Lily the Pink - Scaffold

Two coincidence (if you believe in such things) struck yesterday with one, related to our On An Island Post just a couple of days ago, and the second to our recent Portland visit. The first, outlining my experiences with Red-footed Booby 2 days later one was washed up on the beach at St Leonards-on-Sea exhausted, bedraggled and taken into care. The other concerns our wish of wanting a

 CONVOLVULUS HAWK-MOTH

 of our own

 which was caught the very next day.

A short clip of the Moth starting to flex its wings.

Also, we occasionally get the odd Butterfly which on the 

same day was represented by a

RED ADMIRAL
All to report from the Irrigation Pond is that the juvenile

COOT 
is now using the new nest as a resting place while at the
Gravel Pit

first to meet the eye was a reasonably obliging 'first year'

HERRING GULL
followed by c3

GREEN SANDPIPER
and a

 none of which stayed very long.
After their departure the opportunity was taken to launch the

MARK I MINNOW TRAP
only to prove that there or Fish in the pit if nothing else??

 

Juvenile

 MISTLE THRUSH

 also appear to have moved in, about 30 or so in total.

 ROE DEER

and water in the tributary at long last.

There was only a single and very flighty
GREEN SANDPIPER
Our final part of today's rounds was to visit the
Harbins Farmhouse Garden Pond
where we found the

 WATER LILIES
and

 GREAT WILLOWHERB
in bloom along with

COMMON DARTER
on the wing.

Entry

	Pageviews
United States	500
United Kingdom	480
Australia	48
Germany	48
Brazil	34
Canada	16
Estonia	15
South Korea	15
France	11
Ukraine	9

Grasshopper Green - Trad Poem

An unavoidable drive to Weymouth did have a bright side

as we took the opportunity to visit the 

Portland Bird Observatory and Field Centre

as well, to avail ourselves of the Second Edition of

 Talk about striking it lucky, as firstly the only 4 people

in attendance were those I was most pleased to see, in addition to which

only the 'second ever' in modern times

 PORTLAND MOTH

had just been plucked from one of the traps.

It might be thought that being on the Isle of Portland this Insect might

be common there, but the name relates to a former

Duchess of Portland

and not the place itself.

There were also, convieniently percher on the garden wall, a couple of

CONVOLULOUS HAWK-MOTHS

GIANTS that are always nice to see - we await one of our own!

Back at Parley Court Farm our own traps have produced a

First for the Year

 NEGLECTED RUSTIC

 The first of a 'second brood' of

DARK-BARRED TWIN-SPOT CARPET

 and undoubtedly the most interesting of all a

LONG-WINGED CONEHEAD

Later at the 

IRRIGATION POND

 now looking at its best, with water-levels perfect for Waders,

the only action (if indeed it could be called that)

 was the continued building of the now gigantic

COOT NEST
which now has a 'top-dressing'.

with the male and still thriving juvenile watching the missus doing all the work.

 A feeding

 CARRION CROW

and an already nervous looking

GREY HERON

 were spotted simultaneously at the Gravel Pit and took a bit of

stealthy manoeuvring to bring to the view-finder.

 Just on the point of leaving a flash of blue met the eye, but disappeared as 

quickly as it had arrived. However, we did offer up the camera and

loose off a single round and ask - "can you see it yet"?

 No, nor did we until getting it to the editting room where it could just be seen as a

KINGFISHER

'Birdwise' the Heath was a dead loss and more as just 'fillers'

we did capture just a 

 TREBLE-BAR (moth)

plus

MEADOW BROWN BUTTERFLY

 Fortune smiled a little more brightly when reaching the

Solar Panel Compound

and finding just a single

 WHEATEAR

which, maybe surprisingly, is an addition to the ongoing September List.

Same time, same place manana!

Entry

	Pageviews
United Kingdom	523
United States	523
Australia	49
Germany	49
Brazil	42
Canada	15
Estonia	15
South Korea	12
France	11
Spain	8

Stupid Boy Pike - Dad's Army

The persistant and sometimes heavy rain of Saturday afternoon 

certainly put a dampner on things, where first of all at the 

Moth Traps all of interest was this stunning

 RED UNDERWING

 which was a First for the Year,

 a total count of 217

 of the very variable

LARGE YELLOW UNDERWING

 and for no other reason save it has not appearing through these pages

before, the also very common

 SNOUT

 There was also a

 14-SPOT LADYBIRD

 So, with the traps completed we were bless by another look at a

 EUROFIGHTER TYPHOON

taking off from 

Bournemouth International Airport

(almost everything so far had looked destinctly 'triangular').

 Before leaving that area the single juvenile

 MOORHEN

at the Harbins Garden Pond broke cover

but only under the watchful eye of a parent bird.

Not only did it take a paddle, but also a walk on terra firma.

Talk about persistance, up at the Irrigation Pond the female

COOT

 is still adding material to the new nest while the juv

also get familiar with its own surrounding area.

 Attracted by prolonged and familiar squalking,

 it wasn't long before this juvenile

 COMMON BUZZARD

was located but,

 like all others of its ilk it didn't give up the accompanyent

 until the

Video Camera

was pointed at it.

Behind ECO there followed a series of Videos including

MEADOW PIPIT

ROE DEER

 and

STOCK DOVE

Finally, over the past week the Family Tilley have been staying with us on the Caravan Site, with Father Ian being something of an avid angler and a man who gives me the feeling that he has a rough idea of what he is doing. Unlike so many of his ilk in the past, he was true to his word and sent images of the Fish he had caught. All of this is grist to our mill as we strive to keep records of anything 'WILD' that is about us. While we have published photographs of

 PIKE

before (this one of 6lb being held by Ian)

and this unweighed specimen of 25 inches, we have not been lucky

enough until now to show any of the many

 PERCH

 taken from the River Stour. It is of note that all fish caught must be returned

to the same water.

Entry

	Pageviews
United States	502
United Kingdom	500
Australia	49
Germany	47
Brazil	42
Canada	15
Estonia	15
South Korea	11
France	9
Spain	8