Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty

Having featured the Jerry Rafferty composition

Night Owl 
on yesterday's Post, it somehow feels fitting to kick off today with the other classic book-end. Being a Baker myself (surname that is) this compossition is close to my heart and as competent as the 'Owl' although having no significance with the text.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo6aKnRnBxM
A very quiet day yesterday with the Moth Traps once again producing little
but the Siskins are still at it in the trees. 
A dower looking duet are

 FEATHERED GOTHIC

 and

 PINION-STREAKED SNOUT
one of, if not the, smallest Macro Moth on the GB List.
 A small bunch of juvenile Starlings started things off close to home
and yet another example of the intricate plummage of these young birds.

 STARLINGs

 especially when they

look like this!
With Reptiles having been all but absent this year we have somewhat forsaken the

 COVERSs
but did find one representative of the genre 

 SMOOTH SNAKE

followed by some abandoned

 EARTHWORK's
relating to Ants.
 There followed something of a game of Cat and Mouse

 as this

 LONG-TAILED WOOD MOUSE

 took a little bit of coaxing

from under one of the covers.
It would seem that it is only

 RYANAIR
that has a firm foothold at
Bournemouth International Airport

 as far as sheduled flights are concerned as the only other carrier
Tui seems to be sporadic at the very best!
Otherewise, there was but a single representative of 3 of the most common
Birds of the Heath

 MEADOW PIPIT

 DARTFORD WARBLER

STONECHAT
which have all been absent for quite a few days now, and
none wishing to linger for a bit of footage!

 Back to Base and waiting in the margins was the returning

 RACING PIGEON

 sometimes referred to as

Homing Pigeons

 which in this instance doesn't apply as this is not its home
even though it might think it is given the number of visits?

Night Owl - Gerry Rafferty

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzZcNsPdS9c

It looked glum and by and large it was 

 GLUM

but then again peppered with the odd bright interval.

The first of these was a trio of smart looking Moths but none making for an addition to the

Year List - but we still live in hope.

 BLOOD-VEIN

 LILAC BEAUTY

along with

 SMALL BLOOD-VEIN

with nothing else to hold us in the more

Southern Reaches

 heading north we added yet another lady from the

Eddie Stobbart Collection

but the traps there, at their very best, only showed small gatherings of

HAWTHORN SHIELDBUGS

As the sky cleared a small collection of both

 SAND MARTIN

mostly juveniles but not from our patch

 and mostly adult

 SWALLOWs

 formed medium size feeding flocks around the large 

Beech and Oak

but mainly the

APPLE TREE

at the gateway to the Heath.

With the fruit now fully ripe and doubtless an attraction to numerous

INSECTS

for your average 'passage migrant' this was the place to be!

Another common representative was a

 lone

but

 vocal

 WREN

 while far more scarce,

 only a single Spring record so far across 2020, a

SPOTTED FLYCATCHER

was doing what they do best

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
You stumble in with no thought of tomorrow.

Yes, I get a little lonely when the sun gets low
And I end looking for somewhere to go
Yes, I should know better but I can't say no.

Oh no no no
No no no no!

Early evening, and having just flashed up the

Moth Traps

but hampered by the tree-line along the Moors River we did our best

to capture this

BARN OWL

in hunting mode looking like it had already been successful.
A 'coincidence', if you should happen to believe in such things, as 2 years
to this very day, 07/09/2018
we were delighted to experience our very first of this species
'In the Hand'!

In almost the same spot, up ahead was seen an unfamiliar 'white blob'
in the long grass which turned out to be this

BARN OWL
with just a degree of facial damage around the area of the bill.
What we would have liked to bring to you was the palava it took to catch it!
Armed with the ever-ready Butterfly net at first swipe it managed to escape to the
other side of the Solar Panel Compound fence seding me scurrying to struggle with the combination padlock. Having got close once again it then stumbled back from whence it came and 
that was only round one.

The lights are low and the Muzak is loud
You watch yourself as you play to the crowd
One more face in a palace of mirrors.

One more drink, you're sailing away
One more dream but it's looking ok
One more time to watch the flow of the river.

Yes, I get a little lonely when the sun gets low
And I end looking for somewhere to go
Yes, I should know better but I can't say no.

Oh no no no


As can be seen this handsome creature was secured

and after the photo-shoot carted off to the

Ringwood, Hampshire Owl Sanctuary
where, after great care and attention, it died overnight
having given me yet another fantastic 
'Birding Experience'!
The Electric Light Orchestra 
sum this up

Living Thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEh3RJ5apIo

and what a beautiful ensemblé

of musicians and vocalists!

How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us - REM

It is an odd day indeed when I do not play, and sing, this sensationally haunting track of music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmez0MAdBbU

usually en-route to flashing up the moth traps in the evening.

And There Will Your Heart Be Also……..

from the magical album

ELIZIUM
by 

The Fields of the Nephilim

It is said that they undertake a 'baking powder battle' before

taking to the stage for authenticity, making it look as though they have just

galloped across a prairie or two!

It was, on the first incarnation of the Bagsy Blog, a permanent header

to every post until someone/thing in Cyber Space decided to clear the link!

Even now you will need to copy and paste the link above it but feel sure it will be worth the effort?

Front-Man Carl McCoy 

who also uses a series of contact lenses, including 'mirrored',

cPeter Gabriel - Genesis, for effect.

Like the Valkyrie of Norse legend, the handmaiden’s of the Gods,

would gather the bodies of fallen warriors and transport them to

Valhalla their own form of Heaven, so the Goths also have theirs! 

The Nephilim are the handmaiden’s and Elizium their Paradise!

Having even made a promise to myself that, WHEN we win that £1M Premium Bond,

we will hire the Weymouth Pavilion and invite BOTH of our friends along to enjoy a riotous evening of soft drinks and crisps and enjoy the riveting sounds of both

Prog Rock Southampton band IQ - performing Dark Matter

along with the Goths of the Fields as above! 

Now where this little series of images came from within the laptop is not

known, but inspires me to return to my many wonderful and memorable trips to the

US of A

Having travelled to each of the 50 State, across the board the people have been found to be

Kind, Hospitable, Generous, Welcoming and somtimes a little Naive

so why not we start at the wonderful, wonderful

 PATCHES PUB

in the bijou northern Florida town of

Panama City Beach

 Now we're talking

Gloria, Rachel and Marion

 intoducing me to 2 other of their favoured friends

Tallahassee Beer and

 VODKA JELLO's - Hic!

 Solo Guitarist Briony just happened to know the licks of my 

Party Piece - Badge by Cream

Thinkin' 'bout the times you drove in my car.
Thinkin' that I might have drove you too far.
And I'm thinkin' 'bout the love that you laid on my table.

This was familiar also.

 followed by a guided tour.

 If all of this had not been hospitallity enough the collective then offered me a

 One Million Dollar Banknote for just 500 Bucks

 but being a past master at bargaining I walked way with it for just $200 - YES!

I told you not to wander 'round in the dark.
I told you 'bout the swans, that they live in the park.
Then I told you 'bout our kid, now he's married to Mabel.

 AMERICAN ROBIN

a very occassional visitor to our shores, I have seen but one on

This Side of the Pond

06/01/2004 - Tresco, Isles of Scilly.

Then, in no particular order:-

Custer's Last Tree-line

LITTLE BIG HORN

Montana

known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the

Battle of the Greasy Grass.

 MONARCH BUTTERFLY
The home of

 OMAHA, NEBRASKA

was far more interesting for the seemingly endless trail of

Bronze Sculptures

When the wagons leave the city for the forest and further on
Painted wagons of the morning dusty roads where they have gone
Sometimes travelling through the darkness met the summer coming home
Fallen faces by the wayside looked as if they might have known

Oh the sun was in their eyes and the desert was dry
In the country town where the laughter sounds

Oh the dancing and the singing
Oh the music when they played
Oh the fires that they started
Oh the girls with no regret

Sometimes they found it, sometimes they kept it
Often lost it along the way
Fought each other to possess it often died in sight of day

Oh the sun was in their eyes - etc

Theme From an Imaginary Western - Mountain

Written by Jack Bruce - post Cream and Felix Pappalardi - ex Mountain bassist and co-vocalist (pre Bruce)  before his wife shot him to death!

On the Road Again - Canned Heat
we headed onward to the

 GRAND CANYON

 alive with
ROCK SQUIRRELs

 and overlooking the mighty

COLORADO RIVER

 LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE

 STELLA'S JAY

Finally, and 'Phewwww' we hear you say, an introduction to the

 VANCE FAMILY
who were met on a trail near Flagstaff, Arizona and just asked for some directions!
As is quite usual, or so I have found, they immediately took me 
under their wings, escorted me all around the nearby Nature Reserve 
where betwen us we found among many others:-

HAIRY WOODPECKER

 WHITE-TAILED DEER

 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER

 formally more wider known as
MYRTLE WARBLER
which is a name given to one of the 4 sub-species.

 RED-HEADED WOODPECKER
and

GREAT BLUE HERON
but that was not the end of it.

Inviting me home for dinner with Lucy then introducing me to her
Mother and Father while Andrew made my acquaintance with their 
3 adopted children previously orphans. What a story and what warm, loving 
and careing people and having just picked up a Million Bucks for next to nothing
it was a great pleasure just to leave them a token!  

IF I COULD JUST MAKE ONE WISH RIGHT NOW
it would be that
THEY WERE READING THIS - UNFORGETABLE!