The Bagsy Blog: January 2017

Tuesday 31 January 2017

29 Palms - Robert Plant

Just the prelude to what is hoped will be

GREATER THINGS!

We have staved it off for a few days in the hope of welcoming the

New Month

with a bit of a BANG!

The intent tomorrow will be to issue Post No1 in a series of 6

covering our Away Day which turned into an Away 4½ Days.

IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED IF YOU WOULD PASS OUR

LINK TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY, IN READINESS - THANK YOU!

Another photogenic start to the Day.

ALPACAS
all c5 today, you may have have to look a little harder.

Over Wintering

CHIFFCHAFF

ROBIN

acrobatic

GOLDCREST

The 'white-headed'

EGYPTIAN GOOSE

noisy as ever and the far more sedate

OTHER ONE!

GREENFICH

population

still thriving

and the return of the

long lost

GREEN SANDPIPER

Also not seen for a while and so considered worthy of a

triptych

STONECHAT

So why
TWENTYNINE PALMS? - Link

Well, on our return to Slight Return II we set the Juke Box to 'random select'
and at this point

BLACK-HEADED GULLs

swooping for food on the lawn outside this, as you will hear,
was the track playing at the time - 'no brainer'!

Memories rose of an uninspiring short stay there back in 2010 while travelling across California, brought on only by my love of this song, on my way to the Salton Sea to 'twitch' Yellow-footed Gull. The plan was to dip a toe into the Mojave Desert before transiting the Joshua Tree (U2) National Park and then continuing onward. Advice on the ground back in 29P's, which was taken, - "don't, under any circumstances, visit the Salton Sea area"!

All stories SHOULD end in success which this one did.
Later in 2011, on a second trip to transit part of the

Pan American Highway - Flagstaff to Deadhorse, Alaska

yet another detour was made, this time down into
Baja California, Mexico

(just below the We Are Here Legend)
where, on the first day on the beach at San Filipe was found

just a single adult

YELLOW-FOOTED GULL
On that trip a plethora of dreams, desires, objectives, ambitions call them what you will,
were buzzing around the 'grey matter', one of which was to WALK across the
Arctic Circle, just before reaching Deadhorse. Having flown over it an unrecorded number of times,
sailed over it a few times less and even sailed 'under' it twice onboard HM Submarine Alcide,
apart from TUNNELLING this was the only mode to complete the set.

Entry	Pageviews
United States	552
France	471
United Kingdom	345
China	324
Germany	66
Egypt	27
Estonia	21
Sweden	15
Singapore	14
Canada	7

Sunday 29 January 2017

The Geese and the Ghost - Anthony Phillips

Another crisp, cold and dry morning with

FROSTY the ALPACA

in attendance, have often eaten Alpaca medium-rare, pan-fried

but never 'iced'.

In way of a change we decided to nip down to the

IBSLE WATER MEADOWS

and

HARBRIDGE, HAMPSHIRE

in the hope of Bewick's Swan or even the White-fronted Goose

but that was a search in vain!

All to catch the eye was this rather unusually marked

GOOSE

of origin unknown before Chiefy in the

Powered Hang-Glider

put everything to flight with

MUTE SWAN

leading the way.

Oh for a

Vulcan Phalanx

(Sea-Whiz x 4,500 rounds per minute)

not content with just passing over, he had to do a couple of curcuits

of the whole field system before Foxtrot Oscaring!!

The mixed Goose Flock completely spooked!

CANADA GOOSE

and time to beat a retreat down to Blashford.

Again, about the 3rd time this year, there was very little of interest

save for a couple of

COMMON SNIPE

feeding and occasionally scuffling in the margins on

Ibsley Water,

while over the road just

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER

(how do they know to take flight just as you get the camera on them??)

and a 'shaky'

TREECREEPER

were in the Oaks around the car park.

Short, and maybe not that sweet we returned to base.

Entry	Pageviews
China	4293
United States	550
France	455
United Kingdom	380
Germany	62
Singapore	22
Egypt	20
Estonia	18
Sweden	15
Russia	9

Friday 27 January 2017

Rabbit - Chas and Dave

The final phase of our 'catch-up' before departing Parley Court Farm and in the first instance it would be a gross understatement to say that we have neglected the Mammals so far this year, in fact we have totally abandoned them! Since 'day one' we have recorded just c4 with each having its own significance as far we are concerned, but there was one huge surprise in fact a 'personal first' for me in our Recording Area.

The first 2

RABBIT
and

GREY SQUIRREL
were recorded on New Years Day but we then had to wait a full 24 hours for the next,

ROE DEER
A full fortnight then passed without addition before driving back along the
course of the Moors River and hearing the c3 Egyptian Geese there going berserk!
That was followed by a number of Mallard springing from the watercourse and a
lone Herring Gull seemingly attacking something on the ground, It was indeed 'something',
the biggest

OTTER

I have ever seen running boldly across the open field. With a tree-line
between myself and it and having to get out of Strange there wasn't even
a dog's chance of obtaining a photo but the consolation was extremely
good views via the trusty Swarovskis.
(image 'borrowed' from Wikipedia)
Another example of our tardiness, the

FULL MOON

was as far back as

Thursday 12 January inst.
There has been a new arrival on the Redundant Aircraft Pan at
Bournemouth International Airport

a rather eye-catching
BOEING 737
minus her engines was thought worthy of a shot.

MEADOW PIPIT
A couple of days after the Otter the

EGYPTIAN GEESE

were at it again

going through their full repertoire

pre-breeding

as they are early nesters.

DISPLAYING

PREENING

and even seen
EATING LICHEN
While in the process of filming/snapping these goings-on a female

SPARROWHAWK

obligingly alighted

in the tree directly above my head

another addition to the Year List before once again cutting across to

LONGHAM LAKES

simply because you cannot get enough of

GREAT WHITE EGRET

especially in Dorset where they are extremely 'scarce'.
There was only a single found today, which was particularly flighty.
but a single is enough!

Additionally,

GREAT CRESTED GREBE
and another Year Tick by way of a pair of squabbling

CETTI'S WARBLER

This
CANADA GOOSE
won't see the New Year
but the predator, likely a Fox, will doubtless benefit from its demise.
Finally, just a few shots 'in passing'