The end of August is usually when we see the returning migrant birds and this year hasn't disappointed. There were at least three whinchats over the back of the house today as well as common redstarts and pied flycatchers.

The cows were moved over to the other side of the valley today. There is still a small group of white wagtails around the house. This juvenile was perched on the shed as it started to get dark and I thought he was going to roost there. But some adults flew by just after this photo was taken and he joined them noisily.

It rained continuously for the last couple of days but today promised to be dry but quite cold.

After a long run in the morning, I spent the afternoon relaxing, watching the birds. We had a really rare visit from a house sparrow. We've only seen them in the garden twice before; both times on January 1st. This photo was taken through a window which explains why it is a bit blurry.

The next photo is also taken through a window - this time, I'd seen a strange warbler-like bird in the angelica. But it had a black back with white feather margins. I didn't get a very good photo but it was good enough to id this as a pied flycatcher. So it wasn't a warbler at all - the fact that it was on the angelica made me think it was eating the seeds hence my confusion.

A couple of goldfinches arrived at the same time as the pied flycatcher - but they're relatively tame and I knew I could open the window to get a photo of them and they wouldn't be bothered. The goldfinch in the photo is also in full moult.

The cows arrived in the valley a week or so ago and they're now right outside the garden. I said to Christine that that probably meant the crickets or grasshoppers were probably all trampled, but almost immediately I was proved wrong by this black redstart.

Talking of trampling, there are lots of white wagtails hopping about around the legs of the cows. Here are three amongst the cow pats.

We saw two spotted nutcrackers flying over the valley. They haven't come to our hazel yet.

Last but not least, I managed to get a photo of this European Hornet hovering around our sheds. We've seen a few around the flowers trying to catch other insects.

I got an hour watching the birds after work. The female blackcap finally came out from the leaves - although my camera got the focus wrong.

There's another bullfinch visiting the table now in addition to the young one seen last week. This male is in moult and was very hungry.

It's been a while since I spent some time watching the birds. Today I was rewarded with our 85th bird species seen from the garden; this tree pipit.

We saw our first coal tits since spring and we had a baby bully bullfinch as well.

The water lilies on the pond were looking spectacular in the sun.

There's a very small hazel tree just off our driveway, but it must have produced some nuts this year as this squirrel was rustling about in there for some time and occasional crunching could be heard.

A very ragged silver-washed fritillary was on the buddleia. It looks like a bird has taken a huge chunk out of his wing. He could still fly OK though.

It's been a good year for high-brown fritillaries too. There were three on the buddleia at one stage.

The cones on our spruce are looking quite resiny.

There was a large gathering of house martins, swifts and swallows today. The house martins were gathering on one of the trees over the other side of the valley. I counted 118 house martins in the photo on the right.

The warm weather meant it was time to put my moth trap out again.

Again it was a good night with a couple of new species for the garden, the highlight being a golden-rod brindle. This moth has a very strange resting posture.

There's been a great banded grayling around the garden for the last few days. This one spent several hours on our buddleia allowing me to take some close-up photos.

I've been meaning to take some more photographs of the green Geometrid caterpillar I found on hawthorn at the end of May. This is an extremely slow-growing species (I can't identify it yet). The spikes at the rear end are quite distinctive.

This contrasts with the buff ermine moths which emerged as adults while we were away. These came from the 14 eggs I found in my moth trap in mid-June which fed up really quickly and completed their life cycle in little more than a month. All the literature says that buff ermines have a single generation in a year which is why I didn't take them with us. We came back to find them dead in their box.

It's taken six years for our hop to flower. They don't like being moved!

I noticed a strange looking small white butterfly flying around today. I didn't think it could be anything but a small white (Pieris rapae), but I've looked in my books and I'm 90% sure this is Pieris mannii.

Towards the end of the day, I was delighted to see this great banded grayling and I rushed over to get some photos. He didn't stay still quite long enough and I was forced to attempt a daring BIF.

The garden was in desperate need of some work today, so I was strimming and hedge trimming most of the afternoon.

Strimming was briefly interrupted when this beauty flew out of the grass narrowly missing getting strimmed. I recognised it immediately as a clouded buff - a new species for the garden.

The birds are slowly returning to the garden now that the food supply is back on. They've got plenty of fruits around at the moment too. The birds haven't quite got used to me photographing them yet, so here are a couple of the skulkers who refused to come out into the open.

We seem to have brought back some rainy weather with us. There have been a few summer storms.

The butterflies are still flying though. Here's a high brown fritillary enjoying our buddleia.

Here are some of the butterflies flying around the garden at the moment.

The town are liming the forest at the moment. Here's a view from Friedrichstal. We're not sure whether we approve.

Once again we were away for a few weeks so the diary has been neglected.

We returned today to find a very dry garden and lots of dead plants in our patio pots.

The water lilies we mentioned back in July are now flowering and their colour suggests that they are not a native species. Very pretty though.

The flowers that did survive are buzzing with butterflies and other insects. I'll post some of those photos tomorrow.