I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover - Emmy Rossum

The Royal Navy version of this being
"I'm Looking Over a 3 Badged Stoker" 
Well we've been waiting and asking for it and now it seems we have got it,

warm 'end of spring' days and 'balmy nights' and that's only at the 

Pig and Whistle!

A few new Moths as well, which is always a boon, so now to hope it lasts.

The first of these comes with an element of difficulty when compared with it's sister 

 TREBLE-BAR

(which we caught earlier in the year but caution with the other almost the same.

 It comes down to the angle, as indicated on the schematic above,

sent to me by my good friend and mentor Dave Foot to see if I can get the hang of it with

 LESSER TREBLE-BAR

(after all it is a science!)

Not quite so much difficulty with the other additions

 PEPPERED MOTH

 SMALL SQUARE-SPOT

 LARGE YELLOW UNDERWING

 SQUARE-SPOT RUSTIC

and a second hapless

GREEN CARPET

caught and devoured by a Spider within a trap - impossible to keep the little rascals out.

Onward, and leaving the still 'lone' Coot on the Irrigation Pond,

we arrived to find more than a 'little' interest at the Gravel Pit with first on view c2

 EGYPTIAN GEESE

which beat a very quick retreat and leving us to find

a pair of

GADWALL

this the male

and here the

 female.

 Not rare but only an occassional visitor, these 2 were in fact the first ever seen across our

Recording Area

during the month of May!

A brief encounter with a first of the year

COMMON BLUE DAMSELFLY

was not to be sniffed at which also applied to the brace of

GREYLAG GEESE

dropping in very soon after.

 That was by no means the end of it as 

I caught a fleeting glimpes out of the corner of my eye,

I turned to look but it was gone I cannot put my finger on it now, the child has grown,

the dream is gone.

For I have become Comfortably Numb!

Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd - from The Dark Side of the Moon

 At long long last we had our first

SAND MARTIN 

of the year which has always been the first of the 3 more common 

Hirundines

to arrive, followed usually by Swallow and House Martin.

The image above is the best of 53 shots to capture the c2 birds involved,

'hawking' Insects over the pond, so maybe best we field a couple from the archive........

 Sand Martin

onc a breeding bird here but sadly no more!

On the Heath there are a number of these 

Gravelled Areas

specially laid to attract Reptiles but more specifically

 SAND LIZARD

which catch the warmth of the 

Sun

which helps to get the early morning metabolism of these

remarkable creatures going and have been seen here to double as breeding areas.

Also on the Heath there was

 JAY

to the left of me

PARTRIDGE

to the right

"here I am stuck in the middle with you"!

as

Stealers Wheel

once sang.

PURPLE CLOVER

is in bloom,

MEADOW PIPIT

are surely feeding young while the 

BOG MYRTLE

has lost its orangy brown of winter for that

Delicious Green!

Step we gaily on we go, heel for heel and toe for toe
Arm in arm and row on row, all for Mairi's Wedding

Over hills and up and down
"Myrtle Green and Bracken Brown"
past the shieling through the town
All for sake of Mairi

Plenty herring plenty meal, plenty peat to fill her creel
Plenty bonnie bairns as weel
That's the toast for Mairi

Mairi's Wedding - Noel McLoughlin