Seven Wonders - Fleetwood Mac (The Beat Goes On)

Good Morning All and a suggestion might be that our new regiment of Highly Valued Readers ‘scroll back’ to Sunday, 31 October 2021 or ‘search’ Seven Wonders - Fleetwood Mac - Part One, and follow on subsequent Sunday’s to catch up on our Central American adventures!

Costa Rica cannot claim, as a country, to having the most Species of Birds in the World, a distinction held by Colombia with a total at time of writing of 1878, but at 857 are well placed to claim more species per acre (hectare since we have been forced into going foreign) than any other, especially our own humble 266’ish. It was this fact that was foremost in our minds while crossing the border with Nicaragua as the penultimate Country on our weeks long journey. This took a while as the unmentionable 'C' word was upon us and among others the

FAITHFUL

along with the Three Wise Men hampered our progress a little - Great Buzz!
  but took no more than a few minutes to add the first new Bird to the World Lists the

outragously beautiful and bizarre, at the river crossing on the border,

SUN BITTERN
  (what a start but borrowed images)

Once again Billy got the 2 of us (Jim having had to return to medical duties on the Foating Production Oil Platform Buchan Alpha in the North Sea - bit of a culture shock which would also soon be awaiting us)

the best of accommodation but before even putting our bags down there was an alert to launch the Crash Boat!!

A life lost at sea is not part of the makeup for a Mariner and our new found pal here was soon Returned to the Wild.
  The 2-pronged thrust of our short stay was a no-brainer as priorities were the still active

VULCAN ARENAL
and Wildlife continuing with

GREY-HEADED CHACHALACA
with the hotel able to provide a guide for both if we were happy joining a small group,

Lead on MacDuff but this was to be something extra special. Guides in such countries are usually good at worst, very good like the young boys we employed previously but this chap was off-the-scale, with a technique never even heard of before. Issuing the few of us with an on loan Field Guide

GREEN HERMIT
at each bird found

MASKED DUCK
he would relate the page and plate number

SCARLET TANAGER
so none of us should have difficulty in ID'ing the bird and committing it to the log.

THREE-TOED SLOTH

VIOLACEOUS QUAIL-DOVE
hoardes of

BLACK VULTURE
some even seen on bird-tables.

CAPUCHIN MONKEY

RESPLENDENT QUETZAL
which is not only the national bird of Guatamala but also the monetary unit
and from a down-right beauty to maybe the

direct opposite

MATAMATA TURTLE
and this was also notable for our first ever attempt at Digi-Scoping,
offering the camara up to the telescope with sometimes, after practice, to great effect

BARE-SHANKED SCREECH OWL

GREAT POTOO

GOLDEN-HOODED TANAGER

GIANT ANTEATER

BLACK-FACED SOLITAIRE
also known as the Garden Gate Bird as sounding like a rusty one swinging in the breeze, and to finish this instalment the mighty

GREATER HORNED OWL

Night Owl - Gerry Rafferty

 Without beating about the bush or other dilly-dallying we cut straight to the quick and Ian the Golf Course Green Keeper, a Canny Scot and Wildlifer of the Kyles, Isles and Glens text of Tuesday afternoon. His claim sounded outrageous, so was determined to see the white's of his eyes when requesting a full verbal description of a

LONG-EARED OWL
he found among the Oaks on the Golf Course and watched for a miute or two

without photographic evidence, (the images are borrowed) before it flew off purposfully to the east.
His detail was, as usual even when describing Moths, perfect so was added to the Recording Area List, another 'first' on top of all the others yesterday

SUNRISE

meets the Deep and Crisp and Even

another single MOTH today and a repeat

YELLOW-LINE QUAKER
while the now usual gathering of Corvids (Rooks, Crows et al) along with the odd

HERRING GULL

and

BLACK-HEADED GULL's
awaited the early morning feeding of the Chickens, but amid the gathering something far more unusual a 'scarce', to say the least,

COMMON GULL
which we do hear overhead 'very infrequently' and less so at the plough during that season.

Lingering no more than a minute we did follow it down to the Main Pond but then

"Like All Rare Things - It Was Gone"

Also at Pond-Side what remains of the local family
MUTE SWAN

before heading to the Gravel Pit where there are now c3 pairs of

GADWALL

which as yet

have not been captured in their entirety as the

COOT
continues to linger.

Back down south and there was a noticable increase in the number of

SONG THRUSH
but once again we can only report the continued absence of their close northern cousins

Redwing and Fieldfare.

We do find it somewhat irresistable to pass-by the
Pumpkin Field
without at least one 'click' and where there are estimated to be around 3,000 fruits but the

nearby Cloud in the Sky
had us racing to capture what was estimated as a flock of about

50 new arrival

LAPWING

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A WINTER'S TALE - David Essex

 Sub-Title

‘Winter Drawers On'

If the weather conditions in your part of Dorset don’t appear to coincide with our own it is once again that we have fallen behind by a day or 3 but still the Moths prevail!

RED-GREEN CARPET
and

SILVER Y
  In the wider world, search as we may elsewhere, all of the action was contained along the Sewerage Works fence or in the close environs starting at the former with signs of a

decent 'fall'

of

CHIFFCHAFF

while in the same hedge both sexes of (male above)

GOLCREST
It was a move to the nearby Solar Compound Fence

that a couple of still juvenile looking

or maybe more northern

STONECHAT
were found,
while returning to the Works the Piece de Resistance

FIRECREST

was located, which may have been the putative bird of a few days ago? but whichever
If This Is Winter, Bring It On!