Wednesday 6 May 2020

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