Night Owl - Gerry Rafferty

Not a drop of rain overnight on Thursday and with the wind being no more than a zephyr, surely we were in for a decent return from the Moth Traps, but NO! By dawn the temperature here had plummeted to a chill +6° C bringing with it another dramatic drop in Insect numbers and just a single addition to the Year List by way of

 SHORT-CLOAKED MOTH

 certainly one of the small of the Macros.

The best of the 'also rans' tells a story in itself with the most attractive

 BLOTCHED EMERALD

leading the way and followed by

 BLOOD-VEIN

 and

KNOT GRASS

 GARDEN PEBBLE

 was representative of the Micros

 while a beautiful and tiny

 16-SPOT LADYBIRD

brought up the rearguard.  

 On Merritown the Erica's or Heather are now starting to bloom

poker-dotting the area with purple Patches of 2 distinct Species.

 CROSS-LEAVED HEATH

 and

DORSET HEATH

ANT'S NEST with abundance of EGGS.

Before leaving we were able to grab this short video clip of a

disappearing

SLOW WORM
Walking back to the Strange Rover we did nothing more than 'hear' a

 DARTFORD WARBLER

but reason enough to draw a couple of images from the archive.
To say that the situation regarding the status of these tiny and most vulnerable
Warblers is of 'great concern' would be an understatement to say the least.
This time last year we had estimated 27 juvenile birds across the Heath,
in various stages of development,
while yesterday's record was the 'first' and 'only' record during June this year!!

With the exception of the Trail Camera Updates all of the rest

of the days action turned up more or less on our front door step!
These 3 predated 

 MALLARD
eggs were only a few yards away and found within a 6 foot circle,

 and soon after finding

 we were paid a very brief visit by an overflying

COMMON BUZZARD

 c2 Species of Fungi have now sprung up all across the lawn

 MYCENA
and

PANAEOLUS

 While this male

 KESTREL

 having wreaked havoc among the smaller birds, especially nestlings,

finally perched long enough for a photo-call.

JACKDAW
videoed through the window taking the bread scattered for the smaller birds.
As afore mentioned, the Trail Cameras showing a New Addition.

Male STONECHAT with juvenile.

TAWNY OWL

Entry

	Pageviews
United States	1094
United Kingdom	369
Germany	192
Israel	52
Spain	41
Canada	31
China	25
France	23
Brazil	12
Ireland	12