Monday 19 August 2013

Little Bird - Annie Lennox

After a 'hard' day at the office yesterday what better way to recover than to sit down to a traditional, farmhouse roast dinner? I really should have waited until everything was on the table, especially the wine, before taking the picture. No wonder I'm a F.F.B.
What was as close to a 'balmy' evening as we've had in recent days occurred last night and resulted in a decent haul from the Moth Trap. Once again Flame Shoulder predominated, there was a single addition* to the Property List resulting in all other (moth) images being of species caught last night but featured before.
 SCALLOPED OAK
 DINGY FOOTMAN
 VINE'S RUSTIC*
 SIX-STRIPED RUSTIC
A FLY of sorts, looks like a HOUSE one to me!
 The rest of the day remained warm with prolonged periods of sunshine and little in the way of wind, so ideal for a visit to
 Just a 15 minute drive on a clear road
 
and only a few minutes walk to any of the hides, this was a chance to see how the common breeding birds had fared this year. The WOODLAND HIDE produced good numbers of everything, but if you were looking for 'pristine' it was the wrong time of year. Most parent birds were knackered and dishevelled from a continuous toing and froing of providing for ravenous young, while they looked less than dapper in first flight feathers.
 male CHAFFINCH
 Distant and only
COAL TIT
 GREAT TIT
 NUTHATCH
 COLLARED DOVE
 dishevelled ROBIN
 juvenile GREENFINCH
just after a parent bird had left it to its own devices.
 I've never considered the beautiful BULLFINCH a rowdy bird, with its plaintive and quiet call, but they were today. This male was in company with an unknown number of youngsters making one hell of a racket. This photo was all that could be captured of the party.
 DUNNOCK
 also seem to have done well, it was great just to sit there and
watch this youngster going through its paces, 'feather stretching
(top) and lubricating the vocal chords.
 Young and 'ringed' BLUE TIT
 BLACK-HEADED GULL
at the Tern Hide along with Little and Great Crested Grebe, Canada, Greylag and Egyptian Geese (the later with Goslings that I was just too late to capture) and a start to the usual winter build up in numbers of Coot. There has to be between 3 and 400 there already. 
 The monosyllabic call of a CHIFFCHAFF was heard before leaving
the hide, which was coaxed out to pose for just a second or two
with a short series 'pishing' sounds.
 Finally, and just before departure, one of two
COMMON TERN
passed overhead.
Breeding? - The prognosis looks GOOD!
Of note, yesterday's Post wasn't the most memorable on record, in fact it qualifies as one of the most insipid. However, the Stat-Counter showed that 440 individuals visited the site with 300 being about average!
It would be even better if each of you could pass this Link
via your Social Network, E-Mail, Face Book or other carrier to ALL your addressees. 
Thank You!
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