Bugs I'm Alone

Did you get the excrutiating pun? Bugsy Malone? It has no connection to the photos, it just came to me in a flash. Sorry.

These 2 were in the biscuit tin this morning and very welcome too. Neither is rare or even uncommon but they do look good. The background should be the same colour but I used flash on the second one to lift it a little so the colour rendition is a bit different. I'm not very good with photoshop at adjusting for consistency. Something else to learn in retirement in 5 years time.

It's a great hobby

Arm improving but still no photography. I don't want to jeopardise the progress.

I have been in rural Hampshire this week, at The Four Seasons Dogmersfield to be precise. This hotel stood out for various reasons. It had, without doubt, the best service I have encountered in many a long year. From arrival to departure everything was just perfect. It helps that it is in the most glorious setting. Several hundred acres of rolling country, made glorious by the refusal of planning permission to add a golf course. Bad luck for The 4 Seasons but great for nature. I met a planner the other day, whose card said "environmentally friendly golf course design". Crap. And crap again. No such thing. Anyway, I digress.

On the first morning I arrived fresh from the 5am Cathay Pacific landing at LHR (not an immigration officer to be seen as I arrived at passport control....) and after a shower in the hotel spa I went for a walk. House martins. Everywhere. Chirruping merrily away, white rumps flashing by and then suddenly - swoosh. A hobby in full flight. If you don't know what a hobby looks like, shame for you. They are very sexy little falcons. And seeing one for the first time since I left Britain in late 2004 was a reminder of why sometimes, just sometimes, I have an urge to return. Then Jackdaws flew out from a pine tree. I love the sound of happy Jackdaws, chacking away. Very uplifting. On the lawns, Green woodpeckers. Several of them. Quite tame and not at all skittish. Oh for a camera. Their old name is the yaffle. A laughing call. Very fitting, and I heard it many times in just 2 days.

A stroll through the walled garden and a Song thrush, newly fledged, sitting high on the wall. Oblivious to me. And then, sorry girls, half a fluffy bunny. I've no idea where the front half went. Maybe down a fox's throat? But the scut and rear legs were all that was left. I like the word "scut". It reminds me of Romany, whose books I had as a child. I'm sure in "Out with Romany again" there was a chapter on Scut the rabbit. I mentioned it to George at the front door and he meandered off to move it before anybody took fright.

A colleague returning from an early run was subjected to my tale of the hobby. He informed me had run along the canal and seen a crane. As there was no construction on site and I was talking birds I concluded he had seen a heron. George concurred.

And so passed 2 pleasant days of conferencing. I learned to fence (for 4 hours) as part of an exercise in improving our focus. Well yes, you do focus when someone is charging at you with a sword (foil) but it has never yet happened in the office. I was however happy to focus on the hobby. Oh to be in England........... even if it is July not April. Happy days.

Sizzling

Oh come on, everybody has these on their roof. You must know what it is.

Alas, another week goes by and still no photography. My "tennis elbow" shows no signs of abating and I am getting mightily frustrated, just resting. The consolation is that Hong Kong is basking under a "hot weather warning" and the mercury is pushing 35 degrees celsius. That's the mid 90s Fahrenheit for those of us still working in black and white. You could fry an egg on the car bonnet. Sunny side very much up.

I have, it seems, been tagged by Fumie to document 8 personal facts. I shall only document one. I am old curmudgeon. That is my excuse for not bothering with another 7.

The garden moth trap is still running but I have switched from the large SUV type Robinson trap (think large washing up bowl with a lighthouse lamp on top, to the Heath trap (think square biscuit tin with small fluorescent tube on top). Oh blow it, I shall copy images from the web site of Anglian Lepidopterist Supplies. I'm sure Jon Clifton won't mind as he does sell me all my lepping gear :-)




The Biscuit Trap (I confess I have never caught a biscuit in it) has the advantage that it is small and quick to empty. It has of course the disadvantage that it is small and therefore is usually not going to pull in as many bugs. I get more micros with the small trap - the big bully boy moths avoid it. Not worth the effort. Micros are however often rather ritzy as I have shown before and sometimes tricky to ID. Some moths simply seem to prefer the hot mercury vapour lamp and others the cold actinic. In this heat I am perfectly content to sort through a couple of dozen little jobbies rather than (sometimes) hundreds of the things in the SUV. A man has a life - and a wife - to consider but it is a good excuse to stay indoors away from global warming.

And now, a plea for help. Deep heat has failed, physio has failed, my electric, buzzing, muscle zapping thingy has failed. What will cure damaged ligaments in the arm? And if anybody dares to say "rest" then I'll club them to death with a 500mm f4 image stabilized lens. If I can lift it. Oh, and wish me luck. I have to go through Heathrow this week. Once in, once out. Aargh. Toodle pip.

Spoony & Ana

A Black-faced spoonbill at Mai Po actually taken last December on a beautiful winter day and a moth from last night's trap, Eublemma anachoresis, somewhat smaller but equally stunning n my eyes.

Nature's trick

For the last couple of years I have wanted to see and photograph a Chestnut-winged cuckoo. They are stunning birds.

The call is a double-piping note, given over and over again and followed by a cackling call occasionally. This morning I could hear one nearby but after scanning for several minutes decided it was buried deep in the foliage, not destined to reveal itself. I went back into my study and sat at the computer, doing moth records from the previous night.

Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw a large bird land in our tree, no more than 10' away from me. It was the Chestnut-winged cuckoo. For the first time in months there was no camera in the room. I gazed at the bird in amazed delight. I was for a few seconds a real "twitcher". It flew and as I raced up the stairs to tell a totally disinterested wife, it landed in a tree across the road. From the top floor of the house I grabbed a 400mm lens and fired 2 record shots before the bird flew. I probably have half the bird visible at a long distance. Oh well, half the dream achieved.

My wife's comment? "I thought it was an alarm clock bleeping somewhere." Aaargh!

But isn't nature wonderful? For 2 years or so I have tried to find the bird and today it found me.