All Our Feathered Yesterday's - Part III

 Without to much description we complete the compendium of Rare Wild Birds in Great Britain, often in company with our friend Hugo Wood-Homer - Gentleman Farmer of this Parish!

BERRY HEAD DEVON
with an Ol' Sea Captain friend, on arrival pointing into the distance announced "we should find the bird at the top of the slope close to that long hedge"! That was the first mis-identification of the day as the HEDGE was in fact a 'Wall of Twitchers', but nonetheless where we found the

GYRFALCON
05/04/1986

BAILLON'S CRAKE
Sunderland - 20/05/1989

SQUACCO HERON
Radipole Lake, Weymouth, Dorset, a 10 minute walk from my home in tose days - 11/07/1982

Something of a 'double-whammy' on the1/05/1988 as we headed for Dawlish Warren in Devon in hopes of recording a
BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER

which, with a little patience, was re-located with all getting thier fill. About to leave, remarkably and equally 'rare' Wader dropped into the very same spot as we also added

GREATER SANDPLOVER
 to the G.B. Bird List.

MARMORA'S WARBLER

Blorenge, Gwent, Wales 10/06/2010

 We seem to recall that it was Thomas Hardy (novelist, not to be confussed with Dorset's other Hardy, Thomas Masterman of Lord Nelson's Sea Captain fame on HMS Victory) who described Portland as "like the head of a prehistoric monster jutting out into the English Channel"?? So no wonder as a first landfall it attracts so many rare birds with this quartet being a typical example - we were pleased to have been there on each occassion.

BLACK-EARED WHEATEAR

Weston Quary 27/05/1985

SAVANNAH SPARROW
12.04.1982

BOBOLINK
15.09.1992

HOODED MERGANSER
found bedraggled in a storm drain on Portland's Chesil Beach Road fisrt seen personally 01/01/1974 which developed into the beauty you see above and favouring Radipole Lake for over a decade. Sticking with the Waterfowl, it was again following another de-mob from the Buchan Alpha Oil Rig on 17/02/1986 that I met Andy Thorpe the Recorder for the North Sea Bird Club at Newburgh, Aberdeenshire. My very first words to him were "you have just 10 minutes to find the

KING EIDER
  as I have a flight to catch! Taking all in good heart he certainly came up with the goods and it was my great pleasure to meet him and NSBC secretary Alma Fraser on a number of subsequent occassions. PS - the club, now defunct, had the same status as all of the counties of Great Britain.

Far to difficult to chose a favourite, without doubt the

LITTLE BUSTARD
at Lizard Headnwall on the 29/10/1996 was the most exciting but little to do with the bird. In the process of getting back Hugo had been lost in the crowd but further on meeting up with a gentleman of far senior years, dressed in a Grogham style coat (the name attrbuted to Admiral Edward Vernon, R.N. who wore such a garment endlessly) and a triby hat we broke into a conservation centred, not surprisingly, on Wildlife. Holding the barbed wire fence for each other he asked if my interests streached further than bird watching replying that back in the late 70's to having been inspired by the then schoolboy Martin Cade (now long time Warden of the Porrtland Bird Observatory) into the world of Moths and how I had fashioned 2 traps out of redundant ammunision boxes and was traping at home in Wyke Regis and East Weares on Portland. He seemed very taken by this with the subject not chanaging until the parting of the ways when I politely ask his name. As a new Moth Man you may well have heard of me as I am none other than the author of the book below

This was Mister Moth himself and what a fillip to have met, talk with and shaken the hand of such an eminent and no frills Gentleman! Note:- Admiral Vernon must have been the most popular man in the R.N. having instituted the 'daily rum ration' with the mix for Junior Rates (Able and Leading Seamen) being issues with one part rum 2 parts water, known as GROG after the Old Lad himself, and Senior Rates (Petty Officers and Chief Petty Officers recieving a 'neat' tot with the explicit rule that this was not to be bottled and stored. Fat chance as it obviously was with the occassion of drinking such a stash be known as a Black Mass! Don't you wish you'd 'signed on' now?
Finally, we come to something of and unhappy ending but not without the story of undoubtedly the most bizarre story from the World of British Twitching. A middle-aged married couple were strolling through Holkum Pines bordering the sea on the North Norfolk Coast on 13/10/1989 when they heard a delicate hooting sound coming from the trees above and imediately attributed it to a bird. Not having a clue and considering as such it might be rare they phoned their son, who was 'twitching' on the Scilly Isles at the time, and offering the phone up to the calls he immediately identified it as a First for Great Britain

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH
which caused a stampede of other twitchers, jostling for flights to get off the Islands a.s.a.p. in order to record such a rarity. Hugo and I decided to give it a couple of days for the excitement to calm down and wended our way to the site on the 15/10/1989 finding, still under the cover of darkness, the second largest crowd, after the Golden-winged Warbler, but in far more restricted area given the trees, we had ever encountered before. Already the pushing and shoving had started when at daybreak a whisle was sounded with tripods, telescope, camaras etc being scattered and broken across most of the area and even a number of fist-fights. Hugo and I plus others simply stood back and eventually saw the bird but vowed that would be our final twitch, which of course it wasn't but always more reluctant than in the past!

THE END!

Rumours - Fleetwood Mac

As we have reached the centenery of the passing of Ernest Shackleton we make out own salute with these images from the

Tiny Cemetery on Grytviken, Antarctica where he rests with the ashes of crew member Frank Wild

with a friend we paid a pesonal homage to them both and the other 25 crew members of the Endurance. Our thoughts are also with the family of fellow Submariner 

who was killed?? in captivity in what was known as the

FALKLAND's WAR

We continue today’s Post on a happier note with a huge Thank You as we are back, at least for one day, in 4-figure ‘hits’, which may include new viewers, who we welcome with open arms, and maybe even a few lapsed long-time readers?

Otherwise, relating to Thursday, we did complete a full ‘rounds’ of Home Turf, where things remain sparse and repetitive so thank heavens for being informed that Covid Restrictions have been lifted at Longham Lakes. We did start the day with a new flier but this of the aviation kind which we found on the web to be a

Cargo Carrying Airline

based in Turkey, opperating more or less world wide. As an addition, rumours are rife around here that Bournmouth International Airport is planning to switch to cargo carrying only?? Down south it was almost totally devoid of Wildlife and thing it says it all when only being able to report

Hedge Trimming Operations

while in more northen climbs just

WOOD PIGEONs

at the New Puddle

and this rather worn out looking
MALLARD
along with a brace of newly arrived

CANADA GEESE

and so the 15 minute (on a good day) drive to

LONGHAM
not knowing who were most happy to be back

MAGGOT DROWNERs
or us 'ere Birder's? and not exactly a classic bird to start with but this resting

CORMORANT
just looked right and close by ever welcome

COMMON GULL

we say 'welcome'

as not at all 'common' on our home patch

with just 2 records in 10 years!

Of the Waders

plenty of

LAPWING

and

COMMON SNIPE
with hopes of both visiting us on Home Turf sometime soon.
Back to the Gull with more

MEDITERRANEAN GULLs

than we have ever recorded here before

maybe

as many as 3 to 4 dozen

another Goody we will be looking and listening out for in our Air Space!

with passing
BLACK-HEADED GULL
for comparrison and feeling that most, if not all will be fast asleep by now we will endeavour to publish a Part II in the none to distant future.
THANKS FOR TUNING IN!

The Tender Trap - Frank Sinatra

The Post that nearly Got Away should have been posted a couple of days ago! but first an appology ref the Sparrowhawks lost dinner, the Tit's are all Blue as pointed out to me this morning - another Senior Moment!

Despite the cold and frosty look of the new month

the overnight temperature had remained in double figures, bringing with it some success at the

Moth Traps
but feel had the wind been in any other quarter than West, blowing directly onto the traps, the catch may have been more abundant. No time for if's or but's as first out was a

performing

ICHNEAUMAN WASP

DUNG FLY
and wait for it, a

MOTH
MOTTLED UMBER
If our luck was that much IN without pushing it a visit to the long neglected Heath was thought in order, but not before covering the areas close by with all on show being a couple of dozen each of

FIELDFARE

and

REDWING

before a brief encounter with our friend

LISA

(and her friend, apologies for not making her acquaintance)
on their early morning canter.
Seeing Lisa, or other family members, always puts me in mind of the

MIGHTY OAK

in their garden, but we digress!
GREAT to be back on the Heath once more but,

by the sound of bird-song things didn't look to promising

Oh Yea of Little Faith!

a total count of c5

STONECHAT

only RODENT's NESTSs

under the covers,

but only a single

DARTFORD WARBLER

BRISTLEBENT FIELD
and as we know where they roost did manage to add

WOODCOCK
to the Year List, a borrowed image for illustration as we have never been skillful enough to capture one of our own, while the departing gesture was provided by a vocal

NUTHATCH
which has been recorded this year but not until now on home turf!