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.