A View to a Kill - Duran Duran

As may have been seen by some Readers, via the 'comments' box, once again

Regular and Valued Reader Roy Norris has been a 

'Flip-to-the-Front'

in identifying the outstanding aircraft from the weekends

Bournemouth Air Festival.

Our THANKS go to Roy.

Looking across the Golf Course 

the 'Lower Limb' of the Sun was just touching the Horizon

seemingly taking the remaining Rain Clouds with it?

Looking in the opposite direction you didn't need to be

Tomasz Schafernaker

to realise there was a whole lot more rain to come!

There's a feeling I get when I look to the West,

and my Spirit is crying for leaving.

In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees,

and the voices of those who stand looking.

Ooh. and it makes me wonder,

Ooh, it really makes me wonder.

In the Moth Traps, and now at almost plague proportions both

 WASP

and

RED-LEGGED (Forest) SHIELDBUG

punctuated today's haul.

 Surely the 'catch of the day' this fine but slightly worn

 RED UNDERWING
new for the Year, as is

 SALLOW

 of the rather more scarce 'aberration'
flavescens.

 DUSKY THORN
a slight pause as this

COMMON TOAD
walked across the lawn.

WATER LILY
now blooming on most of the ponds around here.
Awaiting my arrival at Merritown Gate this morning a group of c4

RAVEN

cut across the murky sky.

Where, in quick succession, we found the Fungi
INOCYBE BONGARDI

the Larvae of a
FOX MOTH
and noted a sight we have never seen before,

 Rain Water retained in the ruts of the main cross path,

 before reaching the ever deepening (with rain water that is)

BALANCING POND
Just before arrival back at Slight Return II an encounter with

Tracy, one of the Equestrian Ladies, gave me the best lead of the day.

She had seen what was described as a

SPARROWHAWK

thought to be caught up by something on top of a pile of grass cuttings,

and seemingly unable to fly. She also pointed out that it looked as if it

had caught 'prey' and on closer inspection Tracy was considered correct on both counts!

Rather than being caught-up, the Raptor had taken a

MOORHEN

which was thought maybe too heavy to carry off.

Closing to 10 feet it made no attempt to fly off and even allowed time

for me to return to the Caravan to collect both the small camera and

the St-Range Rover/Mobile Bird Hide.

It would seem that some technical difficulty is preventing us from

posting the Video Clips. A number of different ways have been tried

to get them to work, without success. All are well under the permitted

100MB so it is not that!

We make no apology for fielding 6 x Clips

of what is considered pretty dramatic footage.

Watch Carefully

'In one end and Out the other'.

We certainly don't get this close every day!
THANKS AGAIN TRACY!

Entry	Pageviews
United States	483
United Kingdom    come on UK!	410
Germany	326
Estonia	19
France	15
Russia	14
Canada	13
Thailand	12
New Zealand	7
Australia	5

Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2

With the result still to be published as to whether July 2015 was in fact the 'wettest' ever on record, our prediction for this month is that it will be beaten into a Cocked Hat! The lull at 05:00 this morning only just allowed for the Moth Traps to be gathered in but it was also likely the overnight rain that caused the Farm Yard power to fail, which in turn will result in a lower Insect count. It was only an equal mix of stolid resolve and idle curiosity that had us leave Slight Return II at all yesterday which, under another set of circumstances, would have been considered a 'confined to barracks' day. It was only to view the rising water level in the new Balancing Pond and the chance of a  migrants/wanders landing somewhere in the Recording Area that got us out at all, as the Bournemouth Air Festival was also something of a damp squib this year. Of the latter, it wasn't just the weather, but the total lack of such 'crowd-pleasers' as Spitfire, Hurricane, Sea Vixen/Venom, Lancaster Bombers et al but through the murk we did capture what we could.

 AEROBITES

 Aerobatic Display Team

 carried out a 'practice session' directly overhead,

 but even at Point Blank

they were difficult to see.

 B-17 FLYING FORTRESS

 Rumour had it that these 2 are the next generation to the aircraft

now used by the Red Arrows

 Our Mate Roy Norris did confirm this later, they are
HAWK T2 TRAINERS
(Thanks Roy)

 Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries

TWIN OTTER

 and a closer look at the

RED ARROWS

coming in to land.

The residue of yesterday's catch includes 

 LESSER TREBLE-BAR

 SATIN WAVE

and

SMALL WAINSCOT

new for this year.

Remaining with the subject for a moment, all of you will doubtless remember the

LOBSTER MOTH

caught here on the 2nd July this year which during its brief captivity
produced a number of eggs. These were taken by our friend Dave Foot
to his home, where they were nurtured and eventually hatched.

If you have ever wondered where Film Directors get their ideas from
to produce Aliens from Mars look no further than
NATURE and these images.

LOBSTER MOTH LARVAE (Caterpillar)

some footage of their activities

and an example of the

 LOBSTER
they take their name from.

These were given as gifts to friends who attended my
60th Birthday Party
(scary to think that was over 9 years ago?)
In addition Dave brought along a

PRIVET HAWK-MOTH
larvae

 which, given it was almost an inanimate object,

suffered at the hands of the photographer - ME!
On the Heath we also found yet another, but larger

 but larger

 SMOOTH SNAKE

 A recently shed

 SNAKE SKIN

A colour variation of
BLACK SLUG

 an as yet 'unidentified'
SNAKE
while this fearsome looking

FALSE WIDOW SPIDER
was found in one of my jackets in the wardrobe. A bit of a lucky
escape maybe as my Learn'ed Friend John Gifford tells me they
do bite and usually cause a nasty infection.
There was an extra treat in store before yesterday was over, only a
partially expected visitation from my dear friends

Paul (left) and Annie (diagonally opposite) Harris

Little time for a photo call so this rather memorable image has been dragged from the archive. On the occasion of a visit by my (Buchan Alpha Oil Rig) Mate 'Jim the Medic' to my later-day domicile Slight Return, in Weymouth we were also in the company of Lorne (Bowie) and Sheila Edwards (one of Bowie's many claims to fame being an ex-drinking mate of Film Actor and Hell Raiser Oliver Reed). All of this company still talk of the 'best' Duck they have ever eaten and the 

which helped to take the taste away!

AT THE TIME OF GOING TO PRESS IT IS

STILL RAINING, WITHOUT LET UP, AND

THE MOTH TRAPS REMAIN UNDER SHELTER!

Entry	Pageviews
United States	447
United Kingdom	390
Germany	303
France	16
Canada	15
Estonia	14
Thailand	12
New Zealand	9
Russia	8
Australia	6