Diamonds On The Water

One Saturday morning in 1969 I can clearly remember queueing outside a record shop to buy Led Zepplin 2, a seminal album by the eponymous rock band - for anyone under 30 years of age reading this (unlikely, I know) a record shop sold vinyl, 33 rpm, microgroove LPs. The first track was over five minutes long," Whole Lotta Love", and I`ll tell you what dear reader, for a snotty nosed teenager back then, it did not get much better than that. They were, indeed, simpler times.
My love affair with the music album has continued ever since, which in my humble opinion is one of the great art forms of humanity and as a result our loft is groaning under the weight of old vinyl.
Now, call me old fashioned, while I`ve accepted the sterility of the compact disc, a new album is still to be treated with some reverence in whatever form; first study the sleeve, then read the song sheet...
And so it was I sat down this evening and listened to the latest studio album, Diamonds On The Water, by my favourite folk rockers, Oysterband. Normally with a new album it takes a few spins to  soak it up and appreciate, but not this one, it was brilliant straight from the off with the jaunty A Clown`s Heart through the thought provoking title track and ending with the hauntingly beautiful Like a Swimmer in the Ocean. Quite how Oysterband consistently produce so many great albums (for over 30 years now) is beyond me, but they do and I can thoroughly recommend this one...

Hang on though, isn't this blog supposed to be about wildlife...
Dungeness - 0745hrs - cold, sunny, w 4 - We joined PB in the seawatch hide for all of 45 minutes seeing very little apart from a spectacular flock of c70 commic terns that were behaving strangely, flying up, down and all around before passing east at some distance. It`s a strange sight when you look down to where the Patch should be and there`s not a gull anywhere. A major power station outage has resulted in work on the outlet pipe and a temporary cessation of the `boil`. The land was virtually a bird-free zone with only a single Wheatear and several Goldfinches of note; Goldfinches were also noted elsewhere today, so I guess there was some kind of movement in progress.
Scotney - We walked out through the farmyard and around the back of the new pits where the highlights were four singing Corn Buntings, six Avocets, six Little Egrets, two LRPs and 15 Yellow Wagtails. From the roadside pull-in, 12 Ringed Plovers and eight Dunlin on the wet grass.
NB: A Spoonbill was noted in the Christmas Dell/New Excavations/hayfields area late this afternoon (PB).