Goosey, Goosey Gander

A swift amendment to yesterday's Post as how nice it would be to have a HARLAQUIN on the pond. Thanx John for correcting the senility!!

Up to the time of writing the weather seems not to have improved one iota but fortunately that cannot be said about the Moth Traps. While not overwhelmed, we are at least getting a little trickle with F.F. the Y. represented by:-

BRUSSELS LACE

THE

FLAME
along with a couple of

SMALL SERAPHIM
living in the knowledge that those Chrysalis are getting more plump by the day and when the time is right, will pop! While also close to home the

LIME TREE
prunned back to the quick during late autumn has sprung back as a fine looking bush.
At the Irrigation Pond the

EGYPTIAN GOOSE FAMILY

are only showing sporadically with the Gosling

seeming able to support itself

very well, while at the Gravel Pit

there were initially c5

HERRING GULLs
bathing

until 'yours truely' happened along.
All else amounted to our second

WEASLE
of the year on entering the first
Solar Panel Compound

and

LINNETs

Having been busy of the past few days!
While the neighbour's

HEARD
free-ranging

always bring delight to me personally while back as base we found the tiniest of

MOLE-HILLs

ARGUS - Wishbone Ash

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
 Not an eye-catching contribution from the Moth Traps, but given the prevailing weather we'll accept just about anything as long as it is an addition to the List!

MIDDLE-BARRED MINOR
(which we feel may have featured before)

BROWN SILVER-LINE

YELLOW BELLE
along with the least glamorous of them all

TURNIP MOTH
At the Main Pond it looked every bit as if the Mute Swans have Abandoned Ship with little sign of the Birds let alone any egg debris or Sygnets, but we will continue to survey, while continuing the 'aquatic theme' with another brief glimps of the male

MANDARIN
again plodding another altogether different beat. Not so flamboyant but looking far more likely to procreate than the above, a pair of

MALLARD

female

pair maybe preparing for the

Magic Moment?
As something of an 'aside' it was also the 13th consecutive day that we have recorded

RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE
a real record-breaker as lucky ever to see these fairly secretive birds 2 days in a row.
Coming away from the ponds for a second day running a single

WHITETHROAT

seems to have been singing

almost none stop

but seems to have

something of a 'juvenile plumage' about it

compared to an

Adult Bird
(oppinions please)
With very little human activity on the day we decided to take a look behind the
Eco Recycling Works
maybe in hopes of Shelduck nesting there again, as they have done so in the past, but no joy.

However, the bonus came with even more expectation of finding

 BROWN ARGUS BUTTERFLY

which is fairly common in the area and not at all shy about visiting the Moth Traps on occassion,

allowing for these not often seen views of the underside,

2 images from the archive.
Finally, there was also some joy at the Solar Panel Compound
(or maybe that should read "outside of the Solar Panel Compound")

as that is where one of the Black Sheep of the Family has been at large for about 2 weeks now with our half a dozen attempts at repatriation not working at all up until now!
"and so with God's and Men the Sheep remain inside the pen" (sometimes!)

"until the Shepherd leads his flock away!"

GENESIS 

Grandstand Seats Only!

P.S. - It has been a BEEZA (if that is the correct word) of a Week-end that it is likely to take the same amount of time to sort things out and publish them. 

Patcience is a virtue posses it if you can, often found in women but never found in man!

Sri Lanka - Part III

The most harrowing part of our visit to

TEAR-DROP of INDIA
had to be the Train Ride around the Southern Coast of the Country
where the reality of the then 2 year old Tsunami hit us well below the belt!
Had all the donations, private and nationally, sent from every point of the compass not made any progress to the well being of these hapless people, to the untrained eye it seemed not!

Boats still left where they smashed against the rocks

ORANGE-BREASTED GREEN PIGEON

Punctuating the devestation with Wildlife to lighten the load.

JACKAL

Flimsy Shacks

SPOT-BILLED PELICAN

FISHERMEN
having to cast

and recover industrial size fishing gear by hand
"bet they were glad of my help??"

JERDON'S BUSHLARK

We will draw a line under the devistation there, continuing with more

WILDLIFE
INDIAN STRIPED PALM SQUIRREL

LAND MONITOR

LARGE-BILLED CROW
and finally

WILD BOAR
(but enough about me!)