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Poor old Gilbert is getting restless. Despite the fact that there is more interest in wildlife than ever before, it seems that most of the so-called conservation organisations are losing interest in species. Instead they prefer to babble on about landscape scale conservation and ecosystem services (whatever they are). Could this be because most of their staff don't have any knowledge about species if they don't have four legs?
This is my attempt to encourage an interest in good old-fashioned natural history.

Thursday 10 May 2012

I've seen a ghost!

No, I'm not losing the plot. The ghost in question is the White-footed Ghost Dolichopeza albipes. The white feet actually show up really well when it is flying in gloomy woodland. I've seen several this spring in the New Forest and suspected it was this species but this was the first I have managed to catch and bring home to check against the keys.


Earlier in the day I had been sea watching at Milford shelter. I hate sea watching because that's exactly what it is; watching the sea. Not watching seabirds, just the sea. This session was little better than normal, with just a few Gannets and a single Fulmar. The exception was a group of five Pomarine Skuas, all pale phase with full spoons, that had settled on the sea to the west just before I arrived and then spent the next couple of hours drifting east on the currents. They were close inshore as they drifted towards us and I hoped for a rare chance of a photo but just before they reached us they flew further out, resulting in.....


.... possibly the worst bird photo ever! You can just see two blobs just left of centre. The other 3 must have been in the trough of a wave at the time.
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