Today I had a nice calm and short day.  The day was begun with moths which is always a good start.  Last time we set the trap we got 424 moths which was impressive.  This time we got 18.  But what beautiful moths they were. The first one was a new one for me: the Nut-Tree Tussock.  This moth is wonderful for two reasons A) It is nice and furry and B) They eat Hazel trees, the tastiest of trees.

Nut-tree tussock

 We also had a couple of Engraileds:

Engrailed

 And a very beautiful Herald:

Herald

After mothing which took only an hour I headed back to the office to do the sorts of important things that people do in offices.  There was no laminating involved unfortuantely but I had fun making new wildflower signs for the boardwalk.  One of my trees was Blackthorn, a tree I like because of the pretty flowers and giant infective thorns.  I also did Elder.  Actually maybe Elder is the tastiest of trees?  The tastiest berry bearing tree for sure.

Blackthorn blossom

 I went past the pond in the wildlife garden and it is filled with tadpoles and frogs.  In the next couple of weeks I will hopefully be going out to check out the ponds for newts.  http://www.newthunt.org/  Newt hunting is a very exciting sport, one of the only sports I am interested in in fact.

Frogs

I will be disappeared for the next few days as I will be going to visit the my beloved Jack2 in England.  I will report back with lovely pictures of Farne Island bird life.

A Happy start to the morning!  I would like to offer my congratulations to Mrs. Pigeon who lives in my bicycle shed.  I noticed the other day that there was a nest like structure on the floor and sure enough this morning there was a shiny white egg in it!

Mrs Pigeon and egg

I will be sure to keep you updated on the progress of the happy family.

Today was another day in Peregrine land.  It was beautiful and sunny and I was forced to strip down to the least amount of clothes I have worn in 6 months.  The sunny weather has been good for the flowers and butterflies and today I got some beautiful pictures walking along the boardwalk.  I have tried my best to identify but I am hoping that my precious mammie might leave some comments...

Forget-me-not

Wood Anemone

Mystery Plant1

Mystery Plant2

Mystery Plant 3

Orange tip butterfly on Cuckooflower

Today was pretty uneventful at the site.  The Peregrines sat on the eggs and I read interesting facts about plants.  Nothing as wonderful as yesterday's fact though.  I stayed till 8 o clock and then headed down the hill.  No badgers tonight: instead I went along the Red Path ready to lay out....

THE MOTH TRAP

Tomorrow is mothing day and very excited I am about it.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's exciting Mothing facts, figures and pictures.

Today has been a long and tiring day, as Peregrine watch day generally is.  Which is quite funny considering it involves mostly sitting on a bench.  When arrived at the site Ms Peregrine was on the nest.

Ms Peregrine

The pair take turns incubating the eggs while the other goes out to hunt or maybe just sits around on the cliff face and looks good.  The day normally proceeds as follows:  nothing happens, some visitors visit, nothing happens, the birds turn the eggs, nothing happens, nothing happens, then the other bird arrives back at the nest and they changeover (big excitement, I've even been known to get off my bench).  And repeat.  You might think that sounds boring but it's great fun. 

In between things happening I am supposed to be studying books to get useful information for guided walks.  Today I  was reading Flora Celtica and discovered an interesting thing about Fly Agaric mushrooms.  Apparently one of the traditional ways to get high on the mushroom drugs is to drink the urine of a reindeer which has been feeding in the fungus.  I like this fact and plan on telling it to every visitor I come across.  THE WORLD MUST KNOW!!!

As well as improving my mind I also like hanging out at the Peregrine site because I get to spend time with a really gorgeous guy.

MR PEREGRINE. 

He is the sexiest bird I have ever seen.  Observe:

Mr Peregrine is a good dad.  See him here carefully rolling his eggs about.

Mr Peregrine and his blood soaked face

Is he not the best looking bird you have ever seen?... look at the eyes. 

I like spending quiet evenings together at the Peregrine Site when MsP is out hunting.  Alas it won't last, he is due to have 3 children in the next few weeks and then there'll be no time to sit around with me *sigh*

Today at lunchtime I got a visit from my dear family: The Lawsons.  They came to see me and the Peregrines.  Of course they enjoyed the Peregrines but the highlight of their trip was undoubtedly the guided tour I gave them of all the signs I have replaced.  During their short visit I was able to show them 3 of my signs and the workmanship and attention to detail was greatly admired.  They also bought me lunch in the Woolen Mill cafeteria which was excellent.  Roasted mediterranean vegetable toastie and a giant freshly made waffle with maple syrup and ice cream... I was so happy.

Then it was back to the Peregrine site to learn more fascinating facts and hang out with my guy.  The evening was largely uneventful apart from one very drunk man who wanted to know why he couldn't see naked women through the scopes.
After I had said goodnight to my beloved for the day I headed home.  On the way back I saw a badger rootling around in the leaves.  Here is the best picture I managed to get.  I consider it a success because you can tell its a badger.

Today was a happy day of freedom where I got to wander around and do what I wanted... from my extensive list of tasks that The Boss left me over the weekend.  The first mission was to assist the Big Boss in taking down a malfunctioning camera (I held a ladder for 5 minutes) and then I was off on my own.

My first mission was to find and examine all the Aspen clumps on the far side of the reserve.  Aspens are nice trees I have discovered, they have diamond shaped "lenticels" on the bark (my new word of the day). 

Aspen have separate male and female trees and if we want our trees on the reserve to start breeding and making lots of baby aspens then it would be helpful if we had males and females. This is my mission: to find out the sex of the trees. Alas the trees do not appear to be flowering this year which makes it impossible. Still, I get to wander around the woods looking at things so all is well. On the way back from the furthest Aspen stand I found this rather fetching moth.

Hmm, or is it a fly....?  I think it might be a fly. Let us just call it a fetching insect.

On my way back from Aspen checking I stopped off to replace a scabby looking sign.  Any excuse to make something with the laminator.  And when I attached it I got to use the staple gun too... yeah!

Sign before

Sign after...a  good days work

 Just after this gate is the meadow and in the meadow I found 2 Jays feeding on the grass and a pair of Bullfinches skulking suspiciously in the bushes. 

In the afternoon I did a butterfly survey along the butterfly transect route.  Of course I saw more butterflies in the morning before the transect but I did see three on the survey, 2 Small Tortoiseshells and 1 Peacock.  After this epic day of patrolling I returned to the office for some quality time with my drill. 

Upon my return home I was greeted by this sight:

Head in the Hay

Dougal and Strathpig had torn their hay rack from the side of the cage in a frenzy of hay eating passion.  In the aftermath of the destruction Dougal lay down to have a nap with his head inside the hay rack.  It would be like me falling asleep with my head inside a giant tub of nutella.  Dougal I salute your decadence.

Greetings my peoples.  I have decided that I will try to reform my ways from now on and keep you updated on my exciting life.  Unfortunately I came to this new resolution at 10.15 at night (my bedtime) so I can't be bothered writing anything and will instead just post some pictures which I took today.

Pink Striped Wood Sorrel

Comma butterfly resting on railings of Dipping Pond

Primroses on the Blue Path