ARGUS - Wishbone Ash

 Not exactly the way we had intended to start the new day as arriving on station to monitor the Moth Traps, we found the note-pad had been left in the car so a ⅓ of a mile both back and forth before we got the show on the road. Again there was no shortage of interest among the 278 macro Moths of 74 species with the following being added to the ‘year list’.

JULY BELLE

not to be confussed with the far moe scarce and sort after

 LEAD BELLE

of which we have only captured a single specimen in 13 years of trapping here!

SCALLOPED OAK
followed in turn by

GARDEN TIGER

and bringing up the rear-ranks a most welcome

MARBLED GREEN
at the very last knockings.

COLLARED DOVEs

came to be something of a feature of the day, but try as we may unable to find any young.

No difficulties with
DUNNOCK

but in the Race for Beauty it was lagging somewhat, but just wait a week or two.

Still no shortage of juvenile
STONECHAT

in fact a couple of dozen between the Heath and the Panels Compound
but Tale's of the Unexpected brought a brace of

COMMON SNIPE

well out of season across our neck of the woods!
On his visit last weekend Dave had already supressed (whoops) 'found' our most dainty and
eye-catching Butterfly here which performed very well for us after capture.

BROWN ARGUS
is a real beauty whether at 'closed-wing' perch

or with them open

but simply a Law Unto Itself when seen in a combination of both!
Single

RAVEN
continue to appear sporadically

at thier favoured perch but no signs of family parties as had been the way of things in the past
but even more of a surprise was the appearance of a male

TEAL
on the Gravel Pit

only our second ever July record
and finally another squab

juvenile
WOOD PIGEON
in the garden.
It would seem that the Post will attach some of our videos, but not others, so maybe a camera setting issue, so if you have any suggestions they would be welcome via the 'comments' facility at the bottom of the page!
For me the bands signature compossition which in 1974 they announced would never be played live again - a bolt out of the BLUES!
Wind forward to the

and as 'HEADLINERS' on the final day The Ash took to the stage at 23:00 and played until midnight. There was a financial penaty in place for ever minute after the Witching Hour that any band played but it wasn't going to deter Wishbone. Having left the stage, drummer Steve Upton returned and perch on his stool, raised his sticks high above his head before connecting with the snare in the unmistakable intro to

PHOENIX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WIwkijLCAo

from the seminal album 

ARGUS

 and for further recommended listening from the same album the trilogy of Battle Hymns

Throw Down the Sword, The King Will Come along with The Warrior

Here Is the News

 While adicted to the News in all its  forms we do favour the BBC at 18:00 and South Today so maybe not so much a stroke of good fortune to see our friend

MARTIN CADE
Warden of the Portland Bird Observatory

informing us of the reviaval of the once extinct on the Island of the

LARGE TORTOISHELL BUTTERFLY

LARVAE
and ably backed by a gentleman not known to me

We think you will agree that was fairly quick on the draw for a Couch Spud!
Another morning of

ground level mist patches and accompanied by a worn looking

GATEKEEPER BUTTERFLY
and a smarter

ROE DEER
as we walked to the Moth Traps to find in the first instance

PURPLE-BORDERED GOLD

FOUR DOTTED FOOTMAN

with the

ROWAN BERRIES

seeming to have ripened overnight.

As with the 2 Species above
THE VAPOURER

SILKY WAINSCOT

SMALL BLOOD-VEIN
and

FLOUNCED RUSTIC
were duely added to the Year List
and also a lone

WOODLARK
there letting out something of a sub-song and otherwise no more than common fare back at home.

HOUSE SPARROW

doing well on the

Breeding Grounds

CHICKEN

on the loose with one of the Free Range Guineafowl.

GOLDFINCH

Second Generation

WOOD PIGEON

ending with a lone
ICHNEUMAN WASP
We feel it is going to get a lot quieter?

I Don't Believe in Miracles - The Zombies

 One of my favourite bands across the 60's.

The current rash of warmer overnight temperatures saw another small gaggle of 'first for year' Moths succumb to the lure of the traps last night in the form of

this nicely marked

DUSKY SALLOW

was followed by a

POPLAR KITTEN
along with

BEAUTIFUL YELLOW UNDERWING
which is a look-alike of

TRUE LOVER'S KNOT

until it opens its wings which is all to infrequent!

Leaving an otherwise all to quiet Heath we found this
COMMON BUZZARD
on the Solar Panel fencing which looked to be one of this years vintage

while within

GRASS and NETTLE  CUTTING OPERATIONS WERE WELL UNDERWAY.

At the Gravel Pit among the climbing

GREATER BINDWEED
and other hedgerow plants was a hunting

MOORHEN
before our attention was drawn to the middle of the pond and our none belief in miracles started to wane. There, away from all vegetation, floated a

LITTLE GREBE's NEST

which we had already given up on and had both

Click and Videoed

well within the 20 second limit for glueing onto the post without success

so we will make another attempt later today.

Just to smack a huge cherry onto an already creamy cake in flew this

KINGFISHER
much to our delight causing more problems of tearing ourself away!
However, the pride had come before the fall which was another bout of

FLY-TIPPING
but why in those smart and doubtless useful bags?

THE 'ANIMALS' ARE BACK!
Checking the Main Pond for the

MUTE SWAN FAMILY
they were all found present and correct (c7 Cygnets) and mostly in the water including the

Leucistic Cygnet

but they will all develop white eventually,

while the male bird was keeping a distance at the other side of the pond where a few

WATER LILIES

are also starting to show.

but for my monay their finest hour was "She's Not There"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it68QbUWVPM