Reach For the Sky - Gary Moore

Most of yesterday's action was focused on Victualling and Bunkering Ship
so just a little less time in the field!
With these continuing high overnight temperatures our hopes remained high,
but the haul from the Moth Traps turned out to be more of a 
Tease then a Triumph!

CYPRESS PUG 
was the only addition to the Year List which now stands at a fairly modest
360 Species of Macro Moths.
Thereafter is was most pleasing to see just how many  presumed local bred

 HOUSE SPARROWs
and an influx of 
STARLINGs
are enjoying the bounty of the Golf Course while later
 it was found that the prodigal

 MUTE SWAN

had returned seemingly to finish 'feathering his own nest'.
Further to that and along the 
Moors River Water Meadows
it would seem the new 2020 born

CHAROLAISE CALVES
are at last enjoying the openess of
Free  Range!
Apart from the Moth above there was something a little more macabre
as we delved into anotther trap to find this

 SPIDER

administering its venom into the

 larger body of a hapless
CADDISFLY
 There was a very brief and poorly captured fly past of one of the

 SPITFIREs

 flew overhead 

before landing at the airport

  on what was in fact
BATTLE of BRITAIN DAY!

As an ex-serviceman myself all that could be done was to stand there and salute

and produce this small appreciation of all who did so much to 
Keep Us Free! 
 Whether there was a connection or not we don't know, but over the next 2 hours
the sky became full of one type of aircraft or the other!
 We will not even attempt to identify all / any of those seen.

LAUDA 

we have never even heard of the carrier

let alone seen it!

 We have seen this Big Chap many times before

 but the capacity just isn't there

to remember all the names - no disrespect!

The Fog on the Tyne - Lindisfarn

A bit of a ‘pea-souper’ yesterday morning

with the temperature hanging on doggedly to single figures overnight,

in fact just +8°C!

By noon it was a full on +25°C but again nothing to report from the

Moth Traps

Theory is, they will be fighting to get in to them there traps tonight?

It did peak at +27°C

 MAIN POND

and a lot more

 CHIFFCHAFFs

 en-route to the

Irrigation Pond

 where the recent resident

Mute Swan

has left one hell of a mess but will come in handy to stuff the duvet!

and we have got his number.

Is this 'ring' an accusation - we didn't eat it or dislike it!

There was nothing to delay us at an equally gloomy

Gravel Pit

but on the way to the Heath we came across the c3

juvenile

 ROE DEER

which are usually as nervous as kittens,

but braving it on that day.

Very quiet, in fact embarisingly so, once again on the

Moor where the

 dew soaked

SPIDER WEB's

continue to please, and were we have also 'won' a new

ROBIN

close to the Moth Trap's Muster Station.

There cannot be a more opportunist bird, so we have to jetison our

Insects with a little more care!

 By the length of the hind-claws on these Pipit's

(all different specimens)

 we could be forgiven for thinking

 TREE PIPIT

 unless, and hopefully we are getting it wrong (we have only ever recorded a

'single' Tree in any year here) and just for bulk yet another juvenile

STONECHAT

Finally, and back at the Main Pond, we found what looks every bit like last years

Duck Conundrum?

Only sighted on the Gravel Pit some distance away as a 'first year juvenile' it had

traits of both

 MALLARD and male PINTAIL

not exactly obliging and we on the main farm track,

we will try for a better shot during the week.

Any views or suggestions would be warmly welcomed!
Not at all FOLKIE there is always an exception to the rule!
That exception is not Fog on the Tyne - Lindisfarn (named after the Holy Island just off the
Northumberland coast) - but their follow up single Lady Eleanor which doesn't fit the Post!

 It was a Great Joy to be at the

 especially on the second afternoon when 'The Farn' took to the stage and as part played

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cIMRaNujLA

LADY ELEANOR!

Cannot put my finger on it, nor explain why but when they reach that part of the lyric

just that single line

As she played, magicians seeing all this on the floor,
Belly dancing beauty with a power driven saw.
Had myself a nightmare,
Didn't think there could be much more.
“Then in walked Lord Borgaasha with the Lady Eleanor”.

She tied my eyes with a ribbon,
Of a silken gossamer thread.
I gaze with troubled vision,
On an old four poster bed.
Where Eleanor had risen to kiss the neck below my head,
And made me come along with her to the land of the dancing dead.

But its alright Lady Eleanor,
Alright Lady Eleanor.
I'm alright where I am.

it simply 

'SLAYS ME'!

The Holy Island of

LINDISFARN 

PS - we would like you to believe that yesterdays Meadow Pipits, which are in fact Dunnocks was a typo rather than a mis-identification, or more likely a severe dose of senility!!!!

The ammendment has been made!

The Ballard of Spotty Muldoon - Peter Cook

Again overnight temperatures continue to fluctuate,

on some nights as low as +8°C and on other +16°C.

Whatever, neither have brought anything new for the year, so

we will just show a limited number of the species we have caught.

 L-ALBUM WAINSCOT

 has remained frequent and expected while

 CENTRE-BARRED SALLOW

has also been expected and occassional.

 a little late we would say for

SINGLE-DOTTED WAVE

but representing the slightly unusual this

 small

BURNISHED BRASS

(above)

 has an unusually broad brown centre band?

 Amid all of that there was a high level pass from a

MERLIN HELICOPTER

before we set about trying to find more Wildlife to entertain you.

Best, it was considered, came first on entering the

Heath

with this

 SPOTTED FLYCATCHER

 just sitting on the single wire fence

just awaiting our arrival.

Another new arrival at the Airport

was a rather weary looking 

Airbus

and who knows how many that is since the begining of Covid?

It was left to the residents to make up the numbers,

so thank heavens for

 STONECHATs

 as it's getting a bit

'thin on the ground'

out there, but not wishing Winter to arrive too quickly!

 A quarter of a dozen

 DUNNOCKs

looking to still have a bit of juvenile plumage about them

soon turned into a 3rd of a dozen, but there were more.

A 'lateish'

WILLOW WARBLER

was most welcome
but then we relied on a couple or 3 

G.B. Raritie's From the Past!

 HUDSONIAN WHIMBREL

(Cornwall - 05/03/2016) 

 HOODED MERGANSER

with fish
(Portland and Weymouth and thought elsewhere over a 14 year period)

 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER

(Poole Park - 07/02/2011 and elsewhere in Dorset)