on the day the most prolific were an unusual number of

WRENs

which led us to producing this short cameo on the subject from over the years.
Nest

within one of the Horse Feeding Stations

Rescued from a Ladies Boudoir

JUVENILE

Nest in the Garage
and finally something of a novelty, these

WAXWINGs
are not DEAD but DRUNK from the alchohol within the fruits they had been eating, we have no idea of the origins of the image?