The Coronavirus Quarantine Picture Show

Animal houses

 

Oops a bit wonky

 

My brother in law put me on to Brew Dog beers. I had a selection set of 4 different beers for a birthday present and thought they were exceptional. I tried to buy some in the supermarket and the range was more limited . I was less impressed by the likes of Dead Pony Club / One had grapefruit flavour and I think was called "Elvis Juice. " That was really good. Made a nice change from Old Speckled Hen.

 

Forget the supermarket, order your Brew Dog direct:

https://www.brewdog.com/uk/shop/welcome-to-brewdog

 

they are excellent Ian. I buy a box direct from Brew Dog online, throwing a couple of I tried ones to test.

Punk IPA and Hazy Jane are my favourites and I often get a few lost lager as that has an edge to it for warm summer evenings

Elvis Juice and Clockwork Tangerine are good too.. as are many others.

 

wot he said

 

I found some Sloe Gin in my cupboard the other day

 

Cat stops work

 

Looks like the cat is on his Facebook page.

 

Male Common Darter by the Pond today

 

White Satin Moth caterpillar. Weirdly was eating a completely different plant than they normally feed on as they're usually in willow or poplar.

 

my confidence was correct: he’s gone to see my hen

 

Good to see the Common Darter and caterpillar photos. I like quite near to the Itchen and am always looking out for dragonflies and damselflies. They are really difficult to identify although there are some species like the Broad-bodied Chaser, banded demoiselle , Common Darter and Southern Hawker which I can identify by sight now. The Hawkers are distinctive but never seem to stay still to get an identification. I find that anything smallish, blue or green is a hopeless case. I have the Princeton "Wild Guide" which is excellent as a guide to identification although it does not solve the problem of dragonflies refusing to keep still!

I went birdwatching along the river between Otterbourne and south of Shawford one evening last week. I did not see anything too spectacular other than a buzzard flying at low level in front of me which was an impressive sight. This patch is best during March to July although you can still see the odd dragonfly and butterfly at the moment. All the summer migrants appear to have sloped off. (this tends to include birds like Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Sedge Warbler, etc.) I was amazed to hear a Cetti's Warbler although I could not see him. This is about the second time I have heard one here. The best sightings were the grey wagtails - don't think I have seen them in the number anywhere else.

I think this summer has been really poor for swifts, swallows and martens. From recollection, I only saw swallows on about five occasions and one of those was whilst watching a cricket match! Equally poor for migratory butterflies as I did not see any Painted Ladies or Clouded Yellows either.

 

Am off today for a few days to the Isle of Purbeck - hoping to get some decent photos and have packed the camera so that I can take proper ones rather than using my phone (which is pretty good but not not a patch on my DSLR which I hardly use)
I agree about Dragonfly ID though Ian, they always manage to get just out of shot, or just put of focus, and even then it's tricky. Take the common Darter...with the natural colour variations, it can be easily confused with the Ruddy Darter, yellow winged Darter, red veined Darter, scarlet darter and Vagrant darters. And the darters are a bit nervous too so they don't stay long in one place.

 

Yellow Winged Darter today

 

Blurry Kestrel, often spotted sub species of Kestrel
My daughter was hogging the camera so I had to use my phone

 

Autumn colours at Stourhead today

 

Autumn boating lovely sky

 

Had a trip to the Blackdown Hills, south of Taunton today, and a stomp around Castle Neroche, an Iron Age hill fort. What a fabulous autumn day it was!

This is looking north to the Bristol Channel, which you can just glimpse in the distance:

And we were surprised by a pair of these as we wandered through the woods too!