Forever Autumn - Justin Hayward

 The first day of Autumn hoved above the horizon with a Whistle Stop Visit from our valued friend Dave Foot which brought with it the splash of beauty of this

 first for the year

FROSTED ORANGE
and ditto accompanied by a little mirth! 

Oh dear what can the matter be

2 OLD LADIES
locked in a lavatory, they were there from Monday to Saturday,

nobody knew they were there!

There were in fact c3 Old Lady Moths in the same trap with this drawing showing this large moth in its full glory, and with the luxury of outside toilets commited to the distant past these Insects find sheds or other out-buildings in which to 'aestivate' that is to say go into a collective torpor or shallow sleep after emerging.

Otherwise to herald the first day of Autumn there was another gathering of an estimated 1,000+

SWALLOWs
on the overhead cables while on the Heath there were free flying

ICHNEUMAN WASPs

a interesting find by way of a feather of a
JAY,
along with this tiny unidentified

no bigger than a couple of grains of rice
before falling among a small group of common and grounded migrant birds

starting with a lone

and rather frisky

WHINCHAT

followed by

c4

far more obliging

WHEATEAR
before retracing our steps by heading for the

RIVER STOUR
where both Reed and Sedge were heard but not seen.

Best on show there were

blooming

TANSY

a camera shy
Fox Cub

and waterside

REDSHANK
not to be confussed with

REDSHANK
which wasn't seen but a blink of the eye, flying, with prey

SPARROWHAWK
represented here by one from the archive!
We are hoping the trend will continue trroughout the Season.

Autumn Almanac - The Kinks

Dodging the prevailing elements once again the Moth Traps did provide some solace in the form of a couple of additions to the Year List

with the dainty

CHEVRON

being joined by the even smaller
WHITE-SPOTTED PUG
and only a second appearance of a

JULY BELLE

acknowledging the end of Summer,
while further afield the departing migrants were, on the day, represented by

a more than obliging

WHITETHROAT

which we like to believe was 'home grown'?
At the Gravel Pit only the plaintive calls of the Little Grebes proved their continued presence while all indications showed that the male

GADWALL
had been abandoned by his beau in the female sense!
Across the Heath,

or more particularly, the

BRISTLEBENT FIELD

 we found the larva of a 

From the dew-soaked hedge creeps a crawly caterpillar,
when the dawn begins to crack.
It's all part of my Autumn Almanac

FOX MOTH

Breeze blows leaves of a musty-coloured yellow,
so I sweep them in my sack.
Yes, yes, yes, it's my Autumn Almanac.

which, should it dodge the predators, may one day next year become one of these

Male left and larger female the other.
With numbers rapidly dwindling we once again show

the only juvenile

STONECHAT
(blink and you'll miss it)

as the wait for the next may well be 12 months?
Finally, if you like Gulls, which for us goes far further than that

the

Bird of the Day

or even last month was this juvenile

HERRING GULL
inside the Solar Panel Compound

and most likely from the disasterously low breeding attempts across the airport roofs?

Perhaps an Ideal way to pull the curtain down on Summer!

Oh Mister Porter (written by George Le Brunn 1892)

Oh Mr. Porter, what shall I do?
I want to go to Birmingham
but here I am at Crewe.
Take me back to London
as quickly as you can,
Oh Mr. Porter what a silly girl I am.

Had it not been for the candid and honest admission by the Warden of the Portland Bird Observatory of rushing the Moth Traps some days ago we to would also have forgotten an important capture ourselves, which has laid in the archive ever since. With 6 balls in the air already it was simply good fortune that our friend Marcus Lawson happened along and asked if he might have a rummage through the traps, to keep his eye in, and came up with a rarity! The nondescript

PORTER'S RUSTIC

(ours captured on 29/06/2021) is described by the 'authority' that is
Bernard Skinner as only having been recorded in England 64 times, which would surely stand updating.

 Nonetheless, it can be seen that we have dusted off the cobwebs of our particular capture, and presented to our valued readership, which holds the distinction of Moth of the Year thus far!

Otherwise our rapidly deminishing catches continue the downward trend with only c2

JERSEY TIGER MOTHs

and a second generation

CREAM-BORDERED GREEN PEA
which is about the size that the vegetable suggests.

Unlike the coastal headlands of Dorset, such as Hengistbury Head and Portland Bill, we get very few migrant birds as a rule, but for the last couple of days that trend seems to have altered.

Firstly, it was a single

SPOTTED FLYCARCHER
only ever seen once in the garden and then followed by a number of juvenile

GREY WAGTAILs

with this one

taking up a Feeding Station atop of the highest tree

and bunkering maybe for

for the journey to come, there were 14 counted in all

before the second

SPOTTED FLYCATCH
arrived.