Its a moth

That's about as much as I can figure out.

?

Its been sitting on our salad container in the garden while we've been painting the garden furniture this afternoon.

I've flicked through Lewingtons concise a few times but this thing seems virtually featureless so I've given up. Closest I can put it to is Small Dusty Wave but, then again, its probably not.

I'm sure someone can put a name to it - cheers

Bothal Circular

Another cracking sunny Sunday so we headed out mid-morning for a walk along various public footpaths around Bothal - mainly hugging farmland & meadows as well as the woods.

Its nice to see fields of poppies and swaying corn fields - it certainly beats field upon field of rape anyway.

What did we see? Well, TGLW picked up a Buzzard flying over the castle. There was a few Yellowhammer around plus lots of Swallows/Swifts/Martins flying around. I also heard a couple of Partridge in the fields and a GSW flew over.

In the woods we were entertained by a family of fledging Treecreepers who hadn't quite found their creeping feet. Tufty-headed, they would try to scramble up the tree trunks before clumsily losing their grip before clattering down, sometimes onto the deck before starting all over again.

Nice walk over, we headed home for a bite to eat in the garden only to be reminded of the reality of life as car upon car tried to cram themselves into the the carpark at Asda.

This always amazes me. A cracking Sunday afternoon, sun blazing down yet people chose to spend their time in some hideous supermarket?

Whats that all about, by the way?

Cresswell, etc

Judging by the abuse the wife game me this morning I'm been getting on her nerves of late.

Nowt else for it - stop getting under her feet by nicking off the for that, and leave her to domestic chores - I find women are never happier than when they're left home alone clutching a duster and a bottle of windolene in their mitts, just don't tell her I said that.

First stop was Cresswell which was dead - in fact it wasn't even that good.

I should have guessed by the message someone had left on the whiteboard:

Very perceptive?

In fact it was so quiet that I took to counting every bird on the main pond - highlights included 1 Redshank, 2 Oyks & 4 Shelducks. At one point 2 Starlings flew over which was thrilling and as I left another Oyk dropped in, increasing the Oyk count by 50% from 2 to 3.

Worse than dead

With nothing spoiling I scoped a male Reed Bunting for ages - you've got to hand it to them, they're stunning birds.

There were, of course, lots of active Sedge Warblers in the reedbeds as well.

Sedge Warbler

Onwards to Druridge which still holds a patch or two of shallow water but its days must be numbered if this hot summer continues.

Eventually a Wood Sandpiper poked its striped head above the long grass before revealing itself - nice year tick.

Not long after so did ADMc and we spent some time chatting about this and that. The Wood Sand continued to make the occasional appearance. ADMc caught a glimpse of another wader flying across, which turned out to be Ruff and later a couple of Snipe flew around. More general chit chat before 5 Little Gulls made a brief appearance as the flew over, heading generally South.

It was time to move on, this time to East Chevington.

From the North Pool it was mainly Sandwich, Arctic & Common Terns on the exposed mud along with 9 Little Gulls.

The reedbeds held more Sedge Warblers and a couple of Reed Warblers were seen.

And from the viewpoint over the North pool we had a couple of Cuckoos, mainly heard but with one male flying past, before the heavens opened and it was time to return home to the smell of freshly pledged furniture and shake & vacked carpets.

Harthope

Harthope Valley is one of my favourite places, and with good reason - the scenery and wildlife in spring/early summer is superb and it can be enjoyed without hardly seeing another soul.

And yesterday was no exception.

Carey Burn

There wasn't a cloud in the sky as I drove up yesterday morning. I stopped off at some farmland as a few Hares were galloping around. This one stopped galloping to pose for a bit.


Once in the valley I parked at the Eastern end and worked my way along the Carey Burn - a couple of Cuckoo's were heard in separate locations as I stepped out of the car.

With the sun on my back I thought to myself 'Brian Bullough always gets snakes when he's here, wonder what the chances are today'. I'd literally just thought it when I looked down and saw this sunning itself on a log:

Adder

I watched it for a bit, it didn't do much, before I carried on.

By mid-morning with the sun beating down it reminded me of walking in Spain, in the Serrania de Ronda perhaps, and I had to stop myself from checking scree slopes for Thekla Larks and Black Wheatears.


Along the Carey Burn the vegetation contained Chiff Chaffs, Willow Warblers and the likes of Robins & Dunnocks and singing Thrushes. The gorse held Linnets & a couple of Yellowhammers.

No sign of any Ring Ouzels though.

More summer visitors were seen and heard in the shape of Whinchats, Garden Warblers and Blackcaps and Curlews circled around over the slopes.

A Grey Wagtail flew down the burn as did this young Dipper who chose to perch on a low hanging branch.

Dipper

At one point my attention was drawn to a high pitched whistling call. I couldn't figure out where from and scanned the hillsides around me before realising it was coming from the path a few feet in front of me.

This is the bit where Kate Humble would say 'aah, sooo cute...just gorgeous' but I won't say anything unnecessary like that. But had I kept on walking there's a strong chance I would have squashed it.

Young Pheasant?

And that's about it from what I can remember - a pleasant morning was had and I left towards home satisfied having seen an array of wildlife having seen only one other human - marvellous.

Quiet?

A bit quiet around these parts of late. Just had a check of RBA's interactive map thingy and its a nationwide quietness.

I'd hoped that a week of mild-moderate Northerlies/Easterlies/North-easterlies might have brought us something but it doesn't seem to have done so far. Apart from the odd shower, its been a bit too dry and bright maybe.

I've still been out and about, both on the patch and around some coastal cover at Spital Point - the latter last night, this morning and this evening. Nothing much to report really, the odd Whitethroat is probably as good as it gets.

A brief 30 minutes seawatch this evening heralded about 30 Gannets, 3 Manx Shearwaters, 2 Greylags, a couple of Sandwich Terns and 6 Guillemots all North. I didn't hang around long as Guinesses and a curry beckoned.

The local Fulmars were also in evidence.

This time last year, more or less, I was in Ardnamurchan and missed the Great Snipe and Lesser Grey Shrike so I guess there's still time yet for something to turn up before attention turns to butterflies & dragonflies and ticking off the list of domestic chores that have built up over the months.