Roy Wood's - Helicopters

Just one of Wood's brain child's along with 
The Move, Wizzard, Electric Light Orchestra he could have stollen the 
World of Rock 'n' Roll
on his own. It was a great privilege to have met the man on 2 seperate occassions
 but in the exact same place, his local pub

 The Bull Inn - Repton - Derbyshire
With overnight temperatures now hovering between

+6°C and +10°C

there has been something of a small increase across the traps

but no mass invasion or rarities but a nice little tickler were

c4 Firsts for the Year!

 COMMON SWIFT
(we hope the next Common Swift is the Bird of the same name)

 TREBLE-BAR

YELLOW SHELL

LYCHNIS
and this

 BUFF-TIP
 hanging on doggedly to the car wing mirror.
Otherwise, one of the parent

MAGPIES
seem to be patiently waiting for the nippers to fledge, who are 
next door neighbours to me in the Wellingtonia tree.
As far as is known there is still only the single egg in the

 MUTE SWAN

but the potential parents are by no means full time incubators?
With little, or more accurately, nothing inbetween we headed directly for the 
Heath
and directly into a most welcome refind of the

 RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGEs

 By no means a 'given'

 they can hide themselves away for weeks or months at a time

 but on the day the male bird was vocal and can just be heard
 above the sounds of the airport.

Always a Good Day - Partridge Day!
All of the trees and other plants here are now in full leaf,
all except that is for the Heather which seems to be dragging it heels but even the latest

 ALDER BUCKTHORN
is just about there while the

GUELDER ROSE
A bit of a flurry among the feeding

LINNET FLOCK
but now time to turn the 
Reptile Covers

 from where only a single Herp was found

 but veiing with Sand Lizard as to the BEST species we have on offer, an

ADDER

We can almost put hand on heart and say

THE ADDER

as showing all the signs and size of last years single and under the exact same cover?

All else beneath was an

ANTS NEST

where there cannot be many creatures outside of the

INSECTS

where the Eggs are bigger than the Adults?

The first and only 'flying' aircraft of the day was the usual

Royal Naval
MERLIN
followed in fairly quick succession by the

COASTGUARD RESCUE
The First for the Year

 SMALL COPPER BUTTERFLY
was found.

 From our observations it would be true to say that this adult male
BLACKBIRD
is awaiting the arrival of his brood but for some of the

 MISTLE THRUSHES

 the wait is over with the arrival of these juveniles.
As a

tail-piece we took a little time to snap and vid the local
COLLARED DOVE

which is not always quite so obliging!