I actually saw this year’s White Admiral on a patch of pink-flowered Valerian… it’s their caterpillars which need the Honeysuckle… 
so the BFly will lay its eggs on the honeysuckle and then (hopefully) there will be caterpillars… and the cycle continues… 
and today’s Nature Trail showed us a Peregrine Falcon perched on a fence pole… and a rather long grass snake, slithering across the road in front of our car… aargh… how OH didn’t squash it, I have no idea…
Twas a Western Whip Snake I think…
we sometimes see them in our small garden… they like eating lizards 
If he had it may not have killed it. When I was driving in the Northern Territory of OZ in the suffocating heat of the day (no aircon in those days), I was warned about driving with the window down by the other drivers. The story is that if you ran over a snake with the front wheel it could be flipped up and into the cab. Then all it wants to do is bite the nearest piece of bare flesh, and trust me, there was an awful lot of bare flesh on offer.
Of course, Australians are very keen on tall tales so it could be another. Like saltie crocs in the river and scorpions in the bull dust.
We still kept our windows open, and stopped in the middle of the Victoria River to fall out of the cab for a cooling dip and, slept in the bull dust under the trailer in the noon day sun awaiting the arrival of dusk when we could load the cows and head back home.
So obviously just a big leg pull then, wasn’t it? 
So sweet lérots 
I was sitting under an auvent earlier and could hear them charging about.
Probably not! Although for cars not heard the window thing. When I first started driving I was under strict instructions that if I ran over a snake I had to immediately check it was still on the road. If they weren’t I was to presume it had flicked up and wrapped around the Axel, wind up the window and not get out until someone could check. Only happened once and drove up to Pa’s farm beeping like mad then had to yell out at him. He duly checked, shovel in hand but nothing was there, must have survived and slithered off. Brown snakes not worth taking a risk. You have about 20 minutes if bitten!!
Here we go again, animals in the fireplace. They come, or fall down the chimney and can’t get back up again. Their struggles, scratches and squeaks drive the dogs wild. Well Jules anyway and his hunting instincts mean I have to get him out of the way before opening up the doors. Alice is deaf enough not to hear them but gets excited when Jules does.
The last one was a bird, the one before that a loir, I wonder what this will be. Perhaps I should pay a man to go up there and net the chimney, my roof walking days are over, pity because it is a lovely view from up there.
So here goes, wish me luck. 
Gone, with a great deal of difficulty, a Red Breasted Nuthatch, like this one
It was on top of the baffle plate, I could only see it by lying down and shining a torch up to it. I had to use a poker to encourage it out but then it went behind the computer. Took several tries to dislodge it before it finally found the open door and flew away.
I had put both dogs in the car before commencing the procedure.
We’ve seen lots of bee eaters in Spain, but never in France. They nest in sandy banks soft enough to allow them to make a good deep hole. A sandy bank with holes in is a sure sign they are around. They are gregarious and there’s always more than one !
Wow - lovely photo
Lovely looking birds and the colours were so vibrant.
I’m guessing you haven’t seen a Galah yet then, the state bird of NSW I think, but no idea why because it is/was a common insult to call someone a galah.
Love the Koala though, endangered now.
I have seen galahs, SO pretty, but too busy feeding them to take pictures. Also Corellas, king parrots, lorikeets, all sorts of parroty things. I love them.
Gave Hissing Sid a bit of a fright a while ago. Time for my 2nd swim of the day and as I padded along the heavy wooden board at the end of the pond I saw him poke his head out from under it in the small space above the overlap of the liner.
‘Bloody Hell’ he said (well I couldn’t actually hear him so he might have said it French), slithered out all 60 odd cms of him into the pond and, after swimming out of sight underwater for a metre or so, reappeared racing as fast as he could to the far corner and then along the end before climbing up out to where I think their nest is.
He is a beauty though and the other day I was in the water before he realised and, close and personal, I was treated to the wonderful dark green and yellow colouring of his skin, normally my eyes only see the white taches on the back of his head as he swims with it slightly above the surface.
So once I had it more or less to myself I managed, with my new breathing technique, 56 metres with very little turnaround time at each end. The 19 C was very welcome after the 28 C in the shade above.
Next job is skimming the leaves, not many but I do get a netfull with some twigs. And also the myriad surface swimming wildlife, mainly water boatmen but also young newts and the odd taddy. These get turned out onto a tin tea tray while I pour over them grabbing the wriggly little buggers and tossing them back home. But it is back aching work so today I hit on a new idea. With some difficulty, because the ground isn’t level, I moved my chair almost to the edge so that I could encourage them to leap back in all by themselves. 
Un grand Capricorne (Cerambyx cerdo) - possibly female by the length of the antennae.
Supposedly not a threat to building timbers as the larvae only eat living wood - though I do have about four mature oaks on my plot and they like to munch that
Edit: Oh, good, they are protected - possibly just as well I left it be, or maybe not. My oaks seem healthy enough and, apparently these wee timorous beasties are quite rare north of the Loire but if you do have an oak infested with them *it* becomes protected and you can’t cut it down. I wonder if that’s before or after it falls on the neighbour’s house.
Oh my, I just, not 10 minutes ago spotted one of those in my shower tray!!
Maybe one day we’ll get there, and actually see where my brother and SIL live…
Cutting the long scrub yesterday with a mower and came across this specimen:
Came back down to the house yesterday and there was what was clearly something’s dropping sitting on the stairs (interior). After a bit of hunting around for an entry point but found nothing obvious but stumbled across a bird corpse (pictured). We’ve remoy the log burner while replacing the floor and I can only assume that it came down the flue and couldn’t get back out. 
Any idea what it is?
