Rainfall: 188.7 mm

Temp High: 28.6^oC on 20th

Temp Low: 3.9^oC on 6th

Temp Average: 12.0^oC

After five days with the temperature not going above 8^oC, today was a welcome respite as the sun came out and it crept up to 16.5^oC.

I sat out in our orchard for a bit and saw a female brown hairstreak butterfly egg laying on our plum tree. I rushed inside to get my camera but she'd gone when I got back. I've made a mental note as to which twigs she'd visited, so I'll do an egg search in the next few days.

As I now had my camera, I got some photos of this Lasioglossum leucozonium bee resting on our sun dial.

I think a kingfisher has been visiting our pond regularly. Today I got a photo of it perched on a branch I put there for this purpose. The photo is taken through a window, so is a bit grainy.

While looking for wasp spider egg sacs we were lucky enough to see this Araneus quadratus spider on her web. This species usually hides in a silken tent so isn't seen very often.

It was much cooler today, but in the morning it was actually still quite pleasant and briefly reached 19.1^oC. While sitting outside with a cup of tea, this Tipula confusa cranefly came and sat on the wall beside us. It was surprisingly well camouflaged. Luckily I took a photo of the side of the thorax which allows me to be 100% sure of the ID as it lacks the black stripe that Tipula rufina has.

And a last mention of the birds. We haven't seen huge numbers of jays for a while - but the acorns are out and the jays are back. I didn't take a photo of a jay, but there is plenty of evidence that they are around as the last photo shows. This was under our willow tree which is where the jays like to sit and 'shout' at each other while consuming their acorns.

We think today will be the last hot day of the summer - it went over 28^oC today.

We constructed our rock garden a couple of years ago with the primary aim of providing a habitat for common lizards as we used to see them every year near our patio. We have been disappointed as we haven't seen any since the changes until today. This one was stationary on a step in an ideal position to be stepped on. When we hid around the corner, he made a run for it and shot into the stones near the house.

This carder bee was collecting 'wool' from one of our Anaphalis triplinervis plants. I expected this to be Anthidium macilatum which is a common visitor to our garden, but it actually appears to be Anthidium oblongatum which is new for us.

Enthused by the carder bee photo I spent some time photographing this Nowickia ferox fly on our asters. This is a spectacular fly and is very photogenic.

Somehow this Steatoda bipunctata spider found its way inside the house.

Back in August 2024 I had a new beetle for the garden, Nacerdes carniolica, but I haven't added it my species list yet as I'm a bit behind with that. I found another one today on a plant outside our house window hiding from the rain under a leaf. This species used to be rare, but it's getting quite common now.

I had two new species for the garden today. By coincidence, they both have viridus in their latin name although one is a leaf hopper and one is a damselfly.

I got a better photo of the common darter today - although this individual had a weird kink in his abdomen.

Today is the last warm day, probably the end of summer, so we're seeing the last of the silver washed fritillaries and other butterflies.

The weather has started to feel just a little bit autumnal. Even so, this common darter and a southern darter were fighting for superiority over our pond. Sorry it's such a poor photo.