Water, Water, Everywhere

 With overnight temperature now hovering around the +12° mark hopes of a decent catch from the Moth Traps have been high, and we have not been disappointed with first to show being the much hoped for

WATER CARPET

and followed in quick succession by

the odd looking

BUFF-TIP
and then the far more dainty

MAIDEN'S BLUSH
We have now taken to visiting the stables first thing each morning and to find

among the tack this nest of 2 juvenile

ROBINs

being well fed by the parent birds.
At the Main Pond the

MUTE SWANs
are still 'sitting' while us shore-siders are getting increasingly impatient
while yet another

Ornimental Goose

is constructing a nest which again usually come to naught.
The pathway leading to the Gravel Pit is now being occupied by a pair of

STONECHAT

which have shown no signs of a breeding attempt, but are surely considering such

while the update on the Humbugs remains posative with one of the parent birds knocking 'ten bells' out of some hapless invertibrate

keeping all 3 youngsters well fed.
While still at pond-side a single

SAND MARTIN,

our first of the year,

started hawking insects directly above

and while we have had discussions with the management there seems to be little sign of trying to attract them back, as these historic images show, to breeding at the Eco site!!
We maintain, everyone is a Conservationist until asked to do the simplest of things!!!!

Love is in the Air - John Paul Young

 With news of eggs having hatched on the main pond it was lucky, perhaps, that there were few, 6 Species x 11 Insects, to delay us with but one addition to the Year List of note

BRIGHT-LINE BROWN-EYE
while the new arrivals,

not exactly 'mind blowing',

a gaggle of c7

CANADA GEESE

GOSLINGS
About to leave, out of the corner of my eye things turned quite dramatically to a

Tale of the Unexpected

preening away for all it was worth

a spectacular male

MANDARIN DUCK

(see epilogue below)
Expectations of other such things were considered possible, but unlikly, we had certainly had our share until just 200 yards later at the

SMALL POND

the new parent

MOORHENs

were introducing their new arrivals

to the wider world while at coffee time this

GREEN ORB-WEAVER SPIDER
very nearly lowered itself into the boiling brew below!

Epilogue

While the Mandarin does very occasionally visit the Moors River, where it has bred on at least a single occasion, it is extremely rare across the rest of the Recording Area. So much so that there has been but a single sighting across the whole of the farm during my time here at the same location and of note for another, quite different reason. The record on the 31/07/13 involved this

Male Bird
  in company with these c2

females while coinciding with my purchase of the Land Owner's car, the day when the

RANGE ROVER CHO4 OKS

was handed over at the same location to become the
STRANGER!

I Could 'Weasely' Fall in Love with You - Cliff Richard

 It was messrs O'Sullivan and Trump who were responsible for me forgetting to move one of the home-bound traps to its usual overnight site next to the paling fence, but........

plucking an
OCHREOUS PUG

from that trap followed by this rather spectacular

PUSS MOTH

from the trap squating on the bund, the pair of Snooker Giants were let off with a verbal warning.
It was pure Frustration rather than Fieldcraft that sent us scurring to the far western end of our beat of the River Stour in hopes of a feathered friend that should have reached the log by now.

c3

CETTI'S WARBLER
at least

all issuing those unmistakable bursts of song at frequent intervals,
while shortly afterwards clocking a couple of

STOCK DOVE
not often seen at this end of the property but numerous elsewhere, along with a

brace of

PHEASANT's
already into some serious canoodling.

Around parts of the Main Pond what we have only ever known as

NICOTINA,
rightly or wrongly, we feel sure someone will let us know,

blooming in both White and

Purple
and where the

MUTE SWANs
still show no sighs of producing!
Nothing to add to the Year List across the Solar Panel Compound Moth traps but beneath our single cover there

a quite unexpected

FIELD VOLE or SHORT-TAILED VOLE
if you wish.

We do know this is a species of

TOADFLAX
as having consulted John and while watching the

LAMB's WEANING
considered this

JACKDAW
photogenic enough for at least one click, as a rather overlooked Bird we think!
In the fields beyond the Moors River, but more particularly in the trees an

EGYPTIAN GOOSE

and with another at ground level it bodes well that successful breeding should follow as is usual
and to end, we considered the above mammal a bonus

which faded somewhat when catching sight of this

WEASEL