Beyond the Horizon - Bob Dylan Part II

It did take longer than it might have done due to the decline in readership, but we heartily thank the stalwarts who have suported us through Thick and Thin. Maybe an opportune moment to scribe a Begging Letter and ask you all to get us back on course please!

1.5 MILLION HITS!

Returning to the

BUCHAN ALPHA
FLOATING OIL PRODUCTION PLATFORM

we reiterate that cited by Led Zeppelin in the first instance,

Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face, and stars fill my dreams. I'm a traveller of both time and space, to be where I have been. To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen. They talk of days for which they sit and wait, ALL will be revealed!

DUNLIN

EIDER
(male)

GARDEN WARBLER

GARFISH
There followed a most significant day when having taken my breakfast in the Control Room as usual, to gain a few more moments on deck Wildlife Watching, I was stopped at the foot of the ladder leading to the upper deck, fully booted and spurred, by our Opparations Co-ordinater Dave Penney. His question to me was very simple as "what is it you do up there every morning dashing fron the place of work at high speed as soon as having been relieved"? The equally simple answer was "don your P.P.E. grab the rig binoculars and join me up top" which he did. With the starboard flare being active he was asked what he could see along the length of the boom, "oh just a load of Shy Talks"!

Anything different among the species he was asked and quite rightly pointed to the large pale individual at the centre of the image and told that it was a juvenile

GLAUCOUS GULL
a usual resident of far more northern waters which seem to have him intregued. To cut a long story short, and more visits and chatter on the upper deck, before our next hitch off-shore he had bought himself a £1,500 pair of Swarovski binoculars, a comprehensive Bird Field Guide and a couple of Moth Traps. How good it feels to inspire someone and visit each others 'home patch' - hooked?          During the remaining time together he saw most of the species that follow and eventually ended up finding a number of 'rarities' himself.

GOLDCREST
(male)

MERLIN
(devouring Redwing)
Maybe a little strangely a

HOODED CROW
while thought totally impossible the only

HOUSE SPARROW
recorded in the North Sea during my time.

The 'infection' had not only swept through our own company, most of whom working the upper-deck were now carring 'draw-string cotton bags' in case of capturing a 'live' specimen, but also that of our Standby Boat the Far Seeker. Out of marine courtesy, it was the done thing to speak to her Captain each evening just before the witching hour to check all was well with on one occassin him reporting that the hands had caught a couple of 'live' birds for me. He went on to say that they had scrutinised them and check against the Field Guide to come to the conclussion that they had captured both a House Martin and a Linnet. The 'full 10 points for effort' but in both instances they had FORTUNATELY got it wrong! Sent up in a Twix chocolate box on a heaving line at the turn of the watch the box was opened in my cabin in case of an escapee. We say fortunately as the first out was in fact a

STORM PETREL

seen on occassion but never handled and with the white rump, the same as a House Martin, no recriminations there! Again Linnet was a excellent try but found to be a very scarce

LITTLE BUNTING
with both birds having a story to tell but both ending in a different direction. The Petrel was highly popular with all of the crew, just about everyone paying it a visit in the Control Room, as it was fed Sardine Oil and a little of the fish, and as there was an EXPERT on hand, ME, it was decided to release it as darkness fell. Quite a few hands mustered in the lee of Alpha column as the tiny bird was shown around for the last time before being gently dropped to freedom. Landing on the surface it shook it head did a little preening before being swallowed whole by a Great Black-backed Gull - the moral of the story? "it's always an advantage to have an EXPERT on hand"! The

LITTLE BUNTING
fair much better as being 'choppered' off the rig by Bristow's and met at the airport by an A Ringer from Cove, a small village a few miles south of Aberdeen. There it was duly 'ringed', with the shackle clearly visible in the image sent to us by 'return of post', surrounded by a grateful crowd and to live another day!

MAGPIE MOTHs
were annual, there were continuous casualties, in this instance

MEALY REDPOLL

KNOT
no not those in the ropes!

GREENFINCH

LONG-EARED

OWL

LAPLAND BUNTING

LUMPSUCKER

JACK SNIPE
numerous but with a penchant for flying into windows, and penultimately
just after mid-night bringing in my 50 birthday in walked the Chief Engineer, obligatory cotton bag in one hand an 2 mugs of coffee in the other, by way of celibrating the occassion - no booze there, an immediate sackable offence!

The bag contained a

LITTLE STINT

AND STILL THEY COME!

and PS - yesterday's finale was a STARFRONTLET (with an R) yet another typo with correction made!

A Star is Born - Barbra Streisand

 The only thing the Great Outdoors has had in its favour in recent days is the odd event  of a double figure overnight temperature, with that of a few of nights ago producing a high of +12°C and a First for the Year

DOTTED BORDER

while the

TAWNY OWLs

maybe as many as 3 continue to provide the backing vocals,
but when the 'Bird of the Day' turns out to be a

FERAL PIGEON
perched on the farmhouse roof and of no List Value you know you are on a
Slippery Slope!

at 18-Acre the Pumpking Field is reduced to just mush with the only creature of value being a

vocal and mobile

CHIFFCHAFF
while maybe a dozen or so are still happy with conditions at the Sewage Works.
Maybe a little more Good News as it looks like some

Tree Planting 

maybe due around the Manor House moved from dull to duller!

Little more than this
PIED WAGTAIL

was noted on the way up north and with only a single female

SHOVELER

and the c3 resident

LITTLE GREBE
this adult thought to be a new arrival?
A record count of 6

CORMORANT

(the 6th) on the
Moors River
was worthy of a mention along with a couple of shots and a description, of

numerous

Witches’ Brooms are caused by micro-organisms, and are therefore technically a type of gall. It’s thought that witches’ brooms are caused by fungal, viral or bacterial activity, and occasionally insect activity. This might sound like plant pathologists are hedging their bets, but really there are multiple causes of witches’ brooms. Witches’ brooms seen on birch trees, for example, are likely caused by a fungus called Taphrina betulina, and create some lovely examples of witches’ broom. In a witches’ broom, the growth of a lateral bud, the buds that make twigs and side shoots, loses control and causes multiple stems to form in a tangled, disorganised manner. Multiple years of growth is required to create big brooms.

Words of the Experts not my own! and to bring just a little joy to the World a

DUSKY STARFRONTLET
taken in Colombia in 2011

Birds of a Feather Flock Together - When Eunice Arrives

 While close to or even firmly in the clutches of Storm Eunice, we will attempt to make an assurance, that is! While we are still able to Net the Intersurf, which being an expert in the subject we will quite easily do, continuing to transmit at least some of the same amount of Clap-Trap that has become familier  with our Daily Doings! Without doubt the

Calm Before the Storm 

and with a +11°C on the gauge we decided to flash up the Moth Traps before stowing them away out of reach of the afore mentioned lady! The catch came without the trace of a Moth, but a catch nonetheless, amounting to a

GARDEN SNAIL

a small
SLUG

active little

along with an even tinier one before capturing this

 SPIDER.
A spider wanders aimlessly within the warmth of a shadow,

not the regal creature of border caves.

But the poor, misguided, directionless,

 familiar, of some obscure Scottish poet.

  The mist crawls from the canal,

like some primordial phantom of romance.

To curl, under a cascade of neon pollen,

while I sit, tied to the phone like an expectant father.

Your carnation will rot in a vase!

'Bitter Suite' from the album Misplaced Childhood by Marillion

After the nesting efforts of the Collared Dove some days ago now and the cavorting of the Kestrels more recently, it was, on the day, the turn of the 

humble but numerous

HOUSE SPARROWs

DISPLAYING
in numbers along the southern track while some kind soul has also errected a

NEST BOX
close by and out of reach.
Not alone in all of this above the neighbouring field a couple of
First of the Year

SKYLARK

were also providing delightful 'backing vocals'.
Back-tracking it was unusual to see as many as c7

CANADA GEESE
on the main pond but get the idea they may also be prepering for the upcoming 'blow'?
Up north our first 'home-grown'

CATKINS
which regular readers may remember were first found at Ham Wall, Somerset on our recent 

Biakal Teal sortie, with the

 

Catkins swaying in the breeze and evergreen  Privet to the right, while at the Gravel Pit it seemed that the Waterfowl Theory might be right as something of an increased gathering there as well. Hopes are that we can include that on tomorrow's Post? Penultimately, not the sort of image that should disgrace any day, which is far beyond

LITTER LOUT
for which in my own view the penalty of 'HANGING' would not be enough!! but to end a little more 'up-beat our first fully bloomed

DAFFODILS
on the Bund with supporting cast.