Paul's Blog - All comments and views are my own,

Managed to fit in a quick visit to Slimbridge this morning, as is usual at this time of year it was quiet on the bird front with the best of the pick being a tatty male Ruff with the remnants of what may have been a stunning white "ruff". There were at least 25 Redshank and a Common Sandpiper to be seen on South Lake, lots of ducklings around as well as around 60 Avocets of various ages. A few plants caught my eye including the invasive and tenacious Japanese Knotweed and Hemp-agrimony. Hemp-Argimony, yes it does look like the plant you can but shouldn't smoke! Japanese Knotweed!!!!!!!!!!!

Being so busy packing means having to fit in any natural history when I can, today I popped along for an early visit to Slimbridge WWT. Five Green Sandpipers on the Rushy are a sure sign that in the natural world the year is moving on as these birds will be returning south from the breeding grounds in the Artic, sadly because I forget the adaptor to use my phone on the telescope no decent pictures trying to hold the phone steady didn't really work for these birds. At the Robbie Garnett hide a Little Egret was a better target so despite no adaptor and therefore too much light getting into the phone a half decent result. Little Egret There were plenty of Orchids in flower with this  Common Spotted Orchid being just one of the species on show

Four Ravens over the garden again this morning, then an adult HOBBY through the garden this evening.

Been quite busy with other stuff today so just a quick update from the garden. Even though the garden flowers are "going over" there are still some nectar and pollen rich flowers to be found by any intrepid insect, here's a selection. Mullein moth caterpillar shedding its old (on the left)skin   This beetle is  remarkable look at those thighs!! its called ???noblis   This is a Brown Carder Bee   This a "fly" doing its best to look like a bumble bee, but since all my books are packed away I am unable to give it a name Something different these fossils were found in the gravel delivered by "Huntsmans" quarries the three on the left are a type of gastropod, while the other two are a type of Belemite?

Last night (15th) I set the moth trap in the garden, the first time this year! After a nice warm day and the first evening when it had been warm enough to sit outside until 10pm it seemed like I would have a decent capture. Well there were not loads, but the variety was great, The highlights were four species of "hawkmoth" this family are perhaps the largest moths we have in the UK and they are spectacular. The usual plain looking moths can themselves be quite smart when viewed closely, The species I caught last night were: Scorched wing: Spectacle: Flame: Heart and Dart: Small Elephant Hawk moth: Elephant Hawk moth: Eyed Hawk moth: Striped Hawk moth: Peppered: Magpie: Common Wainscot: Buff Ermine: White Ermine: Hebrew character: Buff Tip: Grey Arches: Bright Line Brown eye: Some fantastic names don't you think. Here are some photographs, apologies for the quality the flash on my phone camera kept coming on it was quite glum at 5am!!! Buff Tip Moth, look

Spent the day (10 hrs anyway) with friends from the North Wilts Ringing Group on what we cheekily call a "safari" on the downs in North Wiltshire. Having a great relationship with landowners is really important and today was no exception. Most ringers would have stayed in bed today, in fact we had a ball with plenty of nest boxes checked and two impromptu mist netting sessions. As I will be leaving the area shortly today was quite special with some of my favourite birds ringed House Martin   Kestrel nestlings Kestrel nestling Little Owl - owlets  

This ,morning had been set aside to ring some Canada Goose goslings, originally there were two broods to ring on a private Cotswold estate, unfortunately Mr Fox beat me to one of the broods so only a brood of 6 left to ring. Geese obviously need larger sized rings, the opportunity to use large rings doesn't come along too often so I invited Anna another ringer to help with the session. When I last saw the goslings they were cute and yellow, today at four/five weeks old they were grey and much bigger than I imagined but perfect for ringing. With the assistance of the gamekeeper and his wife, manning the boat, we managed to trap just three of them, given the size of the lake and the sloping ground I was happy with three. We checked a coupe of nest boxes and found Stock Doves using two of them and a female Barn Owl roosting near another.