Thursday 20 May 2021

Lady and the Lake - Nimue

 Mother Nature is a Wonderful Woman indeed allowing us to meander along looking at what is usual and expected then, every so often, tossing a spanner into the works - ask any Twitcher! With the weather pattern continuing to be wet and noisy we were not expecting a lot from the Moth Traps and that is just what we got, in fact just c2 Insects with one being this beauty

the archetype
BIRCH MOCHA
while this is a Mind Blowing Variant we have never clapped eyes on before!
THANK YOU MUM.

Away from that we first of all checked on the 

MUTE SWANs
which has been a daily visitation since the first egg was laid on 12/04/2021, but only revealing what is beneath sporadically,
with this morning being something of an exception as both a bout of

Ships Husbandry was also underway while again
expossing all c8 eggs.
Concerning at both sites, there was nothing to report from the Irrigation Pond while the Little Grebes on the Gravel Pit were either absent or hiding/nesting while the pair of
TUFTED DUCKs
continue steaming back and forth from one end of the pond to another without a trace of breeding!
More Bad News as we reached the most northery of the Solar Panel Compounds to find another text to the Shepherdess was required to report the 4th Ewe of the season as an
ESCAPEE

The path is clear though no eyes can see, the course laid down long before.

And so with gods and men the Sheep remain inside the pen,

though many times they’ve seen the way to leave

Firth of Fifth - Genesis

not an iota of improvement across the Heath with just this single male

CHAFFINCH
venturing within lens lenght but then only for 6 seconds -
Executive Decision Time
let's try
and while talking of MORGUE'S
No People, the Lowest number of Birds ever seen at this site (not a singlr Bird on the surface of the Lake) and quite rightly a Military Style One Way System Walkway.
The 'Highlight' should we wish to give it a name came at the well places
NESTING PLATFORMs 

this one exclusively occupied by Black-headed Gulls

while the other 2 were being shared with
COMMON TERNS
the first we have seen this year while at the end of the track
an extremely
vocal male
BLACKCAP
Babbling Brook with other
SONGSTERs
Old Lady of the Forest
along with another First for the Year
SHORT-EARED OWL
if only!

A short visit so ample time to pop along and visit a family friend, a lady of senior years, always vibrant and loves her garden.
At the start of the drive a mighty
HORSE CESTNUT
full of 'Candles' with some of them "in the wind" before finding the
The Lady of the House
trying to avoid making the tea.
Something of a Strange Sight this year
(Dad's got the Groceries)
as we don't appear to have a single Bird, let alone a Breeding Pair on home turf?
GOLDFISH
then back to Base just in time as
Funnel Cloud
was trying to form, followed byyet another
DOWNPOUR.