Come Fly With Me - Frank Sinatra

Weather-wise it's been a bit of a Wet and Windy May but

 Summer in the city where the air is still
A baby being born to the overkill
Who cares what people say
We walk down love's motorway
Ambition and love wearing boxing gloves
And singing hearts and flowers 'cus

Somewhere in My Heart
There is a star that shines for you
Silver splits the blue
Love will see it through
And somewhere in my heart
There is the will to set you free
All you've got to be is true   Aztec Camera

Tomorrow's SUMMER!

Apart from that traditional Farmhouse Sunday Roast Dinner every now and again, (including later today) I just love a visit to Janet's Parents house just a mile or two down the road. To describe John as a 'dab-hand' in the garden would be like judging Joe Bonamassa an average ukulele player, while Joyce is always 'sprinting blocks nailed in' to capture the next life-experience! Before arriving there yesterday I had already cleared my Moth Traps but, just for the craic had and at their suggestion, put one in their garden among the blossoming trees. At PCF there was an immediate addition to the Year list as a

PRIVET HAWK-MOTH
was hanging on to the side of the trap and quickly joined by a

POPLAR HAWK-MOTH

Privet hawk Moth

COMMON MARBLED CARPET
already secured this year, but this 'Dark Morph' individual was
considered both unusual? and interesting.

SCORCHED WING

also joined the throng before meeting up with

JOHN and JOYCE
doubtless waiting in anticipation.

It would be no labour to wander their garden time after time but that day
just restricted myself to looking at this rather bizarre example of 'grafting'.
For my money and OAK stump with a HORSE CHESTNUT
welded on top? Don't let the leafs (top right) fool you they are overhanging.
Well, the start could have been better, but certainly no complaints as first out
was yet another First for the Year.

LIGHT EMERALD
highlighted in 'BLUE' as we caught our first at the Farm the very next day.

 COMMON CARPET

 a couple of

 PALE TUSSOCK

 SMALL YELLOW WAVE

 LIME-SPECK PUG
and

LIGHT BROCADE

 were the Best of the Rest, along with a 'brace' of copulating

CICADA
female top, male below.

Joyce and I were now set for a short trip up to Merritown Heath, in the hope of Dartford Warbler, but sprightly 82 year old John decided not to go as he had a couple of miles of 3-strand barbed-wire fencing to put up, a full size wind blown Oak Tree to chop to fire wood and a dozen rows of spuds to dig. I don't know what he did in the afternoon!! THREE LIFERS appeared in fairly quick succession for Joyce with the

 DARTFORD WARBLER

 being a bit distant but enhanced with use of the Swarovski 10 x 32's.

 WHITETHROAT
now feeding young, but for my guest the Show Stealer was most certainly

male

LINNET

Next on her list is Nightjar which are now 'churring' away every dusk

and on the wing soon after, which will coincide with Hugh and Janet

at the same time, and Woodcock is also on the cards.

The latest arrival on the
Parley Court Equestrian Scene.

SONG THRUSH

 By no means Lord Lichfield but thought an

 interesting sequence of mating

 STOCK DOVE

 but what prey are they using as a Bridal Bower?

 Now, does that entitle them to membership of the

 Mile High Club
My personal qualification came on a Virgin (it would have to be wouldn't it)
Airways flight Heathrow to JFK on 06/10/1980!
Memories are Made of This!
I saw the man at J.F.K.
He took your ticket yesterday

                                         In the Humdrum                    Peter Gabriel

and at long last the
ASPEN
are coming to life.

 LABYRINTH SPIDER 'LAIR'

SCARLET PIMPERNEL

another

 COMMON TOAD

WOOD ANTS
and

WOOD PIGEON

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Something For the Weekend - Divine Comedy

With the May Bank Holiday now some days away, it has taken us this long to catch up with the 'hundreds' of photographs and notes that would put War and Peace in the shade. Our Regular (and valued) Readers will not be surprised to know that the whole period was given over to Wildlife and who better to share it with than my Wildlife Friend and Mentor

DAVE FOOT

and
GANDALF
With our collective 7 Moth Traps cleared we set off in search of
some Daytime Fliers, and didn't have to wait too long.
High on the agenda was

EMPEROR (Moth)

but the 'male' in particular.
Unlike the

'female',
this one you may remember was caught on the 12th of the month
and shown again for comparison, he is only on the wing during the day
so by definition will not entertain the 'light traps' so other
strategy is required to catch these extremely fast flying Insects.

Now, we have just mentioned 'fast flying', well compared to the above

 this 'Daytime Dasher'

BROAD-BORDERED BEE HAWK-MOTH
is the Usain Bolt of this division.
We chose to show the Best First so now back to just a selection of the
Saturday Night Catch.
In all, the Macro Totals registered
Dave = 132 Insects of 52 Species
Myself = 37 Species to 225 Individuals
among them New to the Property and New for the Year  

LIME HAWK-MOTH

EYED HAWK-MOTH

A particularly 'dark' (morph)

FOX MOTH

and if you can see it, the well camouflaged

PALE OAK BEAUTY

and also a 'dark morph' of the same.

IRON PROMINENT

MARBLED WHITE SPOT

SHEARS

TRUE LOVER'S KNOT

GREY BIRCH

and if you need any more evidence that

We Don't Do 'Micros'

Dave does!
also in one of the traps the first

CARDINAL BEETLE

of the year, and while looking every bit distinctive so far
we have only been able to narrow this down to a

LATRIDIIDAE SPECIES?

answers on a Post Card please.

The Insects eventually taken care of it was time for a stroll and to

see what else was on offer.

SAND MARTIN

appear to be thriving at the

recently discovered colony.
There are now thought to be 8 'active nests-holes'.

juvenile
PIED WAGTAIL
seem to be just about everywhere, while we caught this

WOOD PIGEON

napping.
Plants included

YELLOW FLAG IRIS

an excellent cluster of

RAGGED ROBIN

OXEYE DAISY

and extremely colourful

RED CAMPION

To continue the 'Young Bird' theme,

no less numerous

than the Pied Wagtail above

and seemingly willing to

show-off.

recently fledged

ROBIN

with a short 'clip'.

MUTE SWAN

introduced their Cygnets

to the world on

Parley Pond

5 counted so far, while

COOT
have only just started incubating.
There is a warning however, better keep the kids well away from

GIANT RED-EARED TERRAPIN

Coot eggs, yum, yum!

and a quick update on the

TAWNY OWLs

with the parent bird still in attendance

as shown

keeping close watch on the

OWLET

short clip before going 'off piste.
With half of Sunday afternoon still available it was unanimously agreed
that we wandered a little further afield.

TITCHFIELD HAVEN
was the destination and I was already wincing at the prospect of the
£4.00 Entrance Fee
to this Council Owned Nature Reserve.
You've paid yer Poll Tax now it's time to 'stump-up' some more!

We struck lucky as even before we found a FREE car park
Dave had already spotted the target bird and said he was happy to go back now!

The
GREATER YELLOWLEGS

a 'vagrant' from the Americas had conveniently flown to the

Estuary outside of the Reserve so was on
FREE VIEW

A 'World Lifer' for Dave and new for me in Great Britain.
Many 'hundreds' of these elegant Waders must have been seen on my various travels,
and though distant this was thought to be the Best of the Bunch plumage-wise!
So, not a bad week-end considering we hardly left Slight Return II.

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