Rainfall: 221.2 mm

Temp High: 19.4^oC on 8th

Temp Low: -2.1^oC on 3rd

Temp Average: 7.7^oC

Unexpectedly, I recorded a new moth in the garden today. This Udea ferrugalis micro moth was flying at the top of the garden today in the weak autumn sun. This is the 526th lepidoptera species recorded in the garden.

The builders have finally finished (mostly), but the scaffolding is still up. I opened the blinds in my office so I could see what was going on. Almost immediately, I saw something land on the scaffold outside the window and was really surprised to see a white-throated dipper, the 104th bird species we've seen from the garden. This is really unexpected in our garden as there's no running water. Our theory is that due to the extreme rainfall we've had this week (100l/m²) the river is flowing too fast for him and he's had a look round the area to see what other possibilities there are. This was a really brief visit. I kept my eye out for his return, but he didn't come back. I only had my phone to hand and I was so keen to get a shot off I didn't bother focusing properly - the resulting photo is one of my worst ever - but you can see what it is.

This elephant hawk-moth caterpillar was lucky not to get trodden on today. It was 'walking' across one of our garden paths. Luckily Christine spotted it. It's gone in my puparium and I was expecting it to pupate straightaway. Nevertheless, we collected some willowherb and stuck it in there with him and he started eating. He'd probably finished the plant he started on and was looking for some more food - although he looks fully grown to me.

It's that time of year where we are seeing a lot of spiders inside the house. This one looked interesting so I took a photo. It is Episinus angulatus, which isn't very common (and shouldn't really be inside the house). I put this one down in the cellar as it'll be better able to overwinter in the cold.

I finally got around to doing a search of our plum tree for brown hairstreak eggs (I saw a female butterfly laying eggs on the 28th September). These are tiny, so not easy to find, but they're bright white which helps. I was very pleased to find two! I've marked the branches and I will net them so the birds don't get them.

Christine was called out on a bat emergency today. A bat had been found on the ground in the valley. She collected it and thankfully it was fit and healthy and flew off after a rest. This looks like it is a particolour bat, Vespertilio murinus, which is quite rare but a known species in the valley.