Friday 28 August 2020

'Slender' is the Night - Jackson Browne

 Or maybe that should be 'Tender'?
Being an Ancient Mariner of about 10 minutes short of 50 years at sea, my life is
constrained by 'routine' and 'discipline', even the tins and jars in the cupboard are all lables facing forewards - sad but true!
Always out of the hammock at least one hour before the old Current Bun
and as soon as daylight shows 'standard size Moth pots in hand'
The sun had been up for a couple of hours,
covered the ground with a layer of gold.
Spirits were high and the raining had stopped,
the larder was low, but boy that wasn't all.
Eleventh Earl of Mar
couldn't get them very far.
Daddy! Oh Daddy, You Promised.
Eleventh Earl of Mar - Genesis
it's off to check the wooden fence for stragglers! 
Yesterday, it was a return to the caravan 10 times quicker than the 
outward saunter to grab a 'large pot' as there perched on the pallings was a
First For Year
 CLIFDEN NONPAREIL
 Looking rather like a recenly 'moth-balled'
RAF Vulcan Bomber.
The splender of such an Insect comes when it eventually opens its wings!
Nonpareil is a French word meaning "having no match or equal; unrivalled" 
and while not a 'rare' Moth it is one that is much prized.
 A fine start but, the noteriety didn't last for long as reaching the bottom of that first trap
and the last Moth, the Clifden was consigned to the back-burner!
Little to compare with the 'rarity' that is
 SLENDER BURNISHED BRASS
a Moth which most of the fraternity have never seen let alone caught, including myself!
Photographing was a nightmare inasmuch that it might escape
before being passed around the ranks.
BURNISH BRASS
 (Ordiaire)
for comparison and this is
 how the Manual describes it
Bernard Skinner
Otherwise, there were also a few things to be reported from 
Out in the Field
My closest neighbours, the
WOOD PIGEONs 
 have incubated c3 clutches already this year,
 but we never see any Squabs (young) so maybe that is why they are 'at it' again?
This
AIR AMBULANCE
is not familiar across our air-space and don't know where it is from?
The only surviving
 MOORHEN CHICK
is still being nurtured
by the
 Mother Hen
while today they had a visitor.
 The
MUTE SWAN
has been noticabley abcent from all watercourses here this year
 with a pair on the Main Pond having built c4 nests, laid c4 clutches
and in short time abandoned them all??
 Butterflies collectively have been at their lowest ebb ever during 2020
so welcoming to find the first of c3 species for the day at the
Gravel Pit
PEACOCK
followed by an impromptue
REED WARBLER
at great distance
 and no time to extend the zoom fully.
 This being what it should look like.
Next was a rather battered
 MEADOW BROWN
while on the Heath there was a close encounter with the lovely
Brown and White - Rare Breed
 SHETLAND
and even closer to an obliging
RED ADMIRAL
A lone
MOORHEN
on the Moors River seemed somehow worthy of a click while arrival at the
Solar Panel Compound
met with what looked like an overnight 'fall' of
MEADOW PIPIT
and a lone but a little better marked
WHEATEAR
than the others of late.
Finally, and not usually given to being confiding we did hone in on a
 far more confiding
 STOCK DOVE
 than is the norm!
THERE'S ANOTHER DAY JUST WAITING FOR US TO
GET OURSELF INTO GEAR!