Frogs and toads, including youngsters, have taken advantage of wet weather and many have moved to their winter quarters, some being road casualties in the process. Some ground nesting birds, pheasants for example, have tried to overcome breeding failure due to wetness by having a second brood with newly hatched youngsters being evident almost up to the end of August. The surprise record of an oystercatcher breeding successfully at the edge of the parish shows that supposedly impossible things happen locally---the oystercatcher is not a common bird in the area. A well grown young cuckoo was seen on the ridge of a house being fed by a hedge sparrow (dunnock) during August, quite some time after its parents had left the country. The swifts also made a quiet exit in early August, but a hen harrier is present in the area.

Butterflies were scarce for a while but they have emerged in time to feed on buddelia bushes (and cabbages) and it has shown that painted ladies and red admirals are around with the less frequent comma butterfly. A couple of brimstone butterflies made a late appearance along with a wall brown and there has been a second brood of small copper butterflies. Lately, elephant hawk-moth caterpillars, fully grown , have been wandering about looking for somewhere to pupate and the southerly wind blew in a migrant hawker dragonfly to add to our common hawkers and blue tailed damselflies. One moth , the twin spotted wainscot, has been newly added to the local list and is one of the species which seem to be advancing steadily northwards. Other smaller moths, recorded only rarely over the past few years and part of the northern spread, have increased their numbers recently and other smaller  species have been recorded again after a gap of up to 20 years.

There is still plenty of time for strange things to happen this summer/autumn so please keep looking and reporting