Rabbit - Chas and Dave

Nothing Big, Bold or Flamboyant about any of our

'New Addition Moths'

but given the continuing abysmal weather conditions

we feel lucky to have caught anything at all in recent days.

 By no means anything much to look at given its badly worn condition,

but in this instance an addition to our Recording Area List.

SMALL WAVED UMBER

is an Insect of bushy areas on Chalky soils and Limestone cliffs,

neither of which we have here, and considered 'common' and attracted to light in small numbers.

It would seem we have caught our specimen between broods as flight periods are given as

May and June and again in August. 

 Considered another good capture as described as 'rare', 'very local' and

'seriously declining' with habitat restricted to Heathland.

DINGY MOCHA

is not new to us but only said to occur on the heaths of 

East Dorset and West Hampshire (the latter being almost an adjoining neighbour)

so we are well placed to maybe see a little more of this disappearing Insect? 

 TWIN-SPOTTED WAINSCOT

 SMALL WHITE WAVE

the Migrant

WHITE-POINT

and a

ROUND-WINGED MUSLIN

Out and About, given the season, things are a little quiet

"but quite frankly my dear, common or rare, as long as we see it

we don't give a damn"!

During our early morning rounds yesterday, and none too far from home, we found

 ORANGE HAWKWEED

in bloom

with the continued 'daily' accompaniment, either visual or vocal, of 

Cetti's Warbler, both larger Woodpeckers, Reed Bunting and Warbler, Kingfisher,

foraging parties of mainly juvenile Long-tailed Tit along with the occasional Grey Heron,

Raven, Mediterranean Gull and dozen upon dozen of Mistle Thrush

yer in Paradise before you even kick off!

Getting back to Slight Return II to photograph the catch and update the Lists

we found we had a new room-mate a

 NOBLE FALSE WIDOW SPIDER

which can do little more than kill you with just one bite, we'll see how

things go before we decided to evict her!

Only joking about the bite Aggggaaarrrrr!

Up the Common things remain fairly static with the juvenile

 LITTLE GREBE

has lost all traces of that up-until-now

Humbug Plumage

and as far as we can establish

Parent Bird's

are still incubating at both Irrigation Pond and Gravel Pit.

Before leaving the latter a couple of

STOCK DOVE

dropped in for a bath and dhobie and a drink 

but always keeping their distance, nervy little Pigeons these!

Before heading off to the Heath we first took a look at the

Subsidiary Pond

where to our delight we most certainly recorded a

Sedge Warbler

which, given just fleeting glimpses, looked highly likely to have been a juvenile.

Maybe the 56 days continuous singing, right across the Spring months,

did pay dividends in the end????

Also there were good numbers of

 WHITETHROAT

 including some young birds,

 a more than healthy

RABBIT

population, with no signs of  myxomatosis here so far this year.

 juvenile

 BLUE TIT

along with a small gathering of

STARLING

on the Solar Panels and beneath most obliging

HEN

and

COCK

PHEASANT

 Hardly through the gate, this

 DARTFORD WARBLER

(the first for many days now)

 popped out of the Gorse bush and took up sentinel on the upper thorns.

 Another juvenile, this time a 

GREEN WOODPECKER

was feeding feverishly along the main track but then something that has

been 4 days in the coming, the first sighting of the new arrival and addition to the

RARE BREED HERD

 (comprising c2 each of Belted Galloway and Shetland Cattle)

BRITISH WHITE

looking to the untrained eye every bit like a Bull but informed by

Alison the Herds Lady

to be a STEER

it was considered amazing what can be done with c2 'building bricks'!!

On today's 

Perimeter Walk - Marillion

it as decided to attempt a count of the numerous young Stonechat

here at the moment. A difficult enough task with all the toing and froing,

but came up with what was thought to be a rather low figure of c42?

Along with these and the Cattle there were some seriously 'sparkling'

 adult male

 LINNET,

 just a pity the images were not a little sharper, and a considered nice pose of young

MEADOW PIPIT and ROBIN

Give a Bird a Latin name such as

STURNUS 'VULGARIS'

and it is destined to maintain a

Bad Reputation - Thin Lizzy

for the rest of its existence. 

However, in addition to the spectacle that is a

Starling Murmoration

just stop and take a longer and closer look at these

wonderfully plumaged birds particularly at this time of year.

The views of the very small number on the Heath were astonishing to say the least,

but what was to unfold at the end my day

 while sat in the 

Great Hall

 Slight Return II

and decanting a second bottle of
 1988 Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1er Grand Cru Classe Paulliac

("Oh wouldn't you just die for the Vintage '88 darlings?)

watching a gathering of some 2 - 300 individuals 

right outside the
Palladian Window!

It’s a 'sair fecht' as they might say in The Granite City - Aberdeen!