Lady and the Lake - Nimue

 Mother Nature is a Wonderful Woman indeed allowing us to meander along looking at what is usual and expected then, every so often, tossing a spanner into the works - ask any Twitcher! With the weather pattern continuing to be wet and noisy we were not expecting a lot from the Moth Traps and that is just what we got, in fact just c2 Insects with one being this beauty

the archetype
BIRCH MOCHA

while this is a Mind Blowing Variant we have never clapped eyes on before!
THANK YOU MUM.

Away from that we first of all checked on the 

MUTE SWANs
which has been a daily visitation since the first egg was laid on 12/04/2021, but only revealing what is beneath sporadically,

with this morning being something of an exception as both a bout of

Ships Husbandry was also underway while again

expossing all c8 eggs.

Concerning at both sites, there was nothing to report from the Irrigation Pond while the Little Grebes on the Gravel Pit were either absent or hiding/nesting while the pair of

TUFTED DUCKs

continue steaming back and forth from one end of the pond to another without a trace of breeding!
More Bad News as we reached the most northery of the Solar Panel Compounds to find another text to the Shepherdess was required to report the 4th Ewe of the season as an

ESCAPEE

The path is clear though no eyes can see, the course laid down long before.

And so with gods and men the Sheep remain inside the pen,

though many times they’ve seen the way to leave

Firth of Fifth - Genesis

not an iota of improvement across the Heath with just this single male

CHAFFINCH

venturing within lens lenght but then only for 6 seconds -
Executive Decision Time
let's try

and while talking of MORGUE'S
No People, the Lowest number of Birds ever seen at this site (not a singlr Bird on the surface of the Lake) and quite rightly a Military Style One Way System Walkway.

The 'Highlight' should we wish to give it a name came at the well places
NESTING PLATFORMs 

this one exclusively occupied by Black-headed Gulls

while the other 2 were being shared with

COMMON TERNS

the first we have seen this year while at the end of the track

an extremely

vocal male

BLACKCAP

Babbling Brook with other

SONGSTERs

Old Lady of the Forest
along with another First for the Year

SHORT-EARED OWL
if only!
A short visit so ample time to pop along and visit a family friend, a lady of senior years, always vibrant and loves her garden.

At the start of the drive a mighty
HORSE CESTNUT

full of 'Candles' with some of them "in the wind" before finding the

The Lady of the House
trying to avoid making the tea.

Something of a Strange Sight this year

(Dad's got the Groceries)

as we don't appear to have a single Bird, let alone a Breeding Pair on home turf?

GOLDFISH

then back to Base just in time as
Funnel Cloud
was trying to form, followed byyet another

DOWNPOUR.

The Cuckoo - English Folk-Song

 Yesterday's wake up call was provided by a most welcome return visitor back from the over-winter African sabatical, our very own

CUCKOO
on the banks of the River Stour

making for a total of c3 across the board.
Also, despite the seeming ly continuous heavy rain, we are also doing alright from the

Moth Traps
with the rearanged set up proving far more user friendly with among a decent bunch f.f.y. included

LIME-SPECK PUG

SETACEOUS HEBREW CHARACTER
(Setaceous means 'bristly' according to the New Oxford Dictionary)

and

HEART & DART
Apart from the leader a dowdy looking bunch but all, being new for the year, bring with then that little fillip which come with seeing them again.

Outside of that and bringing with it a little colour this

7-SPOT LADYBIRD

was a welcome catch as were a brace of

canoodling

BROWN-LIPPED SNAILs

A second for the year at the Gravel Pit was a most welcome, as scare here,

COMMON SANDPIPER
and maybe on the downside both

LITTLE GREBEs

were again in attendance but there was no signs of the nest. Not a disaster just yet
as they are built to float so could be at another location, so the search will continue!
There were also 10mm, whatever that means, of rain up to mid-p.m. which also may have something to to with the absence.
All elseshowed the

MOORHEN CHICKs

to be thriving while also

Increasing in Numbers.

China Girl - David Bowie

 Despite the almost continuous overnight rain again, by dusk it had moderated to no more than a light drizzle which wouldn't prevent us getting to the Moth Traps. At home the first to be noticed was the

diminutive

CHINESE CHARACTER
which on a dull day could easily be overlooked for a bird-dropping.

COMMON WHITE WAVE
made up the pair of first's for year and as ever we checked out the

MUTE SWAN NEST
which has now been emblazened by natural growth and some carefully selected Reed
but not a sign of a Sygnet.

At the gateway to the Heath the DAISIES had not swung out of the hammock yet, as only 06:15 but a good start at the traps with a

COXCOMB PROMINENT

was first to be potted and added to the Year List while the now daily opportunist

female and

male
CHAFFINCH
flitted just above head height.

GREEN TIGER BEETLE

is always a welcome and eye-catching addition but not as much as the f.f.y.

and almost prehistoric

PALE TUSSOCK
We wouldn't consign the following hour to the
Boring Catagory
which might have been welcome as one of only 2 things left on the
Bucket List.
Just 10 minutes to see what it is like but roundly entertained by the blooming

ROWAN
(or Mountain Ash if you prefere)
and a presumed parent

MEADOW PIPT

which by then was fighting against the showers to sustain a

Nest Full?
During the all too brief intervals there was time to admire the now blooming

HAWTHORN

and turn a couple of the covers

to find just a single

SMOOTH SNAKE
Just out of curiosity and the fact that the heavy rain might be doing some good we started heading south but but not before checking the now wide awake

DAISIES
and finding en-route a couple of most obliging

SWALLOWs
this one facing Forward and

the other facing Aft
while across the

MAIZE FIELDs
new shoots spring eternal and while not yet quite as "high as an Elephants eye" with a little more presipitation it could well "climb clear up to the sky"!
Oh What a Beautiful Morning!

Through my own fault you may have missed the second Post of Friday 16th so would refer you back to that as well and the New Addition to the Local Bird List!

See Birds - Sea Birds

Don't know what happened to yesterday's Post but most like another all too frequent Senior Moment, idea's are being buck up as we speak! Apologies, but strange to relate the highest number of 'hits' for weeks.

From my recollection the heavy pulses of rain started just before midnight with more persistent downpours after the witching hour and continuing throughout yesterday. Despite Fire or Tempest one thing remains paramount which is to log and then release the Moths to the wild which we did during the still heavy showers.

From among a below average catch did come a very handsome First for the Year

GREEN CARPET

and just 30 minutes later bright sunshine
which preceeds the 'Cop Out'! It was Sunday last (09/05/2021) that we recieve notification from Dave Foot of a rare bird on Longham Lakes with precise detail of the area it was favouring.

Met close to the gate by the Greylag Goose Goslings, which have grown apace since hatching the week before, we spotted the crowd well before the bird.

WHISKERED TERN

has a wide distribution

so who knows where it might have come from

and which we have seen in

Great Britain

no more than a handful of times.
Great that Dave should call in the fist instance, equally to make the reacquaintance and did stimulate memories of a similar situation back on the 06/05/2017 on the same lake, across a very similar period and on the same
Depth Guage.

On that occassion and from the opposite direction

BONAPART'S GULL,

still a juvenile, must by definition have transited the

Atlantic Ocean
being in a similar scarcity bracket and seen a similar number of times on home turf as the above.
Unfortunately the Videos of the occassion refuse to upload.