Green Grow the Rushes, Oh - Trad. Folk Song

How is it the song goes, "It Might As Well Rain Until September", well by the looks of it that's just what it will do, and beyond! Just to get all the 'moans' out of the way in one fell swoop, overnight temperatures are not helping either sticking doggedly last night to a paltry +9°C. However, on the plus side there were a couple of addition not previously recorded this year so maybe we should thank our lucky stars?

YELLOW-TAIL

 and the most elegant

 LEOPARD MOTH

 which seem to like spending much of their time laid on one side.

This doesn't seem to be out of choice as the

Center of Gravity

appeared a little one-sided?

and later in the day a 'free flying'

BROWN SILVER-LINE

A little longer than usual was spent wandering the bank of the

RIVER STOUR
where the 

BULRUSH
 are just about as high as we have ever noted them.

MUTE SWAN

bathing.
We have seen no signs of breeding from this resident pair so far this year.

GREAT REEDMACE

 are also starting to bloom.
Back at Slight Return II for coffee and we found the

 excavations of

MINING BEES
Almost all of the rest of the day was given over to Plant Life with

MULLEIN
 not quite in full flower yet, we'll be there when it is,

 one of the
SPEARWORT (species)

 Huge patches right across the property of

 STINKING MAYWEED

BROAD-LEAVED STONECROP

YELLOW BARTSIA

HEDGE BEDSTRAW

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Winter in July - Bomb the Base

WELL NOT QUITE BUT....

It may have been easier just to refer the reader to the Post of 1st June 2016 than write this preamble, as the dreary, wet, windy and none to warm conditions were more or less the same. Also similarly was the desire to add a species or 2 to the 'ongoing' Month Bird List and there were a couple in prospect. However, not to be neglected was the usual delight, even in drizzly conditions, of checking the Moth Traps. Before arrival there was an early hunting

KESTREL

 in the low light directly above Slight Return II,

 while literally 'first out of the trap' was a

First For the Year

 the exquisite

 BARRED YELLOW

and later a

 COMMON EMERALD

 Although caught a number of times during 2016 thus far

GARDEN CARPET

has not features as an image to our memory.

CHRYSOTOXUM FESTIVUM

A Hoverfly which appears to have no vernacular name and not all that common.

Returned to our 'patch' on the final day of June, after an absence of 10 days, this 

 LITTLE GREBE

was found on the Irrigation Pond rather than on the usually favoured Gravel Pit.

There was no sign of it there yesterday but was relocated later on the GP.

There too was just a single female

TUFTED DUCK

where the day before a seemingly lone male had been, but the desired hope of a

'hat-trick' reaching the log was scotched, at least for now, by the absence of the

Green Sandpiper.

This was the moment things started to get very thin on the ground 

with this pair of mating

BROWN-LIPPED SNAILS

being the most of interest (yawn) over the following hour.

CHAFFINCH

and a male

STONECHAT

feeding young on the Heath.

Not wishing to give up on the afore mentioned Wader a second visit

was made to the GP where there had been some changes.

The Little Grebe was nowhere to be found while the male

 TUFTED DUCK

 had broken cover, but still no sign of our target!

 The 'last ditch' effort was a return to the IP where, there at the far side was a

GREEN SANDPIPER

we could dry our legs now, the Hat-Trick was won!

The latest from the Trail Cameras was also rather underwhelming

 FOX

and

ROE DEER

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There's Always Tomorrow - Burl Ives

APOLOGIES FOR THE 'NO-SHOW' YESTERDAY
TO SAY OUR ACCESS WAS SPORADIC WOULD BE AN UNDERSTATEMENT!
 The choice of Header Photograph at the beginning of each month
is a totally random affair, meaning the image that catches the eye
from our vast archive on the day. 
That is with the exception of July's Leader which was
generated by a huge stroke of Good Luck followed by a
'flash of inspiration'! The riddle will be divulged hopefully in a day or 2!
A good proportion of what action there was yesterday took place in and around 

the early morning monitoring of the Moth Traps and before even

reaching the first, a sound which is not at all a feature of the

Harbins Farmhouse Garden.
For only the second time during my tenure here

 NUTHATCH

 was first located on song, before being seen high in the large

Ash Tree.

 SMALL BLOOD-VEIN

and

DUN-BAR

 were both new Moths for the year while the 'also ran' was

confined to just a single

NOON FLY

The feature birds of the day appeared simultaneously and singing

as we attended to the final trap, with firstly a

WREN

and then a

COMMON WHITETHROAT

accompanied by a Blackbird and the Wren.
Then it was left to Plant Life to make up the bulk of the rest of the day with

COMMON MALLOW

and

BIRD'S-FOOT-TREFOIL

only being interrupted by a

 FUNNEL WEAVER SPIDER

before

PERFORATE SAINT JOHN's-WORT

 and

THICK-LEAVED STONECROP

were located.

The final visit of the day was paid to the Irrigation Pond where it was
discovered that both of the recently hatched

COOT

chicks we gone, and the parent birds nowhere near the nest which now looks to be abandoned.
Obviously not Third Time Lucky!

From 09:00 onward the day was a 'washout' with relatively
high winds and almost unbroken rain, but like the man said "there's always manana"!

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Mouldy Old Dough - Lieutenant Pigeon

Moldy Old Dough Link 
Another reasonable haul from the traps after a warm night of

little rain and only a light breeze. However it's quiet a different 

story 'out in the field' where the 

Summer Doldrums 

are now setting in with little to see outside of

Plants and Insects.

Firsts for the Year included

 LESSER YELLOW UNDERWING

 and the tiny migrant

 SMALL MOTTLED WILLOW

 LIME HAWK-MOTH

is always of interest even if not an addition for the year.

During the process of the Traps there was a fly-over of an

AIRBUS A-400 'ATLAS'

RAF Cargo Aircraft. 

A short wander along the

RIVER STOUR

 did produce one of the Kingfishers breeding here, but all too fast

for the cameraman!

Along the bank we found both

 BULRUSH

maybe not surprisingly and

 some dense patches of

LARGE BINDWEED

before heading north to The Common where things, as previously mentioned

are getting 'very quite'.

Both

CHIFFCHAFF

 and

 WILLOW WARBLER

are still in full song,

while on the Heath the

 BELTED GALLOWAY CALF

goes from strength to strength.

In addition there juvenile

LINNET

seem to be everywhere and over at the Airport the

BLACK BOX IN-FLIGHT RECORD FACTORY
has seen yet another very productive week in the construction.
At the Sewerage Works

a bird that has already in the past been described as 'scarce' here

put in a most obliging appearance.

FERAL PIGEON
a fine looking specimen

which as usual was soon gone!
The first visit to the Gravel Pit had produced a 'blank' so seeing this

ROE DEER

at a second attempt was a bonus.

Back to Barracks, and stood in the doorway of Slight Return II, this

PIED WAGTAIL
landed directly in front of us.
To the strains of 'New Test Leper' track 3 from the R.E.M. album
New Adventures in Hi-Fi.

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