The Bagsy Blog

Wednesday, 13 April 2016

Sowing the Seeds of Love - Tears For Fears

Those of you who read our last Post will remember the huge disappointment associated with a 'slip of the thumb' and not capturing that vital moment of copulation regards the Little Ringed Plovers. Fear not Stout Yeoman, as all will be reveled as we patiently set about redressing the issue! In fact it took no time at all as our arrival at the compound met with the 'calls' of the Plovers followed by stationing ourselves as close as we dare to the broody couple. Within a short few minutes he was on her like a long-dog and this time we were able to record the Happy Event.

A couple of reassuring 'calls' and a check on trajectory,

a final fanning of the tail and puffing of the chest then,

as Marillion so eloquently put in the song

Heart of Lothian

And anarchy smiles on the Royal Mile

and they're waiting on the slyboys, flyboys, wideboys

Rooting, tooting cowboys

Lucky little ladies at the watering holes

They'll score the Friday night goals.

I was born with a Heart of Lothian.

Heart of Lothian Link

PS - from my 5th most favourite album in the World

Misplaced Childhood.

From the Moth Traps there were 2 new additions to the Year List

FROSTED GREEN
and

PALE PINION
plus the

DANCEFLY

EMPIS TRIGAMMA

7-SPOT LADYBIRD
and the amazing Beetle of the

APHODIOUS (species)

half the size of a Garden Pea - beautiful!

After the traps we spent a little time scrabbling under our carefully

placed sheets of metal and roofing felt, to find 2 species of

CENTIPEDE
CRYPTOPS ANOMALANS

HAPLOPHILUS SUBTERRANEUS
along with a nest of

ANTS

now becoming far more active than over the preceding months.
A WORD OF THANKS GOES TO JOHN GIFFORD FOR
HIS VALUED ASSISTANCE IN IDENTIFYING THE ABOVE.

In addition there were a couple of

SLOW WORM

while rest of the day's action was centered on the Moors River, adjacent

Solar Panel Compound, but more particularly Merritown Heath.

LINNET

with most of the males now sporting

Summer Plumage.

Unusual to be grounded along the

Moors River

CORMORANT

and 'the'

GREY HERON

it's still there!

A tentative plan for the day had been to pay a visit to Delph Wood, not

a million miles from here, in hope of seeing the pair of

MANDARIN

that had been seen there lately. In the event we scrubbed round it

and then stumbled on a 'pair' of our own.

The clip only shows a 'brief encounter' which will suffice

as a record shot.

On the Heather c4

COMMON CROSSBILL

were seen, my first there but Dave Foot did have a similar number

during his last visit.

WOODLARK

are not overly common here so any record is cherrished, but at this

time of year it could indicate another chance of breeding here??

Trail Cam Round Up

Unfortunately nothing new but at least one item which we found

most amusing even though it could easily have led to destruction.

Always opportunist the early morning

FOX

and if my memory serves me correctly some of us were once

Young Bucks

perhaps reason then for the behavior of this young

ROE DEER

Brain Damage - Pink Floyd

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Sunday, 10 April 2016

Love Is In the Air - John Paul Young

HEADLINE NEWS

and hot off the press!

Not only did c9

SAND MARTIN

arrive back at the colony yesterday morning but also

commenced excavating nest holes immediately.

Here's wishing them a successful and productive season!

Otherwise, the weather continues 'changeable' with patches of bright and sometimes warm sunshine, being overtaken by heavy downpours of rain/hail accompanied by a fresh and cool wind - but it's an Ill One that doesn't bring some fortune. This started with a rounds of the Moth Traps where this

DOTTED CHESTNUT

making for the second addition to the Recording Area Moth List
this year.
Additions to the 2016 List included this

DOUBLE-STRIPED PUG

along with

PINE BEAUTY
and while

TWIN-SPOTTED QUAKER
has been noted and published already this year
another was thought worthy of a second outing.
Close to the Moth Trap stationed at Janet's Stable

GREEN ALKANET

is in bloom all over the place.

This

GREY HERON
has stood sentinel on the bank of the

Moors River for a full week now, while the erstwhile fairly dowdy

GREEN SANDPIPER

is now sporting

most of its Summer Plumage.

GREEN SANDPIPER
A clip of a pair of

EGYPTIAN GEESE
taken a week ago since when,
while talking of Sentinels, the male

EGYPTIAN GOOSE,

has stood guard hardly moving from this spot
where he has been riveted for all of those 7 days since.
It is thought, and hoped, that she is incubating eggs in some tree hole close by,
so are we destined then to get our first images of Egyptian Goslings?

Take a long look below as these may well be the last

FIELDFARE

and

REDWING
we see until the later months of this year?
We make no apology for showing the full sequence of what has been going on in the
Solar Panel Compound, but do so for the all too short Video Clips, as
the system will only allow for 100 MB (18 seconds) to be uploaded at a time.

The 'pair' of
LITTLE RINGED PLOVER
have been witnessed feeding and cavorting, but what a privilege
to just sit there and watch their prelude to breeding.

Both birds embark on a session of picking the tiniest of pebbles and tossing them, not necessarily into the nest scrape, but in that direction. The presumed female then starts to fashion the scrape with her breast, while putting on a bit of a display and arranging the pebbles to form a nest.

DISPLAYING

Stone Tossing and Nesting

Stoning, Calling, Displaying

A chorus of LINNETs serenade

The Final Chase
When at the most crucial moment my thumb slips from the record button

failing to capture those brief seconds of copulation.
Talk about anti-climax, if you'll excuse the pun,
while losing the plot!!
Love Is In the Air Link

A little intrigue to end with as among

the top most branches of this

Mighty Oak Tree

a Geocatcher Game Piece was spotted by occasionally met friends

Alan, Margret and their dog (name unknown).

The true identity of the piece was not recognised until

expanding the image and an Internet Search did the rest.

GEOCATCHER'S LINK

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Thursday, 7 April 2016

Spirit in the Sky - Doctor and the Medics

It's back to the weekend when the anemometer was whirling like a dervish,
the wind was crying Mary and

RAIN BEARING FRONTS
were streaming our way from the English Channel then, just to make
matter worse,

JIM the MEDIC
decided to drive down from Yorkshire for a few days.

Undoubtedly one of my few firm and loyal friends, it would also be true to say that he is also among the Top 10 finest human beings it has ever been my pleasure to associate with. Like myself Jim is a 'journeyman' World Traveller having shared many a destination alongside me such as South Africa, Belize, Mongolia, Mexico, El Salvador, Japan, Guatemala and Skegness to name but a few. Never failing to seize an opportunity once, when he knew one of my journeys was taking me through Argentina, he E-mailed to say that he and his wife Liz would be in Buenos Aires on a certain date and would there be a chance to meet up? There was, and it would be safe to say, on their behalf as well as my own, that those 4 days were some of the most exciting and enjoyable any of us had ever experienced. Without labouring the point, something should also be said about his professional stance as the Medical Practitioner onboard the Oil Production Platform Buchan Alpha in the North Sea. Kind, compassionate and always understanding, my fondest memory was when consulting him with a severe case of tendinitis, which did in fact bring an end to my career in the Oil Industry, how he pulled out all the stops. Gently examining the shoulder, he asked me to give him some idea of the seriousness of the pain which was described as even preventing me from raising a comb to do my hair! "Not a problem Skipper" he declared, "I'll have you fixed before the end of the day, call in and see me at 18:00 and I'll shave your head"!

Determined to show him as much of Parley Court Farm

and Merritown Heath as possible we started at the

Moth Traps

where, as of late, there had been little to show.