Those Were the Days (My Friends) - Mary Hopkin

 By no means alone in all of this, the only real restriction Covid 19 has put upon me personally is having missed the occasional visits from my Mentors and Apprentices alike. No longer able to invite such luminaries as

Doctor Moth himself Phil Stiling (right) with brother Mike

 and the older of my own 4 apprecices

Chloe

Dave Foot

without whose undying help we would never have gotten back into the saddle
and with a little favouritism the 3 (one missing)

Mason Children

who never flinched when first having a Moth placed on their hands and marveling at the the likes of

ELEPHANT HAWK-MOTH

Back to the day and best among another poor haul at the traps were repeats of

BRINDLED PUG

RED CHESTNUT
along with a

EARLY TOOTH-STRIPED
Following what over the last few month has become the way of things we again wandered off to
Longham Lakes and talk about Right Time, Right Place the sky was full of Hirundines with

most numerous being

SAND MARTIN

difficult to estimate number but to be at least 1,000 with the next being

SWALLOW
maybe a couple of hundred or more and already seen this year and finally among the meleé just a lone

HOUSE MARTIN

and additionally there was no more than a light sprikling of 'reed bound'

SEDGE WARBLER

and

close cousins

REEDWARBLER

all chittering away

in an effort to claim the hand of a
Fair Maiden
and in addition to a lovely clump of

BLUEBELLs