Old Red-Eyes Is Back - The Beautiful South

With precious little in the Moth Trap again this morning, maybe more accurately just 10 Insects may qualify as 'nothing', it was decided to return to the Fishing Lakes at the north of the farm that were visited  yesterday.

SILVER Y

is probably the most common and widespread Migrant Moth.

 During that first visit these two photographs were taken

 and while certainly Damselflies with 'red-eyes'

the distance from the observer and the poor quality

shots precluded a positive identification.

 In addition and a little closer to hand were

POND SKATES

 AZURE DAMSELFLY and

 BLACK-TAILED SKIMMER

 However, today I didn't get as far as the northern lakes

as diverted by this

SKIPPER BUTTERFLY

 and then these Insects in the smaller of the 2 ponds close to the
farm house. A closer encounter allowed for better photos and an
opportunity to identify them as the moderately rare

SMALL RED-EYED DAMSELFLY
This pond is certainly offering up some good records of which we will endeavour to get more.

While I was confident enough of this it was thought best to consult with others who readily agreed. My thanks to Sheila and Paul. An extract from Wikipedia:- The species is a small damselfly, about 29 millimetres (1.1 in) long, predominantly black with iridescent blue markings. Its large, spaced eyes are a deep red. Like the Red-eyed Damselfly, both sexes lack pale spots behind the eyes and have pale brown pterostigmata. The male has a bronze-black top and blue sides. The sides of the female's thorax are yellow, green or blue. The rear edge of the pronotum is rounded. Viewed from the side, the second and eighth segment of the abdomen of the male are mostly blue, which distinguishes it from the Red-eyed Damselfly where these are mostly black. Further reading via the link

 Small_Red-eyed_Damselfly

WATER LILY

	Entry               Pageviews United Kingdom                    963 United States                    351 Russia                    102 Germany                      28 Canada                      22 Estonia                      22 China                      16 France                      16 Australia                      10 Poland                        8

Sweet Child o' Mine - Guns N' Roses

The heavy rain of yesterday was overtaken by high wind and overcast sky today, but despite the inclement weather, particularly overnight, the Moth Trap provided both interest and colour which included c5 new species* added to the Property List.

 CHINESE CHARACTER*

only the size of shirt button and looking like a bird turd!

 BORDERED BEAUTY*

 PEPPERED MOTH

 THE HERALD*
with Burnished Brass top picture.

 RUBY TIGER*

 ROSY FOOTMAN

 SHUTTLE-SHAPED DART

 BROAD-BORDERED YELLOW UNDERWING*

(light form)

BROAD-BORDERED YELLOW UNDERWING*

(dark form)

The most 'showy' part of this Moth,and to what the name refers,

is more often than not 'out of sight'.

Those caught this morning would not oblige the camera with any

more than the briefest of glimpses of the under-wing, so we relied on

Wikipedia for illustration.

A bit of a 'round-up' of what has been happening in Birding Circles around the property over the past few days.

 With the number of young ROBINs around the Farm, it was

 almost inevitable that one would find its way into the house!

With the exception of Carrion Crow Corvids have been all but absent here in recent weeks, so it was noticeable when a MAGPIE showed up a couple of days ago.

Although the JAY is not uncommon, again they have been conspicuous by their absence. So, it was good to see one returned to the bird table even though there is an abundance of natural food.

 It seems we cannot have a barbecue here without a bird of interest putting in an appearance. After Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Nightjar and a couple of Skylark it was the turn of a KINGFISHER to fly across the lawn alerting us to its presence by 'calling'. A branch has now been stuck in the middle of the garden pond as a 'plunging post'.

Probably best of all, and while not 'rare', the sighting of a juvenile TUFTED DUCK(ling) was likely attributable to a

 Male

and FEMALE that have been knocking about on Parley Pond

for a couple of weeks now.

and continuing the Corvid Connection on 2 separate days this week we have had a 'fly-over' RAVEN (left).

JANET, HUGH, MOI, LISA and BERNARD

and yet another superb end to another wonderful day in of all places Warminster, Wiltshire. Equidistant between Parley and Bristol, my younger daughter Lisa thought the Weymouth Arms there would be an ideal setting for a belated birthday dinner for me and an early one for her. Also an opportunity to acknowledge Hugh and Janet's kindness when they wined and dined us all (including the FAB 3)

Sweet Child o' Mine 
FREDERICK (l) ALEXANDER (r) and BENJAMIN (c)

prior to my leaving for the Americas. A fine evening was had by all especially the luckiest Grandpa Bagsy in the World!

Entry	Pageviews
United Kingdom	974
United States	359
Russia	96
Germany	29
Estonia	27
Canada	24
France	23
China	17
Australia	8
Italy	7

Midsummer Night's Dream - Bill the Bard

In sharp contrast to yesterday, to which we will return in a moment, it is just bucketing it down with rain out there. Just as well then that we had a few photos left over from that previous evening as the wildlifing here has been a little poor as well. Only c29 'macro' Moths in the trap, all recorded here before, and the Blackbird and Robin clearing the white sheet of its contents makes me feel I'll have to get up a little earlier in the mornings. After a fairly exhausting day at Alners Gorse yesterday, under a baking sun, I returned to Parley to find another treat in store, and TREAT it was!

Under the watchful eye of LORD BADEN-POWELL himself, Hugh had secured tickets for us all to enjoy an evening of Shakespeare on

BROWNSEA ISLAND
where in 1908 L B-P started the Boy- Scouts Movement

No Scouting For Boys
for Daryl, Kath, Ray, Lydia (obscured), Janet, Hugh and his mum Joan
as we waited to board

The Ferry

to transport us across Poole Harbour, the second largest natural
harbour in the world after Sydney, Australia,

with a chance to view a few 'novel' watercraft en-route.

Viewing SANDBANKS from a distance the Chain Ferry can just be seen right right of shot. In addition the properties here are officially the most expensive 'real estate' in the world, with one of these houses belonging to Football Manager Harry Redknapp while a close neighbour is his son former footballer Jamie who's wife is 'pop singer' Louise.

Brownsea Island
has a chequered history, well worth a read via the link.

After the welcome it was time to enjoy

a sumptuous picnic along with many family friends,

the 'highlight' of which, for me at least, were Dan's home grown
Strawberries and Raspberries certainly the best I remember.

As the sun dropped behind the trees we joined the rest of the revellers

for a superb rendition of
A Mid-Summer Night's Dream
(cor, I do love that Charlie Dickens)

Unfortunately, photography was not permitted during the performance so all we have to offer is the Stage Set and Curtain Call. It was a fine performance touching on all emotions, but for me it was Puck who 'stole the show'! A Hugh Thank You to Huge and Janet.

Entry	Pageviews
United Kingdom	949
United States	348
Russia	97
Estonia	30
France	28
Germany	27
Canada	25
China	15
Australia	8
Netherlands	7