AMERICA - West Side Story

 With absolutely NOTHING doing locally we once again reach for the archive and take you on an odyssey across a number of trips to North America also including a few of Caribbean nations over a period of years starting in 

Central Park - New York City with my then lady friend Sue
where, according to their Bird line, both this

SOLITARY SANDPIPER

(chatting up the local Plod)
and

CONNECTICUT WARBLER
had been in residence for a number of weeks and on the same extensive trip

MACGILLVRAY'S WARBLER

Yosemite National Park

was a bird we had never even heard of let alone seen

and denied of its existance there by the Ranger when shown the images to aid ID!
Days later in Stanley Park, Vancouver a lady jogger alerted us to the presence of a fine looking

BALD EAGLE
then finding our own

RACOON
before more mammals such as

AMERICAN BISON
and

WOLVERINE
across the full length of the

 and

PURPLE FINCH - Burwash Landing

On other trips as the endemic name suggests

CUBAN TODY
but even after a second visit still no sign of the smallest bird in the World
Bee Hummingbird but did catch up with the second smallest

VERVAIN HUMMINGBIRD
 across both contries of Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic) with the 'borrowed' image above

being far more representative than our own sorry effort - but they all count!
2 widespread Warblers that are surely on most 'birders' Top Ten List are the outrageously marked

BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER
along with

BLACK and WHITE WARBLER

both seen to best effect in the parks and gardens of
Kingston, Jamaica while my 'Birding Pal' (a fine website and organisation) was well rewarded for finding this fine, fine endemic on the island of the same name

GUADELOUPE WOODPECKER

WESTERN TANAGER
was also seen there and elsewhere but it was our final species that caused the headache in
Death Valley, California, Distinctive enough it took a full 15 minutes for the penny to drop and

ROADRUNNER
to dawn on me, maybe an attendant

COYOTE
might have helped?

Rock 'n' Roll Trivia

Dennis Eugene McCrohan, also known by the stage name Mars Bonfire, is a Canadian rock musician and songwriter, best known for writing the hit song "Born to Be Wild" for Steppenwolf and later to feature as music for the classic film Easy Rider.

The band was named after the novel Der Steppenwolf by German author Hermann Hesse, who was born in the Black Forest town of Calw, which is Germanic for Coyote.

Never on a Sunday - Petula Clark

"Oh No Not Again"

SUNDAY SPECIAL

WALLCREEPER

Our Own

Modest Efforts - Bulgaria 2007

 along with extract from the fine tomb that is

4 years too early

for this kid!

Otherwise, with the early morning

TAWNY OWL
back in business at least there was something early to get us started which unfortunately didn't follow through at the

MOTH TRAPS

where ony BEETLEs were in evidence - there's a Poem there.
Some one came knocking at my wee, small door;
Someone came knocking; I'm sure-sure-sure;
I listened, I opened, I looked to left and right,
But nought there was a stirring in the still dark night;

Only the busy beetle tap-tapping in the wall,
Only from the forest the screech-owl's call,
Only the cricket whistling while the dewdrops fall,
So I know not who came knocking,
At all, at all, at all.

Some One by Walter de la Mare

 Across the 2 northerly ponds the female Tufted Duck, a few Teal and the regular trio of Little Grebe remain but an addition to the clan came by way of this smart

GREY WAGTAIL

seemingly

finding

plenty

to eat and if you are doing the same over breakfast at this time you may choose to
look away until you are finished!

with feathers on the fence-line and

feathers on the deck

it was 2 Big Boys as done it

and then

flew away.
The carcass of the hapless Wood Pigeon had gone by the time of our return
so likely they got their breakfast as well as our readers?
All on the Heath amounted to no more than a single

MISTLE THRUSH

along with a

constantly gaping

BLACKBIRD

along with a

ROE DEER

a string of eyecatching

BRACKET FUNGI
and ever blooming

GORSE
which is one of very few plants that can be seen in flower across every month of the year.
Not a single Bird or anything else living, except for myself, in the
Solar Panel Compound
but at the

LATE BRONZE AGE TUMULI

BROCK the BADGER

footprints 'n' all.

had been most industrious as had

Mr and Mrs MOLE
directly outside of Slight Return but symetrically in line.

The picture just 10 minutes later - but still raining but dried up nicely before daylight!