Thursday 9 June 2016

Sorrel - Wishbone Ash

We start the main body of today's post with an undertaking made to a
quartet of our Lovely Lady Golfers who stopped for a brief chat yesterday.
Noting that they had not heard a Cuckoo singing in the vicinity of the course,
my honest replay was that not a single day has past over the last 3 weeks when
one has not been seen or heard!
 Yes we know,
"if you've got a Black Cat we've got a Blacker one"!
but we only speck the truth. On the strength of that, it was decided that
even if only through the pages of our Modest Blog, we would undertake to
PLEASE the LADIES!
 There you are Girls, feast your eyes on these

 CUCKOO

 images and a short video clip

 Taken on your 5th Fairway about this time last year.

 So to the Moth Traps and
GHOST MOTH
(male) 
GHOST MOTH
(female)
 and together for comparison

 CLOUDED BORDERED BRINDLE
and

 CREAM-BORDERED GREEN PEA
(one of the smaller macro Moths)

were all new for the year.
Yet another family of
MALLARD
joining the still sitting Coot at the Irrigation Pond, and talking of which
we feel a Coot chicks head may have been seen yesterday morning.
We are keeping a close watch!
Further on past the Sewerage Works and to the spot we ofter refer to a
The Puddle of Mud, the sunshine of recent days might have dried the area completely.
However, we discovered during our perambulations that there is a small leak in the
'blue fresh water pipe' which supplies the Sheep troughs.
Under another set of circumstances, we may have advised the Shepherd
or even carried out the required repair but this is already proving
advantageous to quite a few birds, such as the
PHEASANT
about, so for now at least we are prepared to be like Dad and 'Keep Mum'!
(PS - Political Correctness ain't our 'big suit')
 After this there was a bit of Do It Yourself to be undertaken on the Heath,
not a skill particularly familiar to me. However, it was a toss-up between
DIY or exterminating the local Common Buzzard population, who's favoured
pastime seems to be perching on our Trail Cameras.
 This problem is not strictly the preserve of the Buzzards as the Galloway Cattle
also have the habit of knocking them out of skew, likely attracted to the infra red beams?
A couple of strategically placed nails, forming a bracket, and a light lashing soon had them
in place and then a dead branch as an anti-perch device - it's sure to work????
 Our friend John Gifford predicted that we would see our first
 PAINTED LADY BUTTERFLY
of the year yesterday which was spot on, 
 and in addition to the above
HEDGE BED-STRAW
is now covering a fair proportion of the Common.

BIRDS-FOOT-TREFOIL
 bordering the tracks on the Heath and in turn attracting
COMMON BLUE BUTTERFLY
New Growth
MULLEIN
After an absence of at least a couple of weeks now,
we were suddenly invaded yesterday by no fewer than c5
EGYPTIAN GEESE
but were not able to squeeze them all into the same frame.
PINK WOOD SORREL
SORREL - WISHBONE ASH (Link) 
and to close some news from the
TRAIL CAMS
MISTLE THRUSH
as it was not singing, it was thought that this 'open beak' posture
may have something to do with keeping cool?
SONG THRUSH
they don't care where they do it!
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