Rainfall: 125.7 mm

Temp High: 32.1^oC on 30th

Temp Low: 6.6^oC on 8th

Temp Average: 16.9^oC

I found a new bug in the garden today, Rhopalus subrufus.

We brought one of the eggs from yesterday back to the house. Today, the tiny caterpillar hatched.

There was a strange looking duck floating around in the pond. I think it is a mallard in its eclipse moult.

We went for a group walk in Tonbachtal to search for the eggs of the Purple-shot Copper butterfly. We found quite a few. The eggs are usually laid singularly, but my photo is of a rarer pair.

I took some photos of the hawfinches crunching the cherry stones from one of our bird cherry trees. From what I could see they spit the cherry flesh out and concentrate on crunching the stones.

Our marjoram plants are attracting lots of insects including this holly blue butterfly.

As we were leaving the house this morning for our long Sunday run, this red-backed shrike was sitting in our hawthorn with a large bumblebee in his beak. I watched him for a bit using binoculars and saw him impale the bee on a hawthorn thorn. We know that shrikes are known to do this, but this is the first time we've seen one do it here.

I took a couple of photos of caterpillars which we saw on the run. The first will take a bit of work to ID, but it is quite distinctive and was on figwort so it should be possible. The second is of an early instar willowherb hawk moth on greater willowherb. We've seen these caterpillars in the same place a couple of times in the past, but always the later instars which are much easier to see.

Later, in the garden, I found a new species of fly, Phasia hemiptera - a very distinctive species. I couldn't resist a photo of a European hoverfly too. And lastly, I spotted the distinctive zig-zag web of a wasp spider in our front garden and found this small male on the other side.

It was really hot and humid today. This marbled white butterfly was enjoying Christine's "minerals".

I finally got around to putting the moth trap out again last night. It was a bumper night with at least 30 species. I haven't ID'd them all yet. I only had one new species for the garden so far, this shark moth.

I also got some diagnostic photos of the Agapeta zoegana species I found earlier this month during the day and I got a photo of a dark fruit tree tortrix - not a new species for the garden, but one I hadn't photographed yet.

It was hot today and a lot of moths died in the trap even though I tried to keep it in the shade. I've collected all the bodies, so there might be some new species in there.

During the day, I spotted this enormous red-brown longhorn beetle. It's not a new species for the garden, but I don't think I've seen it since 2021.

Like most people we have a full scale invasion of slugs and snails this year. This young song thrush is doing his best to help out, but he isn't really making inroads into the invaders.

Our bird cherry trees are in full fruit at the moment. The birds are loving the cherries - the evidence is smeared all over the bench at the top of the garden. As well as the smears, there are a fair number of cherry pip halves. This has to be the work of hawfinches - the only bird up to the job. Here's a male hawfinch in the tree.

There was a big group of chaffinches splashing about in the pond today. Here's a youngster who didn't seem to mind getting out of his depth.

I said to Christine earlier this week that we hadn't seen any green mountain grasshoppers in the garden this year. Today, this one showed up on one of our chairs on the patio.

At the top of the garden, I took some photos of some insects I still need to ID.

While out on a run, I spotted this final instar emperor moth caterpillar on the path. I put him to safety at the side of the path.

On the way back from an organized walk in the valley, Christine spotted this tiny baby fire salamander on a rock. He was incredibly lucky as I didn't see him and I must have come close to treading on him.

Back at home, we found this equally tiny toadlet on our patio. It's unclear if he came from our pond or not.

Christine brought some grasses into the house as decoration. This tiny weird insect came in with them. It's probably a dock bug nymph, very common, but it is so weird I thought I'd put the photo up anyway.

It's been a while since a bird flew into one of our windows. Today, this female red-backed shrike hit the upstairs bathroom window which we've protected with strings (which obviously didn't work on this occasion). After a short while she flew off seemingly unharmed.

I found this Laparus germanus weevil in the garden today. The species is in our species list but we've never seen it in the garden before (we've seen it nearby).

Our garden is full of insects at the moment - they have probably all migrated from the surrounding fields which have just been trashed by the sheep. There are an amazing number of skipper butterflies.

Here are a random selection of photos.

I've included a photo of some valerian plants which have grown enormous this year due to the rain. Christine is in the photo for scale.

This pretty caddis fly, Agrypnia varia, was perched on an evening primrose plant today. It's a new species for the garden.

As I said in June, I thought I'd try to ID some moths from the Scoparia family which I've previously skipped thinking it was too difficult. This Eudonia lacustrata is probably the only remaining species I can ID easily - the rest of the family is impossible.

A fledgling red-backed shrike visited the garden today with his dad. This was the best photo I could manage.