Wednesday 31 May 2017

SHEEP - Pink Floyd

With what must amount to 'hundreds' of images on the subject
backed up over the last couple of weeks, we intend publishing an
Extra Post
tomorrow (the 1st of June) just to catch up with the Moths alone.
We appreciate this is not to everyone's liking, but a great chance
to compare some of the diversity of colour, pattern and size of these
creatures rarely seen by most at close quarters!
From what is considered personally to be their finest album
ANIMALS
SHEEP - Link 

Hopelessly passing your time in the grassland away;
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about,
I've looked over Jordan, and I have seen things are not what they seem.
What do you get for pretending the danger's not real.
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel.
What a surprise!
A look of terminal shock in your eyes.
Now things are really what they seem.
No, this is no bad dream.
Our late evening venture across the Heath yesterday 'came up with the goods'
as we added
 NIGHTJAR
to the Year List and post the following 2 images, from the archive,
just to give the reader an idea of what these
 Denizens of the Night
look like.
Continuing in the same vein, Moths are considered
Haute Cuisine
 to the average Nightjar and always of great interest to ourselves.
New for the Year
 LIGHT BROCADE
and
MOTTLED RUSTIC
Things now seem to be quietening down elsewhere after the relative explosion of
what has been the inward migration, but here we are still recording the odd exception.
c2 Species of Wader graced our Recording Area in recent days,
 firstly a
 COMMON SANDPIPER
 followed by a couple of
COMMON SNIPE
Always good to see new Wild Flowers taking to Bloom such as the
 White Form
of
COMFREY
Next up was a rather 'bleached'
 "Will you walk a little faster?" said the Whiting to the Snail,
there's a Porpoise close behind me and he's treading on my tail".
 Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
 GARDEN SNAIL
In exactly the same place, behind Eco, as last year we found the first of 2
 GARDEN WARBLER
(an addition to the Year List)
 the second being in the woodland verging the Heath.
One caught and ringed at the
to give the Reader a clearer idea of this largely featureless bird.
Lovely to hear the
BLACKCAP
still in good voice before heading towards the Heath and noting immediately
 GREEN TIGER BEETLE
on the loose and on the wing!
Also flying in what little sunshine there has been, were 
c3 species of diurnal Moths.
 COMMON HEATH
along with our 'first of the year' male
 EMPEROR MOTH
and a little further on in the Bagot Goat compound
 also first of the year
BROAD-BORDERED BEE HAWK-MOTH
Still no sign of young at the nest of the
 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER
(just above lower Hoof Fungi and below broken bow)
 even though there was a male bird
 gleaning the sapling protectors.
As ever
 LESSER BLACK-BACKED and HERRING GULL
are utilising the Hanger Roofs at
Bournemouth International Airport,
 while this year it would seem they have also been joined by less frequent breeders
 GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL
 Also a familiar sight at this time of year are good numbers of
MISTLE THRUSH
also feeding young.
 It seemed a strange sight to see dozens of corralled
SHEEP
with no Shepherd or other staff in attendance, or for that matter any vehicles,
but all became clear later in the day when near naked 
EWES
(looking more like they had been 'shaved' than 'sheered')
were spotted with their fully coated Lambs.
Turkmenistan lasted no more than a day - Mores the Pity!
EntryPageviews
United States
493
United Kingdom
248
Germany
36
China
18
France
11
Canada
8
Estonia
8
Ireland
8
Ukraine
8
Australia
5

Monday 29 May 2017

Send Down a Dove - Charles MacHardy

With the overnight temperature now levelling out at a far more acceptable
+14°C, cloud cover being mainly total and the wind in the southern quadrant

there has been a little more to show for our efforts from the
Moth Traps.
Firsts for the Year
have included
COMMON WAINSCOT
SMALL SQUARE-SPOT
COMMON CARPET
COMMON SWIFT
in 2 differing shades
and sizes.
BUFF-TIP
COXCOMB PROMINENT
GREAT RED SEDGE
and spectacular mating
TIGER CRANEFLY
We make note here of help in identifications from our friends
Dave Foot, John Gifford and Paul Harris
(in alphabetical order to save any fighting in the playground)
In other directions things have been a little quieter with the
 COOT,
having already lost one brood to the predator, have commenced 'sitting' again.
A pair of 
MUTE SWAN
that occasionally look like they mean business and always followed by a spell of
Head Down.
As far as we can tell
STOCK DOVE
Oh Lord above send down a Dove
with wings as sharp a razors.
To cut the throats of them there blokes
as sells bad beer to Sailors! 
(Now there's a book worth reading) 
 are nesting both
 on the Heath and within the Eco Recycling Centre
while finding a ready supply of food in the
Solar Panel Compounds.
While talking of Eco, a few
 SAND MARTIN
 have been seen on the wing including both
adult (right) and juvenile birds (left).
JUVENILE SAND MARTIN
Feeding Young
DITTO
Not quite absent altogether but either keeping an extraordinarily
low profile
or in far less numbers here than we have become used to in the past
it was considered extremely lucky to shoot just 2 images of
DARTFORD WARBLER
On the other hand
 COMMON WHITETHROAT
seem to be all over the place
with indications of 'nesting' in all areas.
There only needs to be the slightest fall of rain for the
BLACK SLUG
to appear which have also been showing up 'mob-handed'!
To finish the day and this post the juvenile
STARLING
are now fledging in numbers and like this one often feed right outside
our door, particularly late afternoon.
EntryPageviews
United States
525
United Kingdom
268
Germany
35
China
21
France
21
Estonia
11
Canada
8
Ireland
6
South Korea
6
Turkmenistan
5 - It has been a long, long time since we added a Country to the Readership
WELCOME