Hully Gully - Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs Part I

An unavoidable but by no means unpleasant visit to the County Town (Dorchester) during the week was to have had a bonus side to it, as on such occassions we can always fit in some Off-Piste Birding! Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas as fog-logged from Maiden Castle, just south west of the town, to Sandsfoot Castle, overlooking Portland Harbour some miles further south leaving us rather Piste Off!  

However, with overnight temperatures predicted to hold ‘double figures’, for the rest of the week, there was light at the end of the tunnel, but continuing to read on the rest of the picture showed it was also to be accompanied by heavy rain until Saturday! Only calamitous misfortune will see us ‘absent from our place of duty’, as again we reach for the trusty archive and our equally trusty side-kick Dave Foot on a number of Wild Gull Chases! 

The tale has been told before of that fateful day, 17/03/1988, when stood on the estuary of the     River Tamar at Plymouth Devon with our dear friend Hugo Wood Homer watching a juvinile

ROSS'S GULL
(a denizen of the Arctic with this image having been borrowed to show it in full adult plumange)         It was no more than a casulal quip had me telling him that this bird represented my 37th of the family group of 56 in the World with his reply inspiring me for life! "With your travels and determination is there any reason that one day you might conquer them all"? That particular fete was accomplished from this

Ferry at Incheon / Seoul, capital of South Korea on the 23/02/2012 as

RELECT GULL
finally made up the full pack without photographic evidence which also applied to Ivory Gull and Ross's Gull at that time.

It was accompanied by 'hundreds' of

BLACK-TAILED GULLs

but we digress.
Along with Dave we venture about as far north as it is possible in 2020 where on the east coast

we viewed a

CASPIAN GULL

the lower of the 2 above.

We have also seen a number of the American residents such as

RING-BILLED GULL
(this adult at Gosport in Hampshire)

and even took my Yorky Shipmate
Jim the Medic who was a little disappointed as thought we had said

"We;re going to see some Girls"

at just 'half price + fuel, to see this more juvenile bird at

Poole Park in Dorset.
As far as another Yank is concerned we enjoyed  both juvenile

BONAPARTE:S GULL

at Longham Lakes, not a 10 minutes drive from home, while a couple of years later

a most obliging adult

adult turned up at the

same location. 

A Part II will follow should we have another dull day!

Night Owl - Gerry Rafferty (not for the first time)

 As the wind persists up to gusts of 20 knots+ forcing pulses of heavy rain inland and river levels get back to what has been the norm, a bit of a strange start to the day as at 04:30 a

TAWNY OWL
welcomed the day with not the usual succession of hoots but the occassional prolonged and loud single outburst. Followed at daybreak by a

LITTLE EGRET,
flying west about along the course of the River Stour, given the prevailing conditions and the time of year not at all a bad start to the day, but it was about to get better!

A brief encounter with the Owner, he considered there to be fewer

COMMON SNIPE

at Mash, the most westerly field on the property, which is viewed every day as part of our rounds

without having added this Little Lady / Gent to the Year List.
In fact something of a record breaker as never before have we added Jack Snipe to the list before its bulkier cousin. Bringing up the 75th species of the year for the Recording Area put a spring in the step, while returning to the nearby horse paddocks to find signs of maturity

with someof the

BLACK-HEADED GULLs

already showing signs of 'black' breeding plumage.
With still no sings of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on the Heath we had to content ourself with both

GREEN WOODPECKER

and

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER

seen there while

resiteing the traps

in anticipation of another productive Moth season.
It may have been the low level

HELICOPTER

out of Bournemouth International, or even myself, that flushed the tiniest female

SPARROWHAWK
from cover which landed so far away not to allow even a half decent shot at full zoom.

One we caught earlier as

Returning to the Archive.
Meanwhile the tugs were buisily clearing away the last of the unwanted debris at the

Newly Established

Wide Open Spaces

The irresistable

BELTED GALLOWAYs
are always worthy of a Click and a Clip as we headed for the final destination of the day the

MOORS RIVER

where

TEAL

have re-established themselves with

Green Woodpecker
just audible on both clips. 

"Thanks For Joining Us and Passing on the Link for yet another hit increase"

Lullaby of Birdland - Ella Fitzgerald

It can only be down to the efforts of our 'Much Valued Readership' that yesterday's hit count rocketed into the 2012 zone, almost the same as the year, for which we thank you wholeheartedly!

Not only Valued but also Astute, as it is doubtful any of you will over-look the fact that the the words Barrel, Scraping or Bottom 

appear anywhere, save as above, across todays Post although they would fit perfectly!

 With the Wildlife situation out there being just about as bleak as it can get we are forced to embark on something of a 'filler'. With tongue in cheek and a little mirth this Post might just qualify as the most 'riveting' yet, so hang on to something solid as we present the

Story of Our Duvet Cover!

With more indentations than the Turin Shroud and more Zzzzzzzzzz's than the Unknown Warrior finally the old one wrapped its hand in, but needed to be replaced by a similarly patterned one, with mythical, imaginary or real Birds that is. Seeking the advice of our Senior Wildlife Apprentice and superb Upholstress Chloe, not only was she full of bright ideas but within 2 days had replaced it by way of a 'gift'! "Now, wot about the rickety Strange Rover Chloe"!

The new one was more about Birds that do exist but for comparison from the old this is surely a

SUN CONURE
(which must have been on the ale as will not pose upright)

a spectacular small Parrot of South America which might have neen seen while transiting
French Guiana had we kept our wits about us (dipped).
The nearest we can get

with this is (and we know not why they keep defaulting)

LILAC-BREASTED ROLLER
(Kilamanjaro - Tanzania)

and with a little imagination

GALAH
(Australia)
as for the new one and less imaginary

SCARLET MACAW

(Guatamala)
and finally you will doubtlessly be pleased to know

SULPHUR-CRESTED COCKATOO

(Australia)
Riveting, you can come out from under the duvet now and maybe a good idea to throw a bucket of water over yourselves!!
This kicking here inside makes me leave you behind 

 No more under the 'quilt' to keep you warm 

Your sister I was born you must lose me like an arrow

Shot into the killer storm

The Kick Inside - Kate Bush