Ooh it's hot hot hot

The Safari has had the most enjoyable day lazing around Base Camp doing not a lot in particular in the sun today.

The day started shortly after 06.00 with the emptying of the moth trap, not a bad haul lurked therein, double figure Dark Arches was good but just two Large Yellow Underwings was a relief. Four Marbled Beauties easily beat a Heart & Dart and a Rustic/Uncertain in the colour stakes. A fresh Dot contrasted with an incredibly worn - almost to the point of unidentifyablity - Bright Line Brown Eye. A green stripy thing in the bottom of one of the egg boxes had us guessing and turned out to be our first ever garden July Highflyer - nice one! Micros were represented by the very small Blastobasis adustella and the almost big enough to be a Macro Phlyctaenia coronata.

The feeders were lively and provided much entertainment throughout the morning, jsut the usual, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Great Tit and Blue Tits visiting until we heard the unmistakable chirruping of a House Sparrow.

Four of the 10 Dark Arches

Digiphonescoped Great Tit - hand held phone & swinging feeder

It didn't venture on to the feeders but stayed deep in the shrubbery, we later saw it feeding a recently fledged youngster on the top of the pergola so not coming in for seeds from the feeder but inverts from the foliage, we must be reaching a stage of maturity that they like which is excellent news.

No Sparrowhawks to cause consternation today but this Magpie, looking stunning in the morning light, had the smaller birds calling out in alarm.

More ruckus was heard overhead, this time  from the local Herring Gulls, and we looked for a raptor but unstead found a family of four Herring Gulls ma n da getting all anxious and emotional about their two babies first flight.

As the temperature climbed Swifts sliced their way through the azure blue and twittering Swallows jinked around above the rooftops. Mid morning is a quiet time for Human activity and we just sat for ages doing nothing but enjoying the bird sounds and hum and buzz of the insects around Wifey's flower tubs.

A large insect moving quickly caught our eye, a dragonfly! Leaping up and grabbing the camera we dashed over to the pond, a teneral Common Darter - great stuff, alas no picture it settled in a 'bad' place where we couldn't get at it without casting a shadow with the inevitable consequence - off over the garage it went never to be seen again - not good! But hey any dragonfly at Base Camp is good - you don't HAVE to get a pic every time.

Early afternoon a bre was being made in the kitchen when a tiny moth was seen on the window sill behind the kettle. A pot was grabbed and the moth chivvied inside to be left until saifd brew was drunk. 

Hmmm, this one looks interesting we thought - not seen one quite like that before. Turned out to be a moth lifer, Pseudargyrotoza conwagana. And what a little (little being the operative word) it was.

After that excitement we took Frank to the cliffs to watch the riding tide for the recent Bottlenose Dolphins. No joy just a couple of Gannets and a few smallish flock of Common Scoters were out there. No blubber at all not even any Grey Seals today. After the best part of a couple of hours it got too hot for Frank so we called it a day (was hot too we burnt our ar*e on the seat when we first sat down!) and returned to sitting in the garden back at Base Camp.

Our Extreme Photographer came round to drop off some firewood and bat box wood and show off his snazzy new van - yes he's sold his very tasty Defender due to taking up a real paid job down in South Wales shortly - hopefully he'll be our roving reporter from 'abroad' and send us some crackin wildlife shots for you to enjoy once he's got settled in down there.

We moved the car around after wood was stashed and burnt the soles of our feet on the road - ouch that tarmac was hot hot hot!!! After all the decent weather we'd have thought our feet were getting hardened off - hate shoes, if it wasn't for broken glass and dog sh*te and a bit of winter weather (we have taken Frank out up the hill in frosty/snowy weather barefoot a few times) we would seriously consider not wearing them - but we hadn't reckoned on scorchio!!! Like we said ouch ouch ouch!

Anyway that wasn't the end of it while we were hopping about the first pair of Chaffinches we've seen for a good few weeks flew past - autumn is a coming.

All in all a quality day off work in glorious blistering sunshine - can't be bad can it?
Must check the rapidly going over Buddleia flowers for moths this evening - not a single butterfly in the garden all day - where are they???

Where to next? Back tor the grindstone and a visit group of school children who want to learn all about our wonderful marine wildlife - on with the wellies (don't want to stand on any glass, Weaver fish or Jellyfish do we?) and off to the beach we go tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know who's sneaking around in the shrubbery in your outback