Rainfall: 103.4 mm

Temp High: 33.6^oC on 13th

Temp Low: 3.1^oC on 25th

Temp Average: 16.1^oC

Despite our plum tree looking quite unhealthy, this year has beaten our previous bumper plum crop of 2016 and we've got around 17kg of plums this year. This might be because we have scaffolding around the house so we can access bits of the tree that have previously been out of reach.

Another female Short-tailed blue was flying in the garden today. As I now know it was a new species for the garden I endeavoured to get some better photos and some open wing shots too. I'm going to suggest that this isn't the same individual as a few days ago - as the underwing spots look different - on this individual the spots aren't ringed with white.

I found a new species of micro moth today too, but as the name suggests, it wasn't as visually impressive as the Short-tailed blue. This is Eudonia pallida, and it certainly lives up to this name.

This Stenoptilia bipunctidactyla plume moth is a new species for the garden. It was close to some devil's bit scabious plants which helped with the ID.

I've seen a few of these flies in the garden this year and was sure they weren't Volucella pellucens even though they are similar looking and of a similar heft. Today this one landed on my sock and I had my camera - so I was able to get a couple of photos which showed that this is Volucella inanis - a new species for here.

It's getting to the end of the flying season of the Dark Green fritillary, but I keep checking. Today's was again a High Brown fritillary.

I also dismissed this blue butterfly as a Mazarine blue when I saw it today. Having downloaded the photos I now realise it was actually a Short-tailed Blue - a new butterfly species for the garden. Not only that, but it was egg-laying, so presumably this isn't just a wanderer or something that came in with the garden show - this is actually a breeding species here.

This common darter is a new species for me and our garden. Very pretty.

There are lots of honey bees in the garden too, but I rarely see one at rest.

Finally, here's a bundle of thistle seeds that the goldfinches haven't found yet.

There are a couple of wasp spiders in the garden - fewer than last year. I'll leave their egg sacs alone this year as I haven't had much success breeding them through.

This common blue was visiting our marjoram.

Lots of butterflies today. Here's a wall brown.

Also there are a few day-flying moths like this clouded silver.

Less pleasant was seeing this forest cockroach on our house wall. The textbooks say they don't live inside houses like their revolting brothers.

It's grasshopper time!

I found a dead bumblebee in the grass. I posed it to take some photos and the underside revealed some mites. It's unlikely that these killed it.

This Tetragnatha extensa spider had managed to spin a web over the pond.

It has been really wet and cold here for a few days. Today it was a bit dryer, but still cold. Nevertheless, there were a few insects about, like this 4th instar green shieldbug nymph and this cranefly, Nephrotoma flavipalpis, a new species for the garden.