Bird of Prey - Uriah Heep

It was again the piglet like squeals of a

WATER RAIL
from the River Stour, still under the cover of darkness, that kicked the day off and the realisation that we had not given our 'beat' very much attention at all. Not unusual at this time of year in flight

CORMORANTs

have become an early morning feature along with almost daily reports from the
Angling Fraternity
of at least c3 Otters hunting that stretch - we'll have to check it out - but firstly the

Moth Traps  

Comparing with the success reported on Friday’s post, when the overnight was +8°C, the now +10°C should surely improve on that catch but had it not been for

WINTER MOTH
the species would have remained very much the same.

This was in fact the second Moth to be caught this year on 04/01 just after the first, a Chestnut, on New Years Day but hadn't been seen since. In fact there were c16 of them only outnumbered by c30 December Moths.

Additionally, if it falls into the catagory of additions, there were but 2 speices of Birds on the Heath if you forgo the resident and opportunistic Robin and yesderday's Green Woodpecker which were

DUNNOCK

along with a contortionist

COMMON BUZZARD

which was showing off all the moves

but only lingered long enough

for a 10 second video clip

rather than the usual and maximum of 20.
To take a break from the usual habit we then popped over to the
Southern Side of the Recording Area
where we immediately came into contact with c2 species of most interesting
Mammals but not of the Wild kind.

Both

JACOB SHEEP

and

TEXCEL CROSSBREED
have been released again to open but distant pasture but nonetheless always good to see.
Additionally and presumably we also clapped eyes on the long time alone

RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE

which we had considered a long time gone but not to be confussed with the c3 up north.
As we don't commit such things to a log this

BROWN HARE

may well be the First of the Year but our memory span only covers the last 10 minutes.

Once numerous here they too seem to have fallen to the Sword?
Nearing home, on the Main Pond Island was another

GOOSE
of dubious parentage but no doubting the hallmark of the

LITTLE EGRET

braving it no more than a stone's throw from the doorstep of
Slight Return II
From a little further afield a reply to my recent letter to Phil Sterling was answered in part with the fact he had been discussing Snail Kite with a freind, well don't we all, and asking do you have any images - the short answere Yes. As we had them out of the packet we thought it worthwhile to share them with our Readership on the understanding that they ain't going to win no
Lord Litchfield Awards!

A perfect bill for prizing out them there ESCARGOT.

and finally when you wake up with an image like this from Bomber

Herbury Gore and Chesil Beach just West of Weymouth
it's plain sailing from then on - Thanks Again Paul!

A Bird in the Hand is Worth - Part I

Foregoing the Current Crisis

one of, if not ‘the’ best benefit to any Birding Enthusiast, has to come from being a member of the

Portland Bird Observatory

With a subscription of less just £20.00 annually it includes, under normal circumstances, reasonably priced and comfortable accommodation (another ‘world tick’ for most sleeping in a Lighthouse, which I once did just for the craic) including full lounging, cooking, free parking etc but for myself it is ‘free pratique' if there at the right time, to view

Birds Close Up in the Hand.

Another dull day in the field forces our hand just to show a small example across the years of just that.

BARRED WARBLER

YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER

BEAREDED TIT

WHINCHAT

BLUE TIT

SUBALPINE WARBLER

BRAMBLING

SPARROWHAWK

COMMON REDSTART

PIED FLYCATCHER

FIRECREST

PALLAS'S WARBLER

GOLDFINCH

PADDYFIELD WARBLER

LESSER WHITETHROAT

MARSH WARBLER

NIGHTINGALE

MELODIOUS WARBLER
and talk about leaving the best until last!
If my memory serves me

Martin Cade Warden of the Portland Bird Observatory
recieved a telephone call from a lady saying she had found a bird in her garden at
Langton Herring just a few miles to the west.

No one could have predicted the species had they been given 100 gueses each,
'outrageously' a

PALLID SWIFT
It is only 'pure good luck' that puts you in that sort of possotion!

Johnny the Fox - Thin Lizzy

 As the Weather Forecaster so rightly predicted there was a balmy +8°C persisting throughout the night, full cloud cover and on the down-side quiet a lot of rain. Luckily they made something of a blunder with the latter which amounted to very little at all but still every reason to get all of the Moth Traps fired up! Staring through the perspex collar of the first brought on a feeling of contentment as

YELLOW-LINE QUAKER

finalised our urge to catch at least one Macro Moth during each month of the year, but it didn't end there. Among the collective was also a single

DARK CHESTNUT

c2 PINE CARPET

c4 DECEMBER MOTHs

and a
RED-LINE QUAKER
Don't know the season for such things as

STRIPED MILLEPED
but it felt like it shouldn't have been there but most welcome as  both

MINOTAUR BEETLE
and

 DOR BEETLE

were quite expected but it has been a full 9 days since we have caught anything at all.
Bit of a shift around of the Wildfowl on both ponds as a pair of

TUFTED DUCK
seem to have displaced the previous female on the Irrigation Pond, which we rather like to think was the the one now gracing the

Gravel Pit
while a 'spring' of 20+ flighty Teal still remain there.
As far as avians on the Heath were concerned it amounted to no more than a single each of a

KESTREL
in flight

and a

feeding and vocal

GREEN WOODPECKER
No more than a whim took us back to the

Gravel Pit

where a
GREEN SANDPIPER
had moved in but far more likely to have been overlooked in the first instance.
Back to base and another

BROWN RAT
this one far more lively than the dead one of yesterday

 likely getting more bold finding food as the weather cools?
and finally, maybe the unseen yapping

FOX
of yesterday as well - satisfaction all round!