Diamondback - but sadly not the snake

The Safari has been on family duty for a couple of days so not spent so much time looking for/at wildlife although the 'grandkids' can be quite wild - although poor H was a bit subdued at times with a stinking summer cold.

We put the moth trap out hoping to show them some wild and wacky moths in the morning but only caught perhaps the dullest moth in the book - TWICE! Grey Pug, too dull to bother taking a pic of. Where are all the moths??? We're getting quite concerned about them, or rather the lack of them.

Two pots was one too many!

We had a trip to the seaside with the family yesterday and saw three Grey Seals and had a chance encounter with a very rare specimen of a political cartoonist.

We had a trip out with LCV (after an enormous curry) to see if we could hear the Quail again but it wasn't calling and may well have left the area now. He did see a Barn Owl and for the first time in his life (we can't quite believe this) heard Grey Partridge calling, he didn't get the Corn Buntings for his year list as we arrived minutes after they'd all gone to roost. Several Brown Hares were good to see though.

After we'd freed this morning's Grey Pug we saw the Coal Tit and fledgling on the feeders, the adult feeding the begging youngster with bits of fat from the suet block, and were able to sneak out with the camera fire off a couple of pics.

The rest of the day was spent with the kids in the park where we kept a bit of an eye on the sky recording Sparrowhawk, Heron, Swifts, Swallows, Rooks, Mallards, Canada Geese flying over and heard a Song Thrush and Robin singing from the wooded area of the park above the din of the very busy in the lovely summer sunshine children's play area - and Wifey was right we didn't need that last piece of chocolate caramel with our huge picnic lunch; we're so full up we haven't needed any dinner!

With a physio appointment mid afternoon we had to leave the kids playing. Walking back to the car Wifey heard a Whitethroat singing from a bit of remnant hedge at the end of the park. (Wifey #105). She also managed to see one of the Peregrines on the church from the driver's seat as we drove slowly by in a queue of traffic.

The physioterrorist took one look at our hand and decided it was a long way off healed enough for him to be doing any bending and stretching - phewwww!!! He reckons we've got about a month to wait for that 'fun'.

As Wifey was parking the car on the way back from physio we saw a tiny moth land on the windscreen. Closer inspection revealed it to be one of the countless multitudes of Diamondback micromoths that have been brought to the whole of the country from the near continent by the recent easterly winds. We shudder to think how many billions must have arrived in the last couple of days or so, but will any of them be in the mothy tomorrow morning?

Where to next? We've got the mothy out again and are ever hopeful of a better catch, which is quite likely now that the kids have gone home and there'll be no-one to show them too.

In the meantime let us know who's getting fed up in your outback.