Elusive Butterfly - Bob Lind

 With a clear blue evening sky and a

Waxing Cresent Moon
there were no real signs of low visibility but every chance of yet another ground frost at dawn.

A Pea Souper across the Main Pond

didn't seem to be concerning the local

SONG THRUSH
too much as it pull a second plump Earthworm from the frozen ground in quick succession.
Matters only got worse the further north we got and already thought of abandoning the Morning in hopes of a little

(Gateway to the Heath)
 Afternoon Delight

 (Heart of the Forest)
where there was plenty enough light for close quarters activity such as Moth Traps but little else!

We heard the

Red-legged Partridge long before they came into view and appeared to be finding plenty of groceries, but only afforded ourself one click before finding 5 Insects of 7 species and amoung them a most welcome 'first for year'

SILVER Y

Largely a Migrant which is as content to fly in daylight hours as it does at night.
Add to that the always welcome

EARLY GREY
and yet another

DOR BEETLE

carrying a decent bit of fluff on its legs likely gathered from the numerous fallen Catkins?
Time for an executive decission which saw us return to Base Camp and get on with other things while the Sun burnt off the mist. A sparkling and warm Spring afternoon with much improved visibility was surely decent conditions to find the daytime flying Common Heath Moth, but again no such luck.
HOWEVER
among the otherWing'ed Squadrons of the Skies came firstly

ORANGE-TIP BUTTERFLY
(male)

showing upper side and underwing and

(female)
likewise with images of the male taken from Insects caught in Moth Traps

and females at liberty.

DARTFORD WARBLER

posing

more abandonedly

than we have seen so far this year before a second 'first for the year'
Butterfly fluttered into view. this time a

COMMA

named from the punctuation mark on the underside of the trailing wing.
Although recorded and posted before this year, the temptation was simply too great
not to publish a male

BRIMSTONE

gathering nectar.

 Don't be concerned, it will not harm you
It's only me pursuing somethin' I'm not sure of
Across my dreams with nets of wonder
I chase the bright elusive Butterfly of Love 

Bob Lind 

Once again we take the opportunity to thank all our 

Valued Reader 

and ask again to spread the word to others please.

Thanks and Stay Safe and Well! 

It's a Linnet In-It?

 With early morning temperatures still kissing Zero it still does not seem to be detering the Moths with 18 Insects of 8 species still gracing the traps and producing

SCARCE PROMINENT

(just before release) by way of a 'first for the year' and a small resugence of

YELLOW HORNED

after a couple of weeks absence.
Otherwise, there was a sprinkling of interest but not before making the now daily morning visit to

Mister and Mister
MUTE SWAN
with their prospective 7 cygnets letting the Sun do much of the incubating and it has now been 23 days since this lone

CANADA GOOSE
took up this low-necked posture at the Irrigation Pond. Surely it must have had a streatch- but we have not witnessed it. We encountered quite a 'fall' of

ROBINs
counting 23 during our first circuit but not alone in this there were also higher than average numbers of the likes of

BLACKBIRD

in double figures

c13

male

WHEATEAR

with a single

elusive and unsnapable female while the still solo

REED BUNTING

at the Balancing Pond continues the mission

to secure himself a mate.

LINNETs

are now the most numerous of the passerines now with still plenty of vocals,

nest building activities along with males 'rosying' up those little breasts.
On the way back the Moors River threw up

some thing of an optical illusion

as this

LITTLE EGRET

that looked to have the proportions and stance of a

Great White Egret
and it isn't unusual for Birds to fly off the very second you get them in focus

but rarely fielding a replacement so quickly
COMMON BUZZARD and MAGPIE
All of the ponds here have been close to devoid of Watererfowl this year with nothing displaying, let alone nest building, so on our return it was refreshing to find this female

TUFTED DUCK

on the Gravel Pit doing an impression of a lady

Scaup

with the white forehead.

Thorn in My Side - Eurythmics

While daytimes have continued to be sunny and warm over the last few days, with temperatures holding at low double figures we are using our own theory reference the Moths. In such conditions ‘cocoons’ must be splitting open in droves during the day and temperatures not dropping until midnight, it seems well worth flashing up all steaming lights, even if only for those first few hours of darkness! To emphasise the point we did catch repeats of

PURPLE THORN

BRINDLED PUG

EARLY GREY

plus an
 ICHNEUMON WASP

but with Pride of Place falling fairly and squarely with a 'first for year'

EARLY THORN

our 38th such of the period thus far among 27 Moths of 12 Species.

While neither the 'still' or the

'video clip' indicating as much there must have been a minimume of 100 mixed Gull on the newly harrowed and likely seeded 18-Acre not a single one provided us with a full frame shot.
Leaning on the archive as a substitute and illustration they were in turn

HERRING GULL

BLACK-HEADED GULL

but more importantly and welcome were numerous

MEDITERRANEAN GULLs

which have been seen and heard overhead on a number of occassions during the year
but always a welcome sight on the ground.
Reverting to Botony en-route to the Heath we found clumps of

CHERRY LAUREL

in bud

and as if having appeared overnight a carpet of the minute

MOSSY STONECROP
(thanks John)
along with

LADY'S SMOCK
We didn't have to wait long for our expected and predicted

'male'

WHEATEARs

to show up

with c3 absolute 'peaches'

which may have stollen all the thunde for themselves had it not been for the

appearance of something of a 'rarity' to the Heath a

PIED WAGTAIL
which are so infrequent we didn't even need to remove the other hand from the pocket
to calculate previous number sightings here!
Another

SLOW WORM
along with another active

ANTs NEST
were welcome finds while finally a male

LINNET
was captued feathering his own nest to the accompaniment of a
Willow Warbler

while maybe his BELLE was sprucing up for the upcoming nuptials?