'Slender' is the Night - Jackson Browne

 Or maybe that should be 'Tender'?

Being an Ancient Mariner of about 10 minutes short of 50 years at sea, my life is

constrained by 'routine' and 'discipline', even the tins and jars in the cupboard are all lables facing forewards - sad but true!

Always out of the hammock at least one hour before the old Current Bun

and as soon as daylight shows 'standard size Moth pots in hand'

The sun had been up for a couple of hours,
covered the ground with a layer of gold.
Spirits were high and the raining had stopped,
the larder was low, but boy that wasn't all.
Eleventh Earl of Mar
couldn't get them very far.
Daddy! Oh Daddy, You Promised.

Eleventh Earl of Mar - Genesis

it's off to check the wooden fence for stragglers! 

Yesterday, it was a return to the caravan 10 times quicker than the 

outward saunter to grab a 'large pot' as there perched on the pallings was a

First For Year

 CLIFDEN NONPAREIL

 Looking rather like a recenly 'moth-balled'

RAF Vulcan Bomber.

The splender of such an Insect comes when it eventually opens its wings!

Nonpareil is a French word meaning "having no match or equal; unrivalled" 

and while not a 'rare' Moth it is one that is much prized.

 A fine start but, the noteriety didn't last for long as reaching the bottom of that first trap

and the last Moth, the Clifden was consigned to the back-burner!

Little to compare with the 'rarity' that is

 SLENDER BURNISHED BRASS

a Moth which most of the fraternity have never seen let alone caught, including myself!

Photographing was a nightmare inasmuch that it might escape

before being passed around the ranks.

BURNISH BRASS

 (Ordiaire)

for comparison and this is

 how the Manual describes it

Bernard Skinner

Otherwise, there were also a few things to be reported from 

Out in the Field

My closest neighbours, the

WOOD PIGEONs 

 have incubated c3 clutches already this year,

 but we never see any Squabs (young) so maybe that is why they are 'at it' again?

This

AIR AMBULANCE

is not familiar across our air-space and don't know where it is from?

The only surviving

 MOORHEN CHICK

is still being nurtured

by the

 Mother Hen

while today they had a visitor.

 The

MUTE SWAN

has been noticabley abcent from all watercourses here this year

 with a pair on the Main Pond having built c4 nests, laid c4 clutches

and in short time abandoned them all??

 Butterflies collectively have been at their lowest ebb ever during 2020

so welcoming to find the first of c3 species for the day at the

Gravel Pit

PEACOCK

followed by an impromptue

REED WARBLER

at great distance

 and no time to extend the zoom fully.

 This being what it should look like.

Next was a rather battered

 MEADOW BROWN

while on the Heath there was a close encounter with the lovely

Brown and White - Rare Breed

 SHETLAND

and even closer to an obliging

RED ADMIRAL

A lone

MOORHEN

on the Moors River seemed somehow worthy of a click while arrival at the

Solar Panel Compound

met with what looked like an overnight 'fall' of

MEADOW PIPIT

and a lone but a little better marked

WHEATEAR

than the others of late.

Finally, and not usually given to being confiding we did hone in on a

 far more confiding

 STOCK DOVE

 than is the norm!

THERE'S ANOTHER DAY JUST WAITING FOR US TO

GET OURSELF INTO GEAR!

It's a Sair Ficht for Half a Loaf - Jockanese

As my moaning Aberdonian Rig Mates might say!

Translation:- Life is hard work. It's a sore fight and you only get half of what you want.

Given the recent weather pattern that's just about the saying we need to highlight the situation as 

Wild Things 

remain reluctant to show

and difficult to find, so we had to put in an extra shift yesterday!

Now with 2 Moths Traps running we easily doubled our catch with both Moths released immediately after identification!

 Just about the only Bird anywhere close to the homestead was this

 fairly obliging 

HERRING GULL

then without delay we set-sail for more northerly climbs.

Nothing at the Irrigation Pond was acceptable compared with what was found at the

Gravel Pit

 where the

LITTLE GREBE 

nest was found ragged and abandoned, had the Heron done its worst

or was it again down to the weather?

 Both Grebe's looked very much as if in mourning

 with both 'close-ups' and

 video clip

painting a dismal picture!

No good lamenting over that, it's the

Law of the Wild

so ever onward.

c2

 WHEATEAR

 were found in

quick succession on the Heath, with a 'close cousin'

 STONECHAT

which hasn't been recorded here now fo 8 days??

seperating the 2.

 2nd

WHEATEAR

 Then There Were c6

 AIRBUS's that is and we have been awaiting the arrival of the

 PUFF BALLs

in the

 Solar Panel Compound

you can set yer watch by them!

 BLACK-HEADED GULL's

also remain there with a couple of adults now creeping in and

 "oh YES we'll have some of that"

as even more absentees

 are welcomed back.

 In this instance it has been weeks

but nonetheless it's still the c3 of them!

 Another 'new' Eddie Stobart to the collection,

we ain't seen Ceri Charlie here before.

Here's hopeing we can keep up the momentum?

I Can't Stand the Rain - Ann Peebles

It would seem gone are the days of Michael Fish and the blooper of the

5^th October 1987

when he announced "earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the

BBC and said she had heard there was a hurricane on the way”?

“Well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't!".

The rest is history!

Weather forecasting has come a long way since those days with it now being 

something of a rarity when they get it wrong, even the ‘bad stuff’.

As we cruise rapidly towards the end of the month, and by definition the end of the Season, the Autumnal weather has already taken hold! For a full night and part of the day there has been perpetual and heavy rain, adequately egged on by a stiff south-westerly breeze, confining 

even us hardiest of souls to barracks!

We say, ‘bring back Michael’!
On the bright-side, it was pleasing that Summer fell on a Sunday this year
allowing both the Workforce and us Idle Petioners to enjoy it in equal measure!

However, all is not lost as we almost always have a surfeit of images from recent days in the locker as not having been able to squeeze them all onto a post yet!

Backlog First for Year Moths include from the garden

 an eye-catching

 FROSTED ORANGE
interupted only by the now daily and varying sized skein of

 GREYLAG GEESE
while on the Heath there was a most welcome

 ARCHER'S DART

 annual but seemingly scarce, plus a

 BARRED HOOK-TIP

 as the

LIGHT EMERALDs
continued there contribution to procreation, on my coat of all places!
 Additionally, there was also furtherance of the 'extremely early' and 'putative'

AUTUMNAL / NOVEMBER

via a note from Paul Harris:-

Morning Sire, well the chaps agreed that it is indeed a very early Epirrita sp (November / Autumnal Moth type). Phil (Doctor Sterling, Managing Director of Butterfly World et al) says that it is not identifiable even by ‘gen det’ as it's a female. However, of great note as it's such an early record, I cannot ever remember an August record! 

PS - and just for clarity, ‘gen det’ is the fine art, akin to Faberge Eggs, of disection and examination of Moth genitalia - messy job but somebody’s got to do it!

Only ever an occassional sight of a

 SPARROWHAWK

 on one of the garden bird tables

brought back reminisces of another, some time ago now,

taking and devouring a hapless

MOORHEN

on the bank of the main pond.

Monday, 

a most pleasant day, was as much about checking up on the

 LITTLE GREBE NEST
as anything else and was found with the presumed 'she' bird still sitting - YES!
A fleeting moment to check the new growth

 COMMON TOADFLAX

Turning back, there HE? was and still patroling rather than lending a hand!

but maybe we spoke too soon as there was a

Change of the Watch.

Also welcome was the continued presence of the

 COMMON SANDPIPER

far more obliging

than on the previous day.

More plant life came in the form of

 CHICORY
and again the ever present

GREY HERON

 and the invasive

HIMALAYAN BALSAM

We know not if this plant attracts any of the Moth species,

as does its equally invassive close cousin, which has brought to our shores with it the

BALSAM CARPET

once caught here in small numbers but with this year producing only a single specimen.

The 'also rans' included the remaining

 MALLARD and GADWALL
and

COMMON BUZZARD

"hasta la vista"!