All good things and all that

The Safari is going to miss this blissful little corner of Shropshire near the hamlet of Wentnor. What a week we've had even got a bit sunburnt today, don't usually see the sun on our holidays it always seems to be howling gales and torrential rain until the day we depart - not been like that here though, we've had almost wall to wall sunshine and certainly had wall to wall bird song. Right now as we type there's Blackbird, Song Thrush, Willow Warbler, Blackcap and Goldcrest songs coming in the rough the open kitchen door, and that's only a small selection of what can be heard around here. Last night we added a hooting Tawny Owl to the list whose wavering call came from somewhere across the river on the still night air.

We put some chopped eggs and cheese out for the Badger but he was a no-show. The chickens here have provided us with sunshine on a plate every morning!

We do have a bit of a mystery for you though as the stealth-cam gave us a bit of a ghostly thing for you to have a look at and decide what it might be caused by.

A few bats of unknown species, probably but not necessarily Pipistrelles, were flying around last night too, for some reason we forgot to pack the bat detector.

This morning we were  back at Cardingmill Valley and decided to hike up to the waterfall - hike might be a bit strong, it's less than a half hour stroll from the lower car park. It's not the world's biggest waterfall either but it does sit in a pretty tidy location even if we did have to wait ages for a school group to finish their geography fieldwork before we could take any pics - there's not much room up there!

On the way we saw our first Green Hairstreaks for ages, must be two or three, even four, years since we last came across this lovely little species of butterfly. They were to hot today for pics flitting around like mad things then dropping deep into the Bilberries without giving any chance of pics. Above our head in the clear blue sky a brilliantly bright male Stonechat danced in his song flight, another new species for the hols, and Meadow Pipits were everywhere.

On the way back down we found a rather tatty Latticed Heath moth but no further sign of the Green Hairstreaks.. 

We called in at the office to find we'd just missed our mate who'd was out in his tractor but had a quick chat to another old acquaintance from our days on the dunes in the 80s...it's almost as if the valley was made of  Formby sand this week! Really great to catch up even if we didn't have anywhere near enough time to chew the fat properly.

A great week in a stunning and incredibly peaceful location - apart from thta Song Thrush which literally hasn't shut up all the time we've been here!

Where to next? Back to Base Camp and a week's worth of pics to work through and chose the best to up load for you.

In the meantime let us know who's doing the dancing song fights in your outback.