Send Down a Dove - Charles MacHardy

With the overnight temperature now levelling out at a far more acceptable

+14°C, cloud cover being mainly total and the wind in the southern quadrant

there has been a little more to show for our efforts from the

Moth Traps.

Firsts for the Year

have included

COMMON WAINSCOT

SMALL SQUARE-SPOT

COMMON CARPET

COMMON SWIFT

in 2 differing shades

and sizes.

BUFF-TIP

COXCOMB PROMINENT

GREAT RED SEDGE

and spectacular mating
TIGER CRANEFLY
We make note here of help in identifications from our friends
Dave Foot, John Gifford and Paul Harris
(in alphabetical order to save any fighting in the playground)

In other directions things have been a little quieter with the

 COOT,
having already lost one brood to the predator, have commenced 'sitting' again.

A pair of 
MUTE SWAN
that occasionally look like they mean business and always followed by a spell of
Head Down.

As far as we can tell

STOCK DOVE
Oh Lord above send down a Dove
with wings as sharp a razors.
To cut the throats of them there blokes
as sells bad beer to Sailors! 
(Now there's a book worth reading) 

 are nesting both

 on the Heath and within the Eco Recycling Centre

while finding a ready supply of food in the
Solar Panel Compounds.

While talking of Eco, a few

 SAND MARTIN

 have been seen on the wing including both
adult (right) and juvenile birds (left).

JUVENILE SAND MARTIN

Feeding Young

DITTO

Not quite absent altogether but either keeping an extraordinarily
low profile

or in far less numbers here than we have become used to in the past

it was considered extremely lucky to shoot just 2 images of

DARTFORD WARBLER

On the other hand

 COMMON WHITETHROAT

seem to be all over the place

with indications of 'nesting' in all areas.

There only needs to be the slightest fall of rain for the

BLACK SLUG

to appear which have also been showing up 'mob-handed'!

To finish the day and this post the juvenile

STARLING

are now fledging in numbers and like this one often feed right outside
our door, particularly late afternoon.

Entry	Pageviews
United States	525
United Kingdom	268
Germany	35
China	21
France	21
Estonia	11
Canada	8
Ireland	6
South Korea	6
Turkmenistan	5 - It has been a long, long time since we added a Country to the Readership WELCOME