You Never See 'Em All Part I

 An 04:00 start on Saturday to undertake the 6 hours drive to Yorkshire in pursuit of a trio of rare birds and thankfully in company of my friend Dave Foot once again.

Beaten to the punch by the 'Birding Goths' it would seem (would loved to have met these people) at a gloomy Saint Aiden's Nature Reseve in Leeds, the only thing that was more gloomy was the lack of a recent sighting, on the day, of a

LONG-TOED STINT
which had been present for a few days prior to our arrival and only the 5th to have been recorded in Great Britain!

To get the rest of the Bad News out of the way, that is the way it stayed not even getting a glimps, or a rumour from others, but there was still a few things of interest not least this massive

COAL SHOVEL
which, maybe inadvertantly, had formed this

Nature Reserve in the first place.

BUCKET
Previously an open-cast Coal Mine with some forward looking person/s seeing it turned over to nature once exhausted of the commodity.

Other Birds of Interest included

the jaunty and numerous

BEARDED TIT
or

BEARDED REEDLING

along with

BLACK-TAILED GODWIT

with

PART II
to come tomorrow.

Close to the Edge - YES

 Along with a continuingly dwindling audiance the dwindle has also streached to the Moth Traps with the best we could muster from a count of 30  Insects of 8 species were

WHITE-POINT
and

ANGLE SHADES
It now looks very likely that the traps will shortly be consigned to the Winter Stowage and The Bagsy Blog to the Scrap Heap!

AWAY THIS WEEKED! 

 

We though we had bublished this Notice to Mariners before our departure but seemingly not!! We are now back from the Great Adventure with hopes of being back in the saddle within the next few days, please cut us some slack - Bagsy.

Lightning Strikes Twice

 Under an almost

Mackerel Sky 

the day started with a mirror image of yesterday with a/the

HERALD

clinging on doggedly to the Starnge Rover while a/the

MERVEILLE du JOUR
was perched on one of the trap baffles.
(surely the same Insects as before?)

Otherwise, no more than a larva

A Hoverfly species along with plenty of

BOX TREE MOTHs

and "Oh, that's what they get up to as soon as your back is turned"
LUNAR UNDERWING
With nothing on the Irrigation Pond we moved next door to find the now semi-resident cob

MUTE SWAN
had moved station along with a most welcome and first of the Autumn trio of

female

juvenile or moulting smart looking male and a full blown male

TEAL

and where the juvenile
LITTLE GREBE

appears to be totally self sufficient and the parent birds absent.

A sparkling array of juvenile

STARLINGs

in the Solar Panel Compound

"are you looking at me Jimmy"
along with c2,

yes 2,

RAVENs
It has been a long time since we have seen such a thing!
Finally, something we did not want to see a domestic

CAT

catching, killing and eating a Wild Creature.
Dependant on which authority you follow it is estimated that such animals kill between
27 MILLION and 55 MILLION
Wild Birds in the UK alone annually - Google it!!!!

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

 The most spectacular and pristine representation of a

HERALD
we have ever seen was followed in quick succession by the expected,

but by no means taken for granted,

MERVEILLE du JOUR

what Pink Floyd would undoubtedly describe as
'A Fine Pair'

After the early morning duties of feeding the newly acquires 'battery' refugees 

and their favoured friends, but only at feeding time the
Guineafowl
it was off to the Heath hopefully to find more movement but confined to the tarmack only the

Airport Fire Brigade
going through their excercises while noting

yet another

Eagle had Landed
(AIRBUS)

With little more than this insect excavation,

a few juvenile
PUFFBALLs

and a lonely looking
MEADOW PIPIT (singular)
maybe it's no wonder our audience is disappearing!

At long last on the banks of the

Gravel Pit
this sparkling

GREY WAGTAIL
still in sparkling regalia

was keeping the recently displaced

COOT

company while a couple of

SWALLOWs

were hawking Insects overhead, while we stood hoping for better to come!