When Will I See You Again - The Three Degrees

The Sooner the Better LINK

Well, at last some good news on the weather front as at long last we have broken our duck, and on Friday experienced a completely 'precipitation free day'! It was even better yesterday but that is a Post which will have to wait for another time. As we go to press, once again the rain is hammering down so the 'dry spell' didn't last! However, also on the down side, for me personally at least.

Our final 'GOODBYE' visit to the York's at Kingston on Thames coincided neatly with Bernard delivering their car to Southampton Docks to be transported, by ship, back to Australia, so we were able to return him to base. The rendezvous could not have been any more pin-point and the slight delay for him to finalise the paperwork allowed us to add

OYSTERCATCHER
and

FERAL PIGEON
(if you go for such things)
to the Year List
while on route we spotted

COOT
and

TUFTED DUCK
on the reservoirs on the outskirts of London.

so here they are,  The Family York (pre 2014)

 LISA and BERNARD
a.k.a. Mummy and Daddy

 A visit to Kingston on Thames with Hugh and Janet

 THREE LITTLE BOYS
had

 THREE LITTLE TOYS

 This is what is going to be miss the most. Not just passing on my
limited knowledge
(which would take all of a nano-second) but bringing
to my Grandchildren an Awareness of what is around them.
Mum and Dad however will do that job adequately,
no worries about that!

 DAYTIME STORIES

 BEDTIME STORIES
Then on 30/04/2014
came the miracle of a little girl who like her Mum was
Born in England

 ELIZABETH LOUISE YORK

 already a BEAUTY

 and still growing.

4 Little Christmas Crackers.

 ALL the FUN of the FAIR
but by far the best moment for me was when

 FRED and ALEX
came to stay at Slight Return II when we were able to do a little

MOTHING

 TRACTORING

 ARCHERY

TWITCHING

and then to bed after a hard day in the field.
Pity it couldn't have been all 4, but who knows what the future holds??????
The first wave of Lisa, Fred, Alex and Elizabeth could be 'in the air'
as we speak, but as Benny has to have one more session of
chemotherapy before he is allowed to return to Australia he will
return with his Dad in the near future.
Bon Voyage!

It must be thought almost an impossibility, but we rather thought
we were going to miss the

RING-NECKED PARAKEETS

It is appropriate that Australia graces our 'Top Ten'

on this particular day as "our Loss will be your Gain"!

Take care of those Beautiful Little Bundles PLEASE!

Entry	Pageviews
United Kingdom	350
United States	199
Germany	196
Russia	192
France	29
Estonia	20
Canada	12
Ukraine	10
Australia	8
New Zealand	8

Night Owl - Gerry Rafferty

It came very close yesterday to being the first completely 'precipitation free' day of the year, let down only by a passing shower soon after midnight and a small amount of hail mid-afternoon. On the face of it, we could crack it today - so fingers crossed! Although we put a few hours in the field by and large it came to naught except maybe for an inordinate number of

 ROBINs
c15 on Merritown Heath alone and while not counted a likely 50
in total across the rest of the Recording Area.

 Add to that a hunting

CORMORANT
on Parley Pond,

maybe an imagined increase in the number of
GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER
and a pair of

MALLARD
on the Irrigation Pond that was you're lot!
OR WAS IT?

Why 'Dusk Patrols' have only ever been the preserve of Spring and Summer is not really known, maybe the thought of a roast dinner and a drop of decent Claret keep us firmly in our little warm metal box, but late yesterday afternoon was the exception. At 16:00 we cut across to Merritown Heath with just 2 thoughts in mind Woodcock and Owls and of the latter with such ideal habitat here why not think big and and focus on Short-eared Owl? On arrival at the favoured vantage point, where most of the Moor is open to view, a

 KESTREL
was still hunting and having a deal of success catching 2 small Rodents
as we sat there. A

 PHEASANT
crossed the track as a total of c13

 CARRION CROWs
flew off to roost as did a number of

 HERRING GULL
It was 16:55 that we presume the Kestrel wrapped its hand it but if
it could see us we sure couldn't see it.

 GREEN SANDPIPER
let out a series of calls appearing to be heading for the new
Balancing Pond where they have been recorded before, which is
when 2 of the Crows returned and appeared to be acting strangely.
They were, in fact they were mobbing a

 SHORT-EARED OWL

the first ever 'knowingly' recorded on our patch. It flew directly in
front of the car and watched to fly across the Heath and more or less
over the gate onto Parley Court Farm.
A RESULT? - NOT HALF!

 On the way back to Parley territory c2
TAWNY OWLs
were here from opposing directions and so onward to the Phase III
Solar Panel Compound where in recent days the night security guard
had claimed to have seen

BARN OWL

As reported, there one was caught in the car headlights quartering the grassland within the compound, but quickly disappeared from view, but nonetheless constitutes my first sighting within the Recording Area. While a personal claim was made back in 2008 of a 'calling' bird, anecdotal evidence points to this Owl having bred on the farm for many years prior to that. It is hoped this might be a revival.

This has been an extra Post to report a most exciting 90 minutes here, with all of the images from Kestrel down, having been lifted from the archive simply for illustration. The Barn Owl image comes from Wikipedia (we have never been lucky enough!)

Entry	Pageviews
United Kingdom	327
Russia	220
United States	206
Germany	164
France	24
Estonia	18
Canada	12
Ukraine	10
New Zealand	7
Australia	6

CHANGES - David Bowie

The Bowie track my 2 daughters cut their teeth on!
I DIDN'T LIKE DAVID BOWIE!

 Maybe that's because 

'I WAS DAVID BOWIE'

an image of how I used to wander around Weymouth in 1973, just

A INSANE LADD.

FAR, FAR 'BEYOND' GENIUS

(wot says you ShIela? Wouldn't mind a pint for every time we've
done Bowie around your dinner table)

 A little earlier 1963 at the start of the 

MOD REVOLUTION

complete with almond toed high heeled boots.

THESE IMAGES HAVE BEEN CROPPED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT!

With my aunt, 1964, who never did quite know what to make of me!
It's a God awful small affair to the girl with the mousey hair
But her mummy is yelling, "No!" and her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seats with the clearest view and she's hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a sadd'ning bore for she's lived it ten times or more
she could spit in the eyes of fools as they ask her to focus on..........

Anyroad, let's get on with it.

We feel sure the Readership must be fed up with stories of floods
and more particularly images of the River Stour?

but this isn't the River Stour, this is the
5th Fairway at the Parley Golf Club.
With wandering around the Southern part of the farm a little restricted
it was decided to take a look off piste and a morning visit to

and for no other reason than it was at arms length

WOOD PIGEON
kicked off the walk.
With both National and Dorset Bird Lists for 2016 still a little deplete
it was certain (?) there would be a few additions to both here?

A good start with

GREAT CRESTED GREBE

but we had already noted 

COOT
at the Irrigation Pond. It was at the west end of the cross path that
Cetti's Warbler was added, but it or they were having none of it
as the camera was made ready.

FOX

was a nice addition to the Mammal List although there are those who
wouldn't agree,

but it takes all sorts!

BLUE TIT
got it more out of frustration for lack of subject matter but then

at the other end of the Lake things perked up a little with

 POCHARD

 male

 female
SHOVELER

 and a 'fly-in'

LAPWING

indicating those already on the ground.

at the last knockings here one of the few
COMMON GULL

obligingly moved within camera range before

returning to base, there was a message to say that the c2 Strange Looking Ducks were back in Janet's parents paddock, so it was about-turn and back in the direction from which we'd just come! These 2 birds have been visiting the area frequently over the past week, and on description we had a good idea of what they might be. They were, as thought,

 EGYPTIAN GEESE

but a little more than that for these usually

ultra-nervous Wildfowl

were no further from the main road than 20 feet (albeit screened by
mature trees and hedges)

and ventured to within 100 yards of the Farmhouse.

What has happened to the video clips in recent days

is not known, and while we have visited a Forum or two

we are no nearer to resolving the matter. If there is a
Computer Whiz Kid out there who could let us know
how to resolve this we would be most pleased to hear from you at

captbagsy@btinternet.com

While there

NUTHATCH
was added to the County List, a

COAL TIT
just made for a pleasant but all too brief sight and

JAY
was added to the Year List with both Lists now standing at 61.

Also in their garden was their Christmas Present, a sculpture of the
2 of them by Grandson Lawrence.
?SCARECROWS?

Just a few frisky
HORSES

to end.
SAILORS, fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the lawman beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
IS THERE LIFE ON MARS?

Entry	Pageviews
United Kingdom	342
United States	210
Germany	193
Russia	85
France	34
Estonia	20
Canada	12
New Zealand	9
China	7
Australia	6