All to Delicate

 We have seen a couple of dull days lately, not only with the weather, but also with the First for Year Moths plucked from the traps which have included

STRAW UNDERWING

a couple of examples of the

DELICATE
and

WHITE-LINE DART
as during the process close to home a fly-past of both

the regular and noisy

CHINOOK
and again a

EUROPEAN CARGO
across a grim looking sky.

STRANGE BED-FELLOWs
in the Solar Panel Compoud with the second of the

RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE

close at hand,

along with continuing Gull activity including this fine specimen of

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL
while disaster reins at the now completely covered

IRRIGATION POND

where nought but this juvenile

MOORHEN
was braving it!
with more bad news ending this Post at the Gravel Pit where only a single adult

LITTLE GREBE
was found, no eggs, no nest, no Humbugs surely it can only get 'better'!

Mellow Yellow - Donavan

 No Bullfinch's to greet us at Compound 13 this morning and not even the Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Pink Floyd), but an appropriate line from fellow muso's Genesis

"and so with god's and men the Sheep remain inside their pen,

until the Shepherd leads his flock away".
Firth of Fifth.

Yes, they are back mob-handed so good job we left the stockades in place!
Again not a cluster of good news but at least a couple to add to the Year List along with a brace of Eye Catching

GOLD SPOT
and the additions

DUSKY THORN
(looking to be suffering from that pen-top feeling)
and

PLAIN PUG
while elsewhere little more than a

worryingly confiding juvenile

STOCK DOVE

seemingly just waiting to be predated? while in the same area a

brand new and still fluffy young

MISTLE THRUSH
but not given to much, or even any, movement.
Down South

was given over in total to

Plant Life

with the
SUN FLOWER FIELD
looking positivly
Van Gogh-Esque

and
HORSE CHESTNUTs

or maybe just
CONCKERS
ripening nicely in the sunny weather - that's blown it!!

and finally the best 'stand' of

PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE
we have seen this year.

NICE to go TRAVELLING - Frank Sinatra

With a measly +8°C on the gauge and a fresh westerly breeze the words “abandon all hope ye who enter here” sprung to mind as we visited the Moth Trap, but "it’s an Ill Wind that doesn’t throw up something good"!

In this instance a 3rd

JERSEY TIGER MOTH
and a

putative

SVENSSON'S COPPER UNDERWING

which would need close scrutiny of the underwing to prove authenticity by those more in the know than myself while the

HOUSE SPARROWs

profited from some of the released insects.

As far as other Wildlife was concerned it was to be just a cursory look around to fine a small

BRIGADE

of

BULLFINCHES

Male, Female and a couple of Juveniles, awaiting our arrival at Compound 13
while at the main Compound we found some delightful
Feathered Friend

had left a 'deposit' across the padlock tumbler.
However, the visit was short with far larger fish to fry as meeting my friend Sue (she of the recent Australian Posts) for lunch at the

FRAMPTON ARMS

just a few miles east of Weymouth

where, within a few minutes we were discussing the options of getting back together on the road again! My hopes are certainly high as just a few of the adventures we embarked upon in that previous life included.
China, Australia, U.S.A on a number of occassions, her beloved Cypress with shades of

GREAT-SPOTTED CUCKOO

and

SHORT-TOED TREECREEPER
as far north as

claiming to be the most northerly town in the World where we were invited to join the celibration

of a successful and strictly controlled Bowhead Whale Harvest

the highlight being the sharing to everyone in the community of the
Muktuk or Muktac
the blubber of last years catch, cut into ribbons at that time and marinaded in its own blood with no chance of me missing this extrordinay ritual.

but no doubting the

claim of being

the most southerly

City in the World

as spring-board for Antarctica and the attendant
DOLPHIN GULL

No Brainer Me Thinks - Let's Go!