Watcher of the Skies - Genesis

While the temperature went up, the rain came down and

more or less washed out another day

but we are made of stouter stuff than that!

 THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

seems to be perminantly 'under the rotors' these days so have taken to

giving a little wave as they hover overhead.

Catches from the Moth Traps remain at a trickle as various websites

across the County tell us we are not alone in this but just to capture that odd new arrival

such as

BIRCH MOCHA

 and

THE SPECTACLE

 keeps the interest up.

Odd name we hear you say but

 now you can perhaps see why!

Our daily and early morning visit to the Main Pond bore fruit this morning as we found the

 MUTE SWANs

 Feathering their own Nest

As one starts another capitalises on all that sitting around as sometime over the weekend the

 CANADA GEESE

presented their new family to the world

 and while we made no note of when incubating started, that 

Goose has surely been sitting for 3 weeks or more?

In our reports the

GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL

is described as 'scarce' as never having been reported from the Common, Heath

or even as a fly-over transiant, so more or less exclusive to the roof-lines of

Bournemouth International Airport

from where we have also never proved breeding. 

An excellent find then, when considering the above, as one was 

bathing and barking from the wet area, known as The Puddle, between us and the airport.

Just as scarce is

 PINK HAWTHORN

which we discovered a clump of and luckily contrasting nicely with its 

neighbour-next-door.

Right Time - Right Place

as our arrival at the Heath coincided with a pair of 

 SWALLOWs

 nest building which caused some extra interest as

 departing with a fresh bill full of mud they flew from our position to the

 far side of the airfield before disappearing out of sight.

This has to be somewhere in the region of one to one and a half miles

thinking that they could surely have found a damp patch a little closer to home?

eack sortie taking between 2 and 2½ minutes.

and finally, it was found to be a case of

You Scratch Your Back and I'll Scratch My Own!

RARE BREED BELTED GALLOWAY