Will Ye No Come Back Again - Carolina Oliphant

 Inspiration is a strange old bird shied away from by many, held by others as a means of further education or enlightment which has visted me no fewer than 3 times in the last few days. These formed most of the reason for a halt to the hiatus that has seen the absence of the Bagsy Blog since Sunday 24/08/2022.

Firstly, during that time period there has never been a day without 'HITS' being added to our previous efforts ranging from a low of 586, on our first full day of absence, to a 'high' of 972 and that's without a Post. We like to believe that this might be that our efforts have been inspirational, having covered so many subjects and so many countries and hope our revival will continue in the same vein. 

The second of these was a visit to the Portland Bird Observatory,

on a pleasant enough day but calling in firstly en-route to Lane End to find a few each of both

YELLOWHAMMER
and

BROWN RAT

considered a

decent start while at

Ferry Bridge, the Gateway to Portland, a decent number of

BRENT GEESE
unfortunately at quite some distance.
As with everyone else we always enjoy a warm welcome at the Bird Observatory, and find inspiration at every visit. Not having even "shut down main engines" we found the Warden, Martin Cade calling my name and beckoning me, surely indicating something of interest was afoot and to find him gentally holding this 'long distance migrant'

PALLAS'S WARBLER

between thumb and fore-finger

and already sporting that all important identity 'ring' on its right leg

allowing any future finer or trapper to add to its movements!

Also of great value was to find the lounge full of many familiar faces all within view of the active
PORTLAND BILL LIGHTHOUSE
However, the Bird was not to be the only 'scarcity' as Martin produced one of the 'beauties' of the

Moth World

CRIMSON SPECKLED
of which many have been seen by myself across Mainland Europe but this a first for G.B.
As the saying goes "all good things must come to an end"

but not before paying on the way back to the
Maiden Castle Ironage Hill Fort
where it looked ever bit as if they were concreting the footpaths????

SKYLARK

We thought they were late harvesting the
SUNFLWER SEEDS
at our end of the county, but this was a full month later, 

with just a single

CORN BUNTING

and finaly the whitest

SHEEP
we have ever seen, the pink hue coming as part of camara incompitence!!
We hope, in turn, you will all be kind enough to alert your Families and Friends to our return, as we will make best efforts to continue Daily Publication.
VERY BEST WISHES TO ONE AND ALL!!

P.S. - This first Post was met by Heavy Rain, doubt we are alone in that!

All Things Must Pass - George Harrison

Despite a

PEREGRINE FALCON
cutting across an early morning 'clear blue sky' and a

CETTI'S WARBLER
issuing 2 familiar blasts from the banks of the River Stour,

 we remained in something of a quandry as a result of fading interest towards

The Bagsy Blog

In the first instance we considered Peter Cook and Dudley Moore to have the right lyrics to present the case!

Now is the time to say Goodbye
Now is the time to yield a sigh (yield it, yield it)
Now is the time to wend our waaaayeeeeee
Until we meet again some sunny day.

Goodbye, Goodbye
We're leaving now,
Tatty-bye
Goodbye
We wish you all goodbye
Fartatata, fartatata....

  But giving us a little more leeway for a hoped return, when things brighten up again, maybe John Mayall's Bluesbreaker make it a little more eloquent fist of it?

 I can't quit you babe, so I'm gonna put you down for a while.

I said now, I can't quit you babe, so I guess I guess I gotta put you down for a while!

See even this infernal machine is kicking against the traces at the prospects, but believe you get the point. Of course there is no way of letting you know of a return so the occassional CLICK might do the trick but for now hope it doesn't amount to this! P.S. it may be worth checking from time to time to see if there has been a Change of Heart!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSIMcypTOOs

We sincerly thank each and every one who ever clicked on our humble efforts! THANKS.

Moth to a Flame - Metallica

 A soggy start to the day yesterday as that fine, 'get you wet quickly' stuff started at the same time as we got to the first Moth Trap and put us off half way through. Resuming an hour later was found to be well worth the wait as in

quick succession

HEDGE RUSTIC

a fine specimen of

FROSTED ORANGE

and a long awaited, the last having been caught in 2015,

ARCHER'S DART
all additions to the Year List with much appriciated help from
Dave and Paul!

while additionally, the

HORNETs

are now visiting the traps Mob-Handed....
An hour later the rain gave way to

"white fluffy clouds in a cluster, hanging on the breeze to dry" 

at which time we also found this juvenile

HERRING GULL

seemingly stuck in the Algae? with a concerned parent bird circling overhead, and even more strangely this juvenile

BLACK-HEADED GULL

a very scarce visitor at the northern ponds

and never recorded perched on the
Solar Panels.

also in flight a
GULFSTREAM
of Hampshire Aviation Ltd
while sticking to the theme and spotting THE original

COASTGUARD HELICOPTER
proves the more jazzed-up livery on the other, shown here some days ago, points to there being 2!
while we rarely get opportunity to capture any aircraft

On the Ground!
Mid-afternoon and a couple of opportunist shots of a

WILLOW/CHIFF WARBLER
and moments later a scruffy looking young

JACKDAW
on the Tennis Courdt fence and as darkness fell 'calls' not heard for many a day of

TAWNY OWL

likely with a fractuous and hungry

juvenile?

BELLE of the BALL

 If 'Sod' had to play his / her hand why did it have to be at prcisly 20:50 on Wednesday evening while champing at the bit in anticipation of the

Sooty Documentary

when the power switch tripped and only just re-installed for the start, of what was something of a  Tear-Jerker.

Sooty - right, son Sooty Junior - Centre and the Interviewer.

Despite the lateness of the hour we just had to give him a bell which seemed to put the cherry on his cake! So to daylight hours when the Moth Traps came up with singles of

JULY BELLE
 and

BORDERED STRAW
both first for the year and a couple of Creepy Crawlies.

WATER BOATMAN

was fine enough in itself but clearly

upstaged

by a most active

FOUR-SPOT ORB SPIDER

which kept us entertained for more than a while

and thank John for assistance with I.D's.

CHICORY

All else across the Patch

seemed to be the

still singular but no less irresistable

RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE

but NO........

Through the Open Window

we were able to Click and Clip

GREENFINCHES

Greedily scoffing the now perfectly ripe

ROSE HIPS
and with each beak-full looking more like
Sub-Sahara African

RED-BILLED QUELEA