Tuesday, 9 August 2016

Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles

With still no signs of the 2 laptops being discharged from the
Sick Bay we find ourselves in the predicament of holding
4 files of photographs but no way of editing them.
This may result in either a reduced Post, or maybe no Post at all
in the near future, so we request a little understanding please.
OUR HANDS ARE TIED!
First duties before even searching the perimeter
walls and windows for stray Moths, is to attend to the
 Watering of the Strawberries
 which after just 2 weeks are now in flower.
The dangers can be clearly seen.
You could seriously sprain your wrist on such a tap.
However, a little more to my personal taste would be the
RUNNER BEANS
which look to be doing equally well!
All of note from the World of Moths was a single
 COPPER UNDERWING
 a First for the Year
 but there were also a couple of interesting Insects.
 The 'large but more so destructive
 SAWYER BEETLE
named from the saw like effect it has on Pine Trees as it burrows
 it's nest hole with the resultant young eventually killing even the largest trees.
and one of the less common of the genre
STRIPED LADYBIRD
While in quick succession the only other action of the day came from 
MERRITOWN HEATH
At the gate someone was
"Up, Up and Away in their
Beautiful Balloon" although it was difficult to see, let alone
video at such a distance,


RAVEN


 singing
 WILLOW WARBLER



 SPARROWHAWK

 juvenile
ROBIN

 MEADOW BROWN
 The 'RED ARROWS' C TEAM
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Monday, 8 August 2016

Ghost of Navigator - Iron Maiden

GHOST 
If this ain't The Maiden's Finest Hour 
will someone please let me know what is!
With our lap-top difficulties continuing we may have brought to
you some of these images a little earlier but,
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!
Even before reaching the first Moth Trap on Friday
we recorded a
 'fly over'
MEDITERRANEAN GULL
only brought to our attention by its continuous and mournful calls from above.
This is the first known instance that this particularly attractive Gull
has been recorded here during the month of August.
Friday had brought us an early morning temperature of +9C with
that reducing by a 'single click' the next day, however even as it increased to
a full +17C yesterday at dawn there was no improvement seen in either 
quality or quantity at the traps.
 While it is as much to do with weather and other conditions the
Field Guide Text acts as a good indicator. Stating that
GHOST SWIFT
is on-the-wing through June and July, it was no surprise to find this
female flanked by a brace of males.
 In this instance the female
DRINKER
is on the left, and surely a favourite will all
BORDERED BEAUTY
 There have also been an interesting array of other Insects including
 BROWN
or
 SUMMER CHAFER
 HORSEFLY
 and the 
Ichneumon Wasp
 ICHNEUMON SARCITORIUS
Away from all of that we continued our usual rounds finding today's
 King of the Mountain
 to be a fine
 but as ever nervous
 HERRING GULL
Maybe a visit to SpecSavers might help, but on the Heath
we found a couple of items completely new to us starting with
 one of the Migonette Species more commonly know as
WELD
and while
WOOD MOUSE
 is familiar
 ROUGH MALLOW
an invader from the US of A
 was also a 'first'.
The most attractive 
POPLAR LEAF BEETLE
 
 appears to be much later than in previous years? but it was then on to the
 Trail Cameras
where all that was found was a performance by the
 WOOD PIGEON DISPLAY TEAM
With Hugh having noted our single and only
 RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE
during the week it would certainly have been added to the August List
 but it is always nice to see such things for ones self.
It should be noted that while we designate this as a
First for August
it is in fact far from that as once a very common species here.
Perhaps a better term might have been "since 2003 when formal record keeping commenced".
To end, another BEST TRACK this time from
Bon Jovi
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