All Quiet - On All Fronts

 Not a lot about yesterday but what little we had did see showed a degree of quality. Nothing but a handful of Mallard on the main pond along with this rather elegant

MUTE SWAN

with the cupboard then remain bear up to and including the
Gravel Pit.
Just beyond the Sewerage Works Fence Line it is said that it is a hooligan in a beaten up 4 x 4

who is chewing up the margins

while at the same time destroying the pipeline supplying water to the Sheep troughs.
However, and while not condoning the vandalism, this has already attracted a number of

MEADOW PIPITs

to a patch that has traditionally been a feeding ground for wintering

Green Sandpiper.
They have been a long time coming, but on the day we also made contact with the

'first of the year'

DARTFORD WARBLER
maybe as many as half a dozen in total but all in dull plumage, almost totally uncooperative and
showing for no more than a few seconds at a time.
We were rather running out of puff, just half way through the morning, and considered we could be better employed back at Slight Return, but on the way there was another welcome

Turn Up for the Book!

SISKIN
high in the Moors River tree-line brought another addition to the

Year List
on a day that was Short and only you, our valued but again rapidly dwindling audience, can decide if equally Sweet!

No Regrets - Edith Piaf (The Little Sparrow)

 Having considered the 04:30 Green Woodpecker of recent days to have been an early riser it was easily outflanked by yesterday's

ROBIN
flashing up at 02:30 and continuing none stop until daybreak. It was also at that later hour that we noted the seemingly ever present sentinal

WOOD PIGEON
maintaining a watchful eye over the 'still'

Sitting Bird in the nearby Holm Oak.
It was as we turned to feed the Chickens and gather the eggs that we heard the all too unfamiliar chirruping of what turned out to be c2 in flight

TREE SPARROWs
which continued directly overhead and appeared to land in the nearby

Ash Trees
at the stables. A follow-up search was made without success hence the images lifted from the archive. As a matter of interest these 2 represented only the 4th and 5th individuals seen here since records began in 2013. From there on it was left to the 'commoners' to make up the numbers starting at the Main Pond where the lone

MOORHEN

looked every bit like one of last seasons youngsters while further north,
opposite the Eco Recycling Works in fact, it looked every bit as though there had been some progress with the new

MARSHLAND
(we wish)
which had attracted a numbers of

both

PIED WAGTAIL

and

MEADOW PIPIT

in equal numbers.
With a total 'blank' across the Heath and ditto at the first visit to the Ponds

we returned to find just c2

LITTLE GREBE
on the Gravel Pit, the more strikingly marked bird either absent or in hiding,
along with a satellite

LONG-TAILED TIT

having abandoned the main foraging flock.

Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien, qu'on m'a fait
Ni le mal, tout ça m'est bien égal

A Relatively Dull Day at the Office

    Despite the overnight temperature remaining in low double figures the much hoped for early year Hat Trick

did not materialise, although if our friend Bomber down there in Weymouth had been a little more generous with his well won

CHESTNUT
we would have done so!

However, the gloomy, rainy, windy day started once again with a 'vocalist', always most welcome,

which continued singing well into daylight hours when we were able to catch just a little of the

delightful

strains

of a

none too distant

SONG THRUSH
and how welcome on such a day would it have been had this

Mutant Goose
been a thoroughbred Greylag to add to the Year List?
Similarly afflicted are the

MUSCOVY DUCKs

which we have recorded 'wild' in South America.

While it was considered hardly worth the effort, the

STARLING
High Wire Dance Routine
was captured but also thought worthy of a little backing from the

archive of a

Bird in the Hand!
While there was no connection, it was a fact that the further north we got
the worse the weather became but did once again crack-off a couple of shots of

variably plumaged

PIED WAGTAIL
soon to be joined by a

GREY WAGTAIL

flushed by a van

before the video clip could be fully completed.
With the weather now prohibitve and all other areas seemingly devoid
we might have added this final note a week ago when there was a

large influx of

WRENs

but it sometimes takes us

CODGERS

time to do so!

Anything is Better Than Nothing

 A more than acceptable early start to the day as at 04:30 the yaffling of at least one, but maybe 2,

GREEN WOODPECKER
could be heard from the direction of the Farm Yard while at first light

it was just a 'single' that graced the tennis court a regular feeding ground
and a First for the Year. 

With the overnight air temperature just maintaining double figures again there were most welcome returnes from the Moth Traps

as within the first was this

MINOTAUR BEETLE

while in the other our second Macro of the year a single

DECEMBER MOTH

It was soon found that the Pochard had also abandoned ship with just about the only single representative at the Main Pond being this mist-soaked

ROOK
With all other watercorses still ice bound we felt lucky in finding another First for the Year

CANADA GEESE

taking the 'high ground' at the Gravel Pit and

later along the course of the Moors River and while none of these really qualified as 'good finds', despite their addition, we then arrived at a birdless Moor.

Given that, our attention then turned to the
  Guardians of the Moth Traps (firstly Belted Galloway and Shetland)

as they disappeared into the rapidly clearing day

but we should not leave the

OLD ENGLISH WHITE
out of the frame.
Suspicions of a Dartford Warbler en-route to the
Rare Breeds Goat Enclosure

were abandoned due to lack of conclusive evidence, but will save until another day,

where all were, unusually, within range and view.

FRENCH ALPINE
(singular)

BAGOT
(x 5)

OLD ENGLISH
(x 3)

WE WILL BE OUT THERE AGAIN SHORTLY LOOKING FOR IMPROVEMENT
meanwhile
STAY SAFE!