Silence Is Golden - The Tremeloes

Weather wise, a day of 2 halves with a 'full fleece' chill a.m. followed by a 'redders' afternoon!

was once again the destination, mainly for ease
of access, and the chart is for the reader to follow my track.

Parking centre bottom there is little or no walking required to reach
TERN HIDE

but I could already hear the chattering from within. One of my real 'pet hates', it seems to be more of a hobby of so many 'birders' to recount every detail of every Spadger they have ever seen totally oblivious that

this is likely deterring any birds from approaching the hide!

PLEASE 'SHUT UP'!
Offering a whispered "good morning" I was asked if I could
identify a distant Wader, which was my first bird of the day, a

RUFF
and a Year Tick at that.
Despite the hint that it, along with 2 Common Sandpipers and a
Dunlin, might come closer if 'we' kept quiet had no effect so I left.

There was now a choice of which hide to visit next and in the event decided on neither. At the Y in the path I bore right and continued to a new 'kissing gate', not seen before, and allowing access to the northern end of

MOCKBEGGAR LAKE
top right on the map.

At first glance
GOLDEN-RINGED DRAGONFLY
seemed to be the only thing here with wings

but a 'splash' further along drew attention to this feeding

COMMON TERN

Here I met a most pleasant and mild mannered chap who told me he had not been 'birding' long and was having trouble with both eye-sight and binoculars. Pointing out the Tern and having a brief chat we parted company, me staying at the same location. Moments later and from a distance he started to beckon me and on arrival asked if Little Egret has a 'yellow' bill? "Not likely it doesn't, so have you seen an Egret with that colour bill?" He pointed to a shingle bank mid-stream where stood 'the'

GREAT WHITE EGRET

a regular visitor here

but a bird I have only located once during all of my own visits.

It maybe fair to say that this recent colonist to our shores should be encounter a little more often after successfully breeding at Ham Wall, Somerset this year.

A GREY HERON sprang from the waters edge and obligingly

perched, giving some idea of size comparison.
The Egret was also a First for the Year!

As we stood there, a Kingfisher flew in perching on the same bush, another Common Sandpiper was spotted (or should that read a Spotted Sandpiper was Common?) as Little Grebe, Gadwall, Teal and Mallard also emerged from the reeds. I'd like to thank the gentleman concerned for both the bird and company.

A wayside flower, on the way to the Lapwing Hide, is thought to be
WILD RADISH

This is the small promontory, shown on the map, outside of the hide
today attracting a good number of birds including

EGYPTIAN GEESE
Lesser Black-backed Gull, Mute Swan, Coot, Tufted Duck,
Carrion Crow, Black-headed Gull, Mallard, Teal, Starling and
Gadwall.

COPPER UNDERWING MOTH
was found inside the hide while the

view south shows the Tern Hide and Horses kept to keep
vegetation at bay.

MIGRANT HAWKER

COMMON CENTAURY

and SPECKLED WOOD BUTTERFLY were
seen on the way back,

while this SPIDER was found later at Harbins.

Further to the Great White Egret report above I received correspondence from my friend John (Never Miss a Trick) Gifford pointing out,

Hi Paul,

This is 'THE' Blashford Lake Great-white Egret, the rings on the left leg are a positive ID. I have checked back into Blashford's archives and found an old picture of it, just to be certain. As ever my THANKS go to John, a most astute character.

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Obscured By Clouds - Pink Floyd

Despite the drop in temperature and the lack of Insects in the Moth trap, it was a fine enough day for a wander around Longham Lake just a 5 minutes drive from the farm. While bird numbers there remain similar to my last visit it was surprising to see just how many of the dozens of young Tufted Duck had survived - seemingly most of them.

The 2 'scenic' shots on the Post today were rather more to show
the dramatic Cloud Cover than anything else.

TUFTED DUCK
remained distant but good to see such numbers of young.

A lot closer to hand what is considered to be an immature

BLACK DARTER

Probably more interesting than the Birds today were the Trees, 

Bushes, Insects and other Plant Life.

HOLLY
along with everything else was adorned with 'fruit'.

ELDER

CLOUDED YELLOW
my second of the year.

ALDER
not to be confused with Elder above, and

ASH
positively bowing under the weight of 'seed pods'.

COMMON BLUE DAMSELFLY

GREAT CRESTED GREBE

COMMON BLUE BUTTERFLY
on Trefoil Sp?

GREAT REEDMACE

SOFT RUSH (Juncus effusu)

The invasive Pond Weed
Crassula Helmsii

JOINTED RUSH (Juncus articulatus)
The identifications of the above Plants are attributed to my
Learned Friend and 'no' I'm not getting into Latin!

More 'drama' in the Sky
before continuing on to the River Avon (Hampshire that is,
not Stratford and Bill the Bard).

All there included
c27 EGYPTIAN GEESE

far outnumbered by an estimated 200
GREYLAG GEESE
which had been flushed from their 'out of sight' position in
an adjacent field.

Kind regards -- Chris

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Strange Phenomena - Kate Bush

We really have been operating on a 'wing and a preyer' over the past few days, but a brief visit to Portland put paid to all of that. My Gud Ol' Mate the Secret Lemonade Drinker not only managed to mend the power supply to my favoured lap-top, but also found a program that cleared out all the thousands of 'junk' photos lying in a hidden file. Seems each time a photograph is processed despite its final resting place, even when the Recycle Bin is cleared, a copy remains in the system. This had reduced the memory of this particular machine at one stage to less than 1Gb, we now have 40Gb. On the strength of that and knowing he is not 'let loose' all that often I decided to take him, as a treat and Thank You, to Ferry Bridge for the first couple of hours of the falling tide.  

On the way we noted a small party of mixed
GREAT BLACK-BACKED and HERRING GULLS

Given the 'phase',

the first 10% of the New Moon,
it was 'top of springs' at the Bridge.
Soon it will be the phase of the moon
when people tune in.
Every girl knows about the punctual blues,
But who's to know the power behind our moves?

Water, water everywhere!
with just a dozen or so 'small' Gulls on one of the only
remaining islands.

First in sight was this

LITTLE EGRET

followed by one of the
GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULLs
from back along the Chesil Beach and a

juvenile HERRING GULL
but we should have paid earlier attention to the
aforementioned island.

There among the Black-headed Gulls were c4
MEDITERRANEAN GULLs.

Distracted briefly by 2 DIVERS returning from a 'dip' in
West Bay, as we looked back the Waders had started to arrive.

DUNLIN
were followed by this

superbly marked

juvenile

MEDITERRANEAN GULL
that landed directly in front of us.

DUNLIN
a little closer, a small flock of

STARLINGS

and a larger Wader some distance away.

BAR-TAILED GODWIT
was a Year Tick for me!

RINGED PLOVER

The last vestiges of
THRIFT
which in the Spring 'carpets' much of this area.

Dunlinn numbers reached over 50

while this individual was noticed sporting a 'ring' on the left leg.

We did put in a search for a

TURNSTONE
but turned in a 'blank'. However, this one was waiting for us as we
returned to the car park.

Yet again we end on a musical note referring back to today's headline. This 'track' is from the superb

 KICK INSIDE

one of only about a dozen albums I consider 'flawless'.

here's a 'taster'. Music and lyrics to make love by!

Strange Phenomena

Soon it will be the phase of the moon when people tune in.
Every girl knows about the punctual blues,
But who's to know the power behind our moves?
A day of coincidence with the radio,
And a word that won't go away.
We know what they're all going to say.
"G" arrives--"Funny, had a feeling he was on his way!"
We raise our hats to the strange phenomena.
Soul-birds of a feather flock together.
We raise our hats to the hand a-moulding us.
Sure 'nuff, he has the answer, He has the answer
He has the answer, be-duh-be-duh-be-duh-be-duh...
"Om mani padme, Om mani padme,
Om mani padme hum."
You pick up a paper, you read a name.
You go out. It turns up again and again.
You bump into a friend you haven't seen for a long time,
Then into another you only thought about last night.
You hear your sister calling for you,
But you don't know where from.
You know there's something wrong,
But you don't want to believe in a premonition.
We raise our hats to the strange phenomena.
Soul-birds of a feather flock together.
We raise our hats to the hand a-moulding us.
Sure 'nuff, he has the answer,
He has the answer
"Om mani padme hum." 

 The mantra in Tibetan with the six syllables coloured.

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