Albatross - Fleetwood Mac - Part II

The second and final part of that 'magical day' in Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand
in the company of Captain Gary Melville is, like the 'first' a pictorial - here's hopeing you enjoy it!

One of Gary's Promotional Shots

 NORTHERN GIANT PETREL

not the pretiest bird of the trip

with that attribute likely falling to

 SALVIN'S (SHY) ALBATROSS

 an absolute

STUNNER

 Another of the less 'pretty'

 but not to be missed for love nor money

 WESTLAND PETREL

 with close up of juvenile
WANDERING ALBATROSS

 while the last of the palagics

 was the also stunning

 WHITE-CAPPED ALBATROSS

 before being met at the harbour mouth by

RED-BILLED GULL

 LAND

HO!

Ghost of the Navigator - Iron Maiden

A change in fortunes brought a couple of 'goodies' to the traps,

but a change in the functioning of the traps is sure to bring more, so

Watch This Space!

 GHOST MOTH

is a most welcome annual Insect if for nothing more than the diversity between the

Male (above)

 and this the 

Female.

While the great proportion take some telling apart as to sexing there is no mistaking these!

 GREEN PUG

was also added to the Year List along with

 SINGLE-DOTTED WAVE

There was also some interest outside of the Moths, as every year shows up,

with other Insects such as:-

 a brace of considered 

COMMON POLLEN BEETLES

 the first of the year

COMMON WASP

but unfortunately not the last.

 DEVIL'S COACH HORSE BEETLE

 in agressive pose and

DOCK SHIELDBUG
Later at the Gravel Pit there was a 'fly-over'

 REDSHANK

calling, something of a 'scarcity' here so considered a decent record
bringing up our 108th species of 2020.

 COMMON LIZARD

 in 2 quite distinctive morphs.
With the fresh breeze of the morning being overtaken by rain,
sometimes heavy, it was amazing that there was anything else to report but 
a series of Plants seem to have pulled us out of the mire........

 EVENING PRIMROSE

 STAR of BETHLEHEM

 OPPOSITE-LEAVED GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE

RED-TAILED BUMBLE-BEE 
on
 LONG-STALKED CRANESBILL

 SMOOTH HAWKS-BEARD

STINKING MAYWEED
If the weather holds it will potentially be a very busy 2 days for us Mother's
(unmarried or not)
with hopefully results starting to show on Monday

Young at Heart - The Bluebells

With no NEW Moths it was left to something much larger to represent the

Winged Division!

 BRITISH AIRWAYS JUMBO JET

Rumours have been rife for a few days now that the fleet of similar

BA owned aircraft are going to be leaving 

Bournemouth International Airport

in the near future with this being the first we have witnessed

 while these remain the images across the pan.

while 'cargo' keeps rolling along!

While we haven't as much as seen an

 EGYPTIAN GOOSE

in the last 4 to 6 weeks today we maybe found the reason why

 as transiting the 

Moors River

 out from cover

 stomped this little lot, refreshing to know they are still doing it on our patch!

While something even bigger and taller manifested itself, it was only as a

result of clicking a wrong file in our search for other things that the enigmatic

 GREAT BLUE HERON

 got to be shown here anyway. 

Seemed a shame just to close the file on what on this giant from the America's, which

if my memory serves me correctly, or one has not sneaked in via the back door,

has only visited our shores just a single time.

Having seen plenty 'across the pond' doesn't preclude wanting to seen on in the UK.

Not a lot else to be seen as this

 WHITETROAT

put in an all to brief and very fidgety

 appearance.

As if we had not had our fill of

'The Young Ones'

it was on the Heath that it was the turn of a juvenile

 DARTFORD WARBLR

 watched over by vocal parent birds

 as practising the craft of catching

Common Heath Moths

which are now abundant there.

GRASS SNAKE

was a welcome find but

a little to camera-shy when it came to videoing.

A juvenile

STONECHAT

once again proved to be irresistable

Finally, within the Solar Panel Compoud we once again encountered the

 now seemingly singular which we had intended to highlight about 10 days ago

when encountered on the Heath.

There were concerns even then that the presumed femal bird had been

predated or fallen to Old Father Time

but now about a mile from that original spot he again remains alone.

The concern arises as since being first found in 2017 they have 'never' 

been seen alone

so these are strange happenings but we remain hopeful!