Border Song - Elton John

While we have caught a few Moths already in 2016, 54 species of Macro to be precise, we did have it in mind not to consider the season 'open' until such times as we took a specimen from the palings on Janet's stable. Just a 'boy thing' that does it for me, but we got a whole lot more than we had bargained for! The Forecaster had predicted heavy rain to start at 07:00 yesterday morning, and he/she was right, so forewarned we made an early start on the traps. Reaching the stable there was a small Moth clinging to the side which on closer inspection appeared to be something not seen before. A beautifully patterned little thing which it was thought best to photograph before consigning it to a specimen pot, which is what we did! Turning to grab a pot, only an arms length away, we turned to see the little blighter take off and make its way across the paddock. Had the BBC seen what followed they would have turned their attentions away from The Invictus Games to film for posterity my dashing hither and thither in an effort to capture the creature. Foiled in my efforts there was at least an image to prove the event, hands up all those who would have believed just a written description?

 Clinging to the woodwork Dorset's 4th and only photographed

LACE BORDER

Davey, P., 2009 (extract from the Dorset Moth Group Website describes the status of this extremely rare Moth far more eloquently than would I).  A rare and much decreased double-brooded species now restricted to Kent, Surrey, Norfolk and Gloucestershire, the larva feeding on Wild Thyme (Thymus polytrichus) and Wild Marjoram (Origanum vulgare). In Dorset, individuals have been seen at light on only three occasions and were all thought to be suspected immigrants from the Continent:- Upwey, on 5 July 1960 (H Warry), 2 September 1945 (A Russell) and Scar Bank, on 21 July 1934. Ten days prior to the Upwey record, a single Lace Border was recorded at Abbotstone Down; which remains the only Hampshire record to this day.

IF INDEED THIS IS THE 'START OF THE SEASON'

THEN THE ONLY WAY FROM HERE, IS 'DOWN'!

Not at all prepared for a Post today we will,

just for the fun of it, include this other novel snippet. 

We had decided some time ago that this lone tree stump might make

an ideal 'plucking post' for a Raptor, or more particularly a 'singing post'

for a Nightjar, neither of which have as yet taken up the option.

However, the Trail Camera itself, mounted on a tripod, proved to suit what

is presumed to be a Common Buzzard as an ideal perch.

This is surely the same bird that features in the Last Post rejecting
the mallard carcass and leaving its own 'deposit'. Watch the video
closely for the same reaction (deposit).
MANANA!

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