Sweet Painted Lady - Elton John

INSPIRATION IS A TWO-WAY STREET

It has taken a little while to get round to this, but now the tale can be told of an inclement morning, not that long ago, when monitoring the traps had to be put on hold. As daylight broke 2 tiny figures were spotted arriving outside of Slight Return and at their knock the door was open to find one young girl, one young boy along with their mother. What was all this about?? I was soon to find out! Mum went on to tell me that the week prior to their arrival at the Parley Court Farm Caravan Site it was undecided exactly where the family would spend the August Holiday and so it was put to the vote. Needless to say that PCF won the day, as they were now here, but it had been the children who had out-voted the parents on this matter. "Why do you want to go there" asked Dad, to be told in unison "we love it there and we really do want to see The Moth Man again" - welling up doesn't even come close! Not only had these 2 little mites remembered me, they had also committed to memory most of the Moth names shown to them all that time ago, so it might be true to say they had been INSPIRED! On the strength of that it was thought only right to present them with my own copy of Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Sean Clancey inscribed with the words

When you are totally addicted to Moths

just remember who's fault it was.

Bagsy

WHAT A FEELING

Ever onward, and it's true to say that maybe just a couple or 3 images of

 GREY WAGTAIL

 may have been sufficient

to press home the point, but that was before it caught this hapless

COMMON BLUE DAMSELFLY

which stimulated us

 to show you

 the full sequence of events.

 Phheeewwww

we think that is enough!

PEACOCK BUTTERFLY
Other 'strange behavior' at the Irrigation Pond

we cannot recall ever having seen a

GREEN SANDPIPER
laying down before!

SMALL TORTOISESHELL BUTTERFLY

while the

COMMON SANDPIPER

was also putting on something of a show at the redundant Coot nest.
On the Heath there was another small showing of young

WHINCHAT
which only amounted to c3 before they were gone.
 
Also there, half of the tributary which feeds the
Moors River
is now completely dried out

while the eastern end continues to hold a good amount of the
Wet Stuff

enough to attract a

GREY HERON
and there was also a Green Sandpiper there.

PAINTED LADY BUTTERFLY

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Up Where We Belong - Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes

The new header photograph depicts one of

two birds that almost killed me, but we will have to

bring that story to you at a later date!

It's still too gloomy at 06:00 these days to get stuck into the Moth Traps but the atmosphere was clear, as was the sky with all heavenly bodies visible, but then down came the fog. The traps were then abandoned for a further 30 minute until the sun cut the horizon and did its stuff.

There were a few things of interest within, and it should be reported

that this Post also expands on some of the items featured yesterday.

A First for the Year (FFY) made for a good start with

HEDGE RUSTIC
followed by the eye-catching

CLAY TRIPLE-LINES

the delightful

VAPOURER
another FFY

LUNAR UNDERWING
and

COMMON WAINSCOT

At the Irrigation Pond
and as yesterday's Post indicated it looked every bit as though the

COOT
 were going to rejuvenate the old nest and have another crack at raising young.
Fair enough we thought, but by this morning the nest had grown to giant proportions.

 COMMON SANDPIPER

 is still at the Gravel Pit but has never ventured this close

 and so we took the opportunity

 to rattle off a few shots

in as many 

 varying postures as possible.

There was also ample chance to

capture a couple of

'video clips' as well.
Also there and detected briefly a few days ago, a

 juvenile
MOORHEN
 

obliged us at close quarters but also surprised in as much as no
adult birds have been seen in the northern half of the property for
over 2 months now.

juvenile
MALLARD

feeding.
On the Heath there are still a few each of

 SLOW WORM
and

 SMOOTH SNAKE
 but a

BLACK SLUG
was a lucky find, lucky that it wasn't stepped on,
while a 'free flying'
 
TREBLE-BAR,

yet another FFY, was considered even luckier!

AT ECO

 all there was of note, and just for once, was the singe resident

 HERRING GULL
willing to be photographed.

This Bird scratches out a very good living from the discarded

bits from the work force.

TRAIL CAMERA UPDATE

and for the second time we are able to feature a
NIGHTJAR

with a blurred landing and an all too short clip of video,
followed by a nifty little sequence from a couple of

WOOD PIGEON

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As Sure As Eggs is Eggs - Genesis

Over the past couple of nights the weather conditions
for Mothing have improved fairly dramatically,
but no one seems to have told the Moths as catches
have remained mostly unimpressive. The Best of the Bunch
for Tuesday included

SOUTHERN WAINSCOT

PEBBLE HOOK-TIP

along with the deminutive

SATIN WAVE
none of which were additions to the Year List.
The attendant identifiable Micro Moth (if we have it correct) was
BROWN CHINA MARK

and additionally the traps also contained

 two variations of the most kaleidoscopic of all the 

British Ladybirds

 HARLEQUIN
At the Irrigation Pond,

 and contrary to our previous report, it would now appear that the

COOT

are now making alternative arrangements for their continued 

procreation by building a new nest altogether.

A bit of a Monster to say the least.

While they are about it the Pond continues to be shared by a

 COMMON SANDPIPER

which seems to become more confiding as the days go by.

At the Irrigation Pond the action deminished somewhat, seemingly
down to just the single and continuing semi-resedent

Juvenile 
LITTLE GREBE
Just before leaving a tiny movement was noted very close by and while

 it was enough just to stand and witness, at close quarters, a female

EMPORER DRAGONFLY

'ovipositing' (laying its eggs), additionally we capture her not only on stills

but on video as well. However, what followed next was a snippet of

Wildlife Magic not witnessed by myself before.

 Firstly one, then a second

COMMON BLUE DAMSELFLY

hove into view and started 'bombarding' the Mother to be

before this one decided that she would make an ideal 'PERCH'!
As Sure As Eggs is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet) 
An excerpt from the Genesis magnum opus that is
Supper's Ready from the album Foxtrot.
Let the Link run to hear the full work!

Here also are the short clips.

Finally, there were a couple of aircraft which we have not noted before in
Our Airspace,
with the first of which looks innoquous enough while the other looked
a danger to itself!

 We don't have a clue what this one is

and we don't know what this is either.
We have tried to research the pennant letters. M-ONTE without success.
Except to say, on closer inspection, that it is either
flying backwards or someone in the hanger has lashed the
engines on in the wrong direction.
We hand this fine pair over to Mr Roy Norris.

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