Flower power

The Safari arrived at work to a beautiful sunrise yesterday. It didn't last very long and didn't develop any further than this.

But the light morning and lack of wind encouraged us to get out asap. From the wall the sun rising behind us was illuminating the clouds in the distance out to the west.

The promised sun continued to shine most of the day which brought out a Red Admiral to nectar on the Castor Oil plant with the multitude of hoverflies. A Grey Wagtail flew over the gardens, not a rare sighting but neither are they regular here.

Our lunchtime visit to the sea wall gave us a decent count of over 500 Common Scoters but not a great lot else save for a low flying male Eider headed down towards the estuary.

As we were leaving work at the end of the day we spotted a few more than several little snails sat perched up in the flowers of the French Marigolds. We can't ever remember seeing that before - surely we have, have we?

This morning there was some Blackbird and Robin activity in the garden and we also thought we heard a Chiffchaff but we were looking after Monty and couldn't get out for a proper look. We did however get a good look at a flock of about 60 Jackdaws that came in from the south east and circled the water tower several times. They'd flap round and round for ages then one or two would start to glide followed almost instantaneously by all the others. This happened a few times, never noticed them do that before, have we? After about half an hour they drifted off together to the north east.

Not a lot happened for the rest of the day, much of the time young Monty was firmly affixed too our foot or ankle - is he a puppy or a hairy Piranha? At least legs are repairable which the furniture isn't...no doubt he'll eat the furniture once he's eaten us!

Where to next? Not much chance of getting out tomorrow due to puppy duties again but we'll keep our eyes and ears open, not for any wildlife but for the snapping jaws of the man-eating pupster!

In the meantime let us know who's doing all the chewing in all your outback.