Frank's last safari

The Safari was hoping for rather more moths than we got last night. Only seven were in the trap this morning. However, two we new for the year and one was new for the garden!

Light Arches - new for year

Six Striped Rustic - new for garden

After mothing we had a very sad mission to accomplish with Wifey. Last night we got Frank's remains back from the vets and decided to take him somewhere he used to love for his last journey. The upland river was chosen, he spent many happy hours there paddling around and picking up stones from the river bed.

The walk downstream from the car park was quiet with few people about and almost no birdsong at all. There were a number of big Black Slugs crossing the path back to their hiding places after the earlier rain.

A family of Coal Tits were just about the only birds seen as they worked their way through the bankside trees.That was when we spotted the 'froth-berg' floating down the river below them.

 It came to an abrupt halt against a fallen tree.

The water is stained with peat after yesterday's torrential rain but probably worse than it ought to be due to the drainage of the moorland above the river. More of which looks to have happened nearby recently although this area doesn't drain into this catchment but the next one east. Note the comments and sign up to ban driven grouse shooting, the half a million quid of tax payers' money ie ours, that's so far been to given to one of the wealthiest men in the country so he can have paying guests come along and kill lots of Red Grouse for fun. It can't go on!

We walked a bit further to the perfect spot and let the current take Frank's ashes wherever it fancies. 

Down to the water's meet where he watched Kingfishers and listened to a Corn Bunting sing , actually he splashed around in the shallows we did those things. Then on in the bigger river to the estuary where he always found a mud wallow to get muddy in, just how he likes it. 

It wasn't an easy walk back to the car but the river's babbbling alongside us gave us both solace.

On the drive back to Base Camp Wifey saw a Kingfisher fly over the car which we missed, only seeing a fleeting glimpse of something uncoloured disappearing into the distance.

Once we'd had a bit of lunch we headed over to the hospital to see our mate LR who's not been too well recently and got himself ensconced in intensive care for five weeks. Now he's been downgraded to 'high dependency' as looks to be slowly on the mend. We didn't have enough cash for the car park after a nip to the shops to get him some supplies so we had to leave the car in the bjg park. We had a look on the lake at the gulls, no Mediterranean Gulls today. There were plenty of insects around so on the way back we had a longer look at them.

Male Red Tailed Bumble Bee

A Drone Fly

Female Common Blue

So long Frank...and thanks for all the woofs.
Where to next? Big event tomorrow but little chance of much safari-ing.
In the meantime let us know who's flying over cars in your outback.