Friday, 9 June 2017

Night Owl - Gerry Rafferty

OK, not quite an Owl (you'll see) but a GREAT, GREAT song!
Number 18 on my own personal Top Fifty of all time
Best Ever Hit Single Recordings
with the outstanding Mr Rafferty the only artiste to
feature 'twice' in that listing with
Baker Street (of course) occupying the number 12 slot.
Night comes down and finds you alone,
in a space and time of your own.
Lost in dreams in a world full of shadows.



Down the street the neon light shines,
offering refuge and hope to the blind.
Who stumble in with no thought of tomorrow!



Yes I get lonely when the sun gets low,
and I end up looking for some winner goal.
Yes I should know better but I can’t say no
Oh no no no, no no, no no!
A nice little fillip for the start of the new month, as it would seem someone (or two, or maybe more) did humour us and distribute our Blog Link far and wide resulting in well over 700 ‘hits’ yesterday. Our ‘stool-pigeons’ informed us that one of the likely candidates may have been a certain Wine’ing William and the other seemingly would not look a Gifford Horse in the Mouth? You’re both on the ‘hit list’ until proven innocent!
On yet another blustery day we raced around the traps in the hope 
of missing the rain, which we did, and to find 
New for the Year
RIVULET
 COMMON WHITE WAVE
 CYPRESS CARPET
 and
HEART and CLUB
It must be a long and laborious climb to get up the side of one of our
Moth Traps, negotiate the lip at the top before dropping down the inside. 
However, we do occasionally find
BLACK SLUG
within which are not noted for their Lynford Christie like attributes!
Directly after that it was a case of driving over to the Heath as quickly as possible
to meet some new arrivals
 OLD ENGLISH GOATS
We didn't want any of them to be put out
so each in turn
were videoed being released into their new home.
Fine Looking Beasts
 While there it was noticed that some of the
 GUELDER ROSE
is in bloom but that the
LOCUST TREE
a little nakedly doesn't look to be doing quite as well this year??
On the way back, a moment we have been waiting for ever since our first
visit here back in 2005,
 "Yes we could have done better but we can't say no".
 a
'point-blank encounter' 
with a
NIGHTJAR
(not a Night Owl) 
 Flushed from directly below our feet it just silently lopped off to a 
barbed-wire fence, just a matter of a few yards away.
Unfortunately, no time to alter camera settings as just these 3 shots were 
all it would allow before changing position for the shelter of a Silver Birch
where, best part obscured, it did allow for a couple of video clips!
 On the very same fence line, which separates the Moor from
Bournemouth International Airport,
 a number of
 SWALLOWs
 were titivating their plumage
On the way back to Slight Return II it was thought worthy of another
look at the Gravel Pit where the
LAPWING
 had been thought to be behaving a little strangely and
there was no 'sitting' bird.
 On closer inspection it could be seen that the perpetually 'calling'
adult seemed to have an extra leg sticking out from its breast, which could only mean one thing.
 She/He was shielding c4 recently hatched youngsters
We never did get them all together but nonetheless
 GREAT
 to see that they had made it into the World at all
and we will now be keeping a close eye on them.
Back at Parley Pond late morning and there was another
Strange'ish Visitation
of a small party of
 (once a skein and now a gaggle)
GREYLAG GEESE
one in seemingly aggressive mood?
Not at all a common place for then to be, given the vehicular and human traffic,
but there they were!
In the name of qualifying today's headline, Tawny Owls have started to become vocal overnight!
EntryPageviews
United States
1007
United Kingdom
270
Italy
37
Estonia
21
Brazil
20
Germany
17
Ireland
13
China
12
New Zealand
10
Canada
9

Wednesday, 7 June 2017

Silver Machine - Hawkwind


To use the technical vernacular, the weather over recent nights has been
Up and Down like the Proverbial Fiddler's Elbow!
Firstly high winds followed by gentle zephyr, then heavy downpours
followed by silence from the farmers previously moaning about the lack of rain,
but most disturbing for us ‘ere Moth'ers has been overnight temperatures
travelling the glass from +17°C to a low of +6°C.
 However, there have been a few additions to the Year List.
 SYCAMORE
 BLOTCHED EMERALD
 PEARLY UNDERWING

 ELEPHANT HAWK-MOTH
SILVER GROUND CARPET
Later in the day there was a strange sort of clattering coming from the bow section of the
Strange Rover
which was reason to visit the garage at the 
Industrial Estate which is part of Bournemouth International Airport. 
Luckily nothing more than a stone in one of the front wheels,
which they removed at 'no charge', and it gave opportunity to explore an area
that abuts our own Recording Area.
We chronicled the construction of this 'hanger size' workshop through these pages
but this is the first time we had ever seen the front and the name
ALTITUDE
The opposite view of the tributary
and the hard-standing on the Heath where we often
Stand and Stare!
BIRD'S-FOOT TREFOIL
WHITE BLUEBELLS
 Back to Base and a call from the Golf Club

saying that they had found an injured bird.
 This
BLACK-HEADED GULL
 did have a broken left wing
 but looked in too good a condition and very lively to simply kill it!
 Instead, it was committed to the
River Stour
with its fortunes not being known.
 You get used to aircraft noise being so near to the runway
 that you can often identify the aircraft on sound alone, but not this
 ROYAL NAVY HAWK JET
 which had done a 'dummy run' and alerted us to its presence, the sound being alien.

 SMALL TREE MALLOW
Our first
 SMALL HEATH BUTTERFLY
of the year and once again the Heath is covered in the
 lairs of
FUNNEL SPIDERS
EntryPageviews
United States
1030
United Kingdom
319
Italy
36
Germany
30
China
15
Ireland
13
Canada
9
Estonia
9
Australia
7
France
6