Send Down a Dove - Charles McHardy

Not at all common in the garden, we don't recall ever having heard

COLLARED DOVE
as part of the dawn chorus from home base

but c2 of them were certainly at it early yesterday morning.
Oh lord above Send Down a Dove, with wings as sharp as razors.

To cut the throats of them there blokes as sells Bad Beer to Sailors!

It is unlikely that you will ever read a book quite like this about us here Submariners!

With no returnes from the Moth Trap and the Party Gate smashed off its hinges it was a no brainer to spend an hour or two on the

HEATH
where for the time invested returns were rather small but did include

what were considered to be a 'pair'

(male)

and female
STONECHAT

while from under the 16 reptile covers a most welcome

SHORT-TAILED VOLE

and a short visitation by the local

ROCKWELL COMMANDER
and while exiting the down-fallen party gate

maybe as many as half a dozen

SISKIN
an addition to the Year List and while the game ain't over til the
Fat Lady Sings

A Tale of the Unexpected with no idea of what model?

while finally a contribution from Bomber in Weymouth with his First of the Year
COLTSFOOT

Night Owl - Gerry Rafferty

 A little tardy this year maybe, as we usually record at least one during the first month, but a

TAWNEY OWL

did join in with the early morning vocals yesterday and was duely added to the
Year List. (images from the archive)

With no attention having been paid to the still prostate party gate no surprises to find some of the escapee
Old English Whites and

Belted Galloways
blocking the entrance to the Solar Panel Compound which is where the early morning luck faultered slightly with again No Moths but regenerated when scanning though the trees to the Moors River

where most obligingly stood this single

EGYPTIAN GOOSE

clear of the tree-line and seemingly just posing for the Canon and even

performing something of a quick-step with the water fowl continuing at the.
Irrigation Pond

where were found these c3 new arrival and last years juvenile

MUTE SWANS
other than that it was a case of
"HAY you've got to hide your love away"

The BEATLES

All Around the World Part I - Oasis

 With yesterday having been something of an Away Day, visiting a long time freind and his loverly lady, there was little to report from home turf save the following. Stood at the edge of the Main Pond awaiting the taxi (yes the Strange Rover is still in the Sick Bay) there was a sudden and most unexpected outburst of song from a

CETTI'S WARBLER
which was only the second record at this site across 12 years, but with camera in hand, a couple of 'clicks' of a scarce bird here that might just attract a mate?

We'll be watching and during that spell we noted the taxi comming through the gates and heading in the opposite direction to the detailed path to take when booking. Again our luck was in as one of the locals pulled up to say hello before being asked to catch up with the taxi - Zoom! Had it not been for this delay, not a problem at all, we would not have recorded the / a

MANDARIN DUCK

steam into view directly beneath the afore mentioned and finding later that it coincided with another, or maybe the same bird, at Longham Lakes?

Finally underway there was nothing more to report so decided to take a jog around some of the magical places visited across the 7 Continents of the World by way of a little padding. 

AFRICA

MOUNT KILIMANJARO

AFRICAN BLACK WHEATEAR

NIAGRA FALLS
(from the Zambian side)

SOUTH AMERICA

CHICHEN ITZA
Myan Temple Yucatan Mexico

VERMILION FLYCATCHER
(mostly Mexico but does wander north and south)

SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN
Rio de Janeiro, there's an awful lot of coffee in Brazil

ASIA

TIANAMEN SQUARE CHINA

the much endangered
ORIENTAL WHITE STORK

ANGKOR WAT CAMBODIA
AUSTRALIA

SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE

SOUTHERN CASSOWARY

with 'droppings' the size of a football!

PINNACLE LIMESTONE FORMATIONS
Nambung National Park, Cervantes, Western Australia

and a final, for now at least

AUSTRALIAN KING PARROT

A Trick of the Tail - Genesis

 By and large our day was very reminiscent of part of the lyric of the Genesis track Squonk from the album - A Trick of the Tail.

Alive at both ends but a little dead in the middle. A tumbling and a bumbling we will go! 

On no more than a whim we decided to do the rounds in what is considered ‘reverse order’

which is to say heading firstly to the south where we found what may be considered as either A, 

PEREGRINE as First for the Year

or 'THE' Peregrine as maybe a returning bird but in ether event always so distant it always has to be verified by the use of the telescope, and as the lyric goes "alive at one end" before "bumbling" into a similarly

First for the Year

JACK SNIPE
in the idealy sodden former Sunflower Field. Mid-Water and there were no returns from the Moth Trap - not even a Dor Beetle and very few Birds. As if by way of compensation the first

CATKINs

Gently Swaying in the Breeze
which may have been an adequate end to
"a little dead in the middle"

but No as disaster struck when meeting 2 young men on the outside of the Solar Panel Compound fenceline and asking what might be their business there considering the sensitivity of the area and were they had found the party gate bulldozed and used as an

'Aftermath' (The Rolling Stones) 

entry point for their burgled buisiness premisses on the distant Industrial Estate close to Bournemouth International Airport to the tune of £60,000, dead in the middle of it as far as the lyrics are concerned.

There were 3 stout padlocks and chains on the gateway to the Heath so from the damage whatever must have been a mighty powerful vehicle to clear that.
Being duty bound to check in with Brighter Green the Solar Panel Parent Company both entering and exiting the compounds there was found to be just one glimmer of hope as one of the security cameras was activated at 20:42 so we now await the outcome?? and to qualify for live at both ends the first

BLACKCAP
of the year (a male)

plus a GREY WAGTAIL already seen a couple of times this year.

Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix

 With the overnight temperature hanging on to a balmy +8°C for a while now we have added yet another new moth species to the Annual Moth List by way of:-

DOTTED BORDER

backed up by something of a noticable influx of the more common creatures on the wing.

Garden Birds 

HOUSE SPARROWs

prospecting the Nest Boxes but no signs of nesting material carrying quite yet while others
further north at the Sewerage Works was found a small increase in

CHIFFCHAFF

with some having been vocal for a while with presumed new arrival

LONG-TAILED TITs

remain mute but surely it will not be long? while a second male

TUFTED DUCK
has joined the relatively longish-stayer at the Gravel Pit as another lone

RED KITE
cut across that air-space which was certainly not the previous one as all
'secondary feathers' were in place and in tact which just left the Moors River to draw a blank,
on birds but a single

OLD ENGLISH WHITE
at the western extremities of the Heath,

where last but by no means least, a small but uncounted number of just about vocal

SISKINs,
again First for the Year!
There's Always Tomorrow Cus Here Comes the Sun!