Oh Mister Porter (written by George Le Brunn 1892)

Oh Mr. Porter, what shall I do?
I want to go to Birmingham
but here I am at Crewe.
Take me back to London
as quickly as you can,
Oh Mr. Porter what a silly girl I am.

Had it not been for the candid and honest admission by the Warden of the Portland Bird Observatory of rushing the Moth Traps some days ago we to would also have forgotten an important capture ourselves, which has laid in the archive ever since. With 6 balls in the air already it was simply good fortune that our friend Marcus Lawson happened along and asked if he might have a rummage through the traps, to keep his eye in, and came up with a rarity! The nondescript

PORTER'S RUSTIC

(ours captured on 29/06/2021) is described by the 'authority' that is
Bernard Skinner as only having been recorded in England 64 times, which would surely stand updating.

 Nonetheless, it can be seen that we have dusted off the cobwebs of our particular capture, and presented to our valued readership, which holds the distinction of Moth of the Year thus far!

Otherwise our rapidly deminishing catches continue the downward trend with only c2

JERSEY TIGER MOTHs

and a second generation

CREAM-BORDERED GREEN PEA
which is about the size that the vegetable suggests.

Unlike the coastal headlands of Dorset, such as Hengistbury Head and Portland Bill, we get very few migrant birds as a rule, but for the last couple of days that trend seems to have altered.

Firstly, it was a single

SPOTTED FLYCARCHER
only ever seen once in the garden and then followed by a number of juvenile

GREY WAGTAILs

with this one

taking up a Feeding Station atop of the highest tree

and bunkering maybe for

for the journey to come, there were 14 counted in all

before the second

SPOTTED FLYCATCH
arrived.

One Swallow Does Not a Summer Make!

 The double wammy of what to some might be considered bad news was countered by the same in as much as the Moth Traps stayed active on the Heath all night and although nothing new, there were some returning 'pretties' by way of:-

BORDERED BEAUTY

SCALLOPED OAK

along with the ever welcome

GOLD SPOT
while

up to 1,000

STRALINGs
continue to grace the tennis court and lawn

with once again a splash of colour coming from the

ROWAN BERRIES
with

BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY
showing well as a back-drop.

both

WILLOW WARBLER
and

CHIFFCHAFF

 

have been showing up in numbers as they hea for the Coastal Fringes and

 the inevitable flight across the Channel

while this may be the last we se of juvenile

STONECHAT
as adulthood is not far away

and maybe the last of the
GREYLING BUTTERFLIES
A call from the troops at the Fenceing Centre ended the day on a real high note as they rightly knew an 'open to view'

SWALLOWs NEST

would be

of likely interest

to both

yourselves

nd Me.

Here's hoping they also

make it to the

Other Side
(all c4 youngsters)

Another Sunday Special - Part I

 It is doubtful that the

PRIBILOF ISLANDS,

just north of the Aleutians in the Bering Sea, spring to mind when arranging the family holiday but, without that sort of baggage and the magnetic draw of travelling the full length of the Alaska Highway for a 4th time that was only part of it! Additionally, there was the chance to visit the 3 remaining US States (Hawaii, Utah and Idaho) to complete the full 50 while also, should luck have it, record 2 of the 3 outstanding Gull species still not seen across the World! Hawii was an absolute joy having already added

FAIRY TERN
and

HAWAIIAN DUCK
to the World List just before encountering this 'crew' of

US NAVAL RATINGS
who, as one, thought they had found their long-lost

SEA DAD

shipping me off to Hooters for a slap up meal!
The very mention of a

LAYSAN ALBATROSS
at an almost inaccessible location on the coast found them unnimous in changing their plans of cliff-diving to please their Dear Ol' Dad with another 'Lifer'!
For the sake of brevity we can tell that the following days there were of the best, especially Pearl Harbour, but we leap 'fast forewar' to

BAJA MEXICO
where it took 2 days to find just a single

YELLOW-FOOTED GULL
(just 2 to go).

The least said about Idaho and Utah maybe the better, with no disrespect, and we could write a book on its own discussing the adventures and sights along the Al-Can. 750 miles from Anchorage lie the tiny islands of St George and St Paul but the delight en-route was aplenty having picked up a few more passengers in Nome when

only a few minutes airbourn the view below was clicked from the port window

BELUGA WHALES
(thousands of them and a first for me)

On landing and so intrigued, especially by the numerous

GREY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCH
it wasn't noticed that

all the other passengers had dispursed

and there was no-one to meet me, but no worries as the Giant of a Man that was my guide

Forrest Rowland introduced me to Logistics Manageress Michelle Carlton

with a warm welcome

and introduction to my home for the next 5 days and with no considerations of lack of daylight

straight into the field with

CAPITATE VELERIAN
and

ARCTIC FOX
aplenty!

The HOTEL from distance,

while the tripod was erected in an effort to salvage this stricken

OIL TANKER
(nice to be back in familiar territory)

HARLEQUIN DUCKS
aplenty along with a look back at the town of

SAINT PAUL'S
and

as the sign suggested

the most numerous

MAMMAL
in all shapes and sizes

NORTHERN FUR SEAL

Among the Seabirds (some 'ringed')

PELAGIC CORMORANT

PARAKEET AUKLET
(with more to come) with

WHIRLEY LOUSEWORT

and what the Yanks quite rightly call this Wader
RED PHALOROPE

and we refer to as
GREY PHALAROPE
as only usually a winter visitor to our shore at which time they are Grey.
To bring this one to a close, with hopes of more to come, the

LAPLAND BUNTING
(male)

(female)
is also an annual visitor, in small numbers, to our shores.