Four Ducks on a Pond - William Allingham

Four ducks on a pond, a grass bank beyond.

The blue sky of Spring, white clouds on the wing.

What a little thing, to remember with tears, to remember for years!

 Across the board and in the name of co-ordination all Moth records submitted to the County Recorder are dated from the evening when traps are flashed up, meaning that last night’s poor effort, had there been any Insects at all, would have been submitted / posted as the last day of January. By definition then, had we ‘caught’ last night then the result would have been posted tomorrow. Clear as mud when you are such a wordsmith! However, despite the half-dozen tiny Flies and a Money Spider the day took off in fine fashion with the finding of the first

SNOWDROPS

swaying to the backing vocals of the local

SONG THRUSH
Little by way of change down the southern reaches where again we watch small clusters of Redwing, Fieldfare and mixed Finches, but what did come as something of a surprise were a brace of in-flight

EGYPTIAN GEESE,
by no meas a regular sight in the area, which most obligingly landed in the neighbours field.
Apart from another 'flier' the 07:50

EASYJET

our course was set for more northerly climes and more particularly the Irrigation Pond which on the day was singularly the only site of any action.

What would eventually turn out to be the
Magic Moment of the Day, while videoing this Coot we thought we had caught the 'song' of a Little Grebe but all fell quiet very quickly - OK when you can just hear it on this vid! Continuing to capture

the likes of female

TEAL

and her likely suitor - what a Belter!
Additionally, both the

COOT

along with c3 pairs of

GADWALL

with the female's totally Lens Shy on the day!
Determined to get a little more vocals footage we sat it out to first of all achieve

DIVING NOW

Close to Full Adult Plumage
(we are presuming they are of last years breeding stock?)

and finally in
Full Voice and hope to bring you Breeding next.

A Trick of the Tail - Genesis

After a none to shoddy start to the year we break into February with high hopes particularly as the forecasters tell of 'Double Figures' again tonight!

 I tell the

TALE
of a jealous male and a maid of sweet sixteen.
She was blonde and dumb and she lived with her mum,
on the fringe of Bethnal Green.
She worked all week for a rich old Greek for her dad was on the dole.
And her one delight was a Friday night
when she had a little rock and roll.
To my rit-fall-dall to my ritty-fall dall,
to my itty-bitty-fall-dall-day.

CLOUDS at DAWN

and whether jet black or fluffy white we just love 'em, what a way to start any day and you should just be able to see them moving on the vid.
Down south the Birds were all but absent save for a noticable influx of

BLUE TIT

and

GREAT TIT

alike, all over the place and if you want the very best chance of spotting a

PEREGRINE
around here then the National Grid is the best place but So Far, So Bad - Nada!
Up north altogether a different matter as we considered if the

COMMON SANDPIPER

on the same acreage was the returning bird reported from 07/12/2021

my money would say it is

but truth is "we'll never know" but does it matter when again we add

yet another species to the

2022 List.
Additionally, at the same location we found more

GREAT TIT

at least half a dozen over a wider area

along with a couple of

particularly eye catching

GREY WAGTAIL
while at the Irrigation Pond things remain bare while the Gravel Pit still supports all
5 female? Shoveler

along with males of

TEAL
and

GADWALL
as everything along the course of the Moors River came in combinations of c4

CANADA GEESE

CORMORANTs

EGYPTIAN GEESE

but only a single

 GREY HERON 

and end with a
Trick of the Tail

Then one fine day in the month of May she found her big romance.
He was dark and sleek with a scar on his cheek
and a pair of drainpipe pants.
And she thought, "With you, I could be so true
through all the years to come."

For she loved the gay abandoned way he chewed his chewing gum!

Paddy Roberts - 1959

Spider and I - Brian Eno (ex Roxy Music)

 Nothing to do with anxiety (oh my nose has just grown 2 inches) anything above +6°C is worthy of flashing up the 2 homeward Moth Traps as was the case on the night. Unfortunately, the Insects had other ideas with the traps remaining bare while this close by

SPIDER

performed for us at daybreak but there was a tentative plan after videoing this unidentified stranger.

With the fog having scotched our plans of capturing some of the 100+ each of Redwing and Fieldfare on film yesterday conditions today were

PERFECT
but the Northern Thrushes absent - Sod's Law! with attention being switched to the

small pods of

STARLINGs
Up north and amoung the dozens of cars associated with both Eco Recycling and the Fencing Centre

was what was considered to be the

Find of the Day

COLLARED DOVE

already gathering nesting material. Not altogether a freak of nature as we are given to understand that they can, and do, nest across every month of the year?
At the 2 Ponds it was business as usual as the female

SHOVELERs

continue to

predominate
and even more joy at the

SEWERAGE WORKS
where improvements continue to the songs of

more than a

dozen

CHIFFCHAFF

while along the dence south-facing hedge row at first a female

followed by a partly vocal male First for the Year
BLACKCAP
while at least one of the overwintering

STONECHAT

holds on to its territory at the

most northern reaches of the
Solar Panel Compounds

All Our (Feathered) Yesterdays - Part II

 starts a litttle closer to home than those that went before, in fact right on our doorstep! Sunday 20/03/1994 was not the most clement of days in fact downright dreary with that persistent light rain that gets you soaked in seconds. However, not enough to deter us from visiting the nearby Fleet (the finger of seawater that seperates Weymouth from Portland) but more particularly the western end at Moonfleet (of the book fame) where in the days leading up a

BUFFLEHEAD

 had been seen failry frequently among the large flock of Brent Geese and Wigeon. After only a few minutes of searching a young man from Chichester joined me in the search and although it took quiet some time eventually our quarry which was gratefully added to our British Lists. As an added bonus there was also a sub- rarity

RED-BREASTED GOOSE
in the same vacinity.

From our own backyard as it were to more distant shores on 09/02/1992 the 800 miles return journey to Cresswell in Northumberland very nearly proved to be a disaster. Leaving Weymouth in the very small hour our arrival coinceded with daybreak, as planned, but by noon nothing had been seen of the 'target' despite the mass hords of fellow twitchers. There came a point in late afternoon when the 4 of us decided enough was enough but as clambering into Hugo's car there was frantic waving from the remaining stalwarts about a mile away with our response rewarded with long and close views of

PINE BUNTING
by and large a resident of Siberia and the Urals.

DUSKY THRUSH
30/12/2016
close to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire very nearly kicked the New Year off in fine fashion and well worth the 520 miles return drive.
Except for the very early days, it was only occassionally did we score a 'double' but on one 'magical day' we did produce a Hat Tick!
  It started at our dear friends house, Bowie and Sheila, over what had become a nightly tot, their's one night, mine the next and well within walking distance. The subject of an

AMERICAN KESTREL
currently residing on St Mary's Iasles of Scilly was considered worthy of a 'twitch' should we be able to get the logistics to suit but with all flight from Newquay to the Island booked we had to look towards the

M/V SCILLONIAN
out of Penzance.

No problems with having to find the bird as already relocated by the hords that had arrived via

flights, or those having stayed overnight, so no concerns about making the mid-afternoon ferry back. On such voyages it is usual for the birding fraternity to stay on the upperdeck, eyes peeled for the chance of a rare or uncommon seabird to come into view. Out of character only 14 of us did so with me looking out to seaward (starboard) as we neared the Runnel Stone Buoy, just off the coast of  Cornwall. It was at that moment that Bowie sped from the port side physically dragging me back while pointing and shouting "look at that, look at that"! There before our very eyes was an unmistakable

RED-BILLED TROPICBIRD
a resident from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean which had been spotted by a 14 years old schoolboy who had reported it immediately to his father, the 14 being a coincdence!

This brought all of the 'bar-flies' scurrying to the upperdeck immediately trying to play it down as not having seen it. There was never any follow-up found to this event, not even a submission to the British Birds Rarities Committee, but for myself it went staright onto the List having no need for the agreement of a 12 Wise Man jury hundreds of miles away - the British Birds Rarity Committee, always stick to your own convictions and honesty which reminds me to stress that these images were not taken at the time, but just for your enlightenment from the archive. As if that were not enough excitement for one day as we disembarked the 'bird-line pager' confirmed that the

CITRINE WAGTAIL

was still performing well at Marizion Marshes - a 2 mile detour the 3rd addition to the list that day!

✔✔✔