'The boys are back in town'

Adonis at Calstone Down, one of many!

It's good to see that this year is still providing mainly good news from a nature perspective {badgers in west , moths and ladybirds aside}. Fruit trees are certainly going to out perform last years poor yield and butterflies are still going strong. A late visit to NT Cherhill and Calstone Downs plus Avebury Windmill Hill provided some impressive butterfly sightings. Especially pleased to see Clouded Yellows, Brown Walls and Adonis Blues.

Bit of a good news, bad news today at Sherborne. Good news was TP had finally delivered the supplies for the bat cave, Simon was part of todays team and the weather was still great. Bad news was our Dark Knight couldn't make it, the 'late' supplies were not complete and we had some early returning lesser horseshoes in the bat cave! As ever a few problems don't deter this countryside team and we decided to get the most out of the day as we could. A very hot morning saw us move some substantial supplies of Acro props, poles and clamps to the bat cave. We very carefully began to move a portion of the supplies into the cave. Mike ensured this was done so the early returning bats were avoided by using alternate routes through this underground winter roost.

Lunchtime chat, Sherborne  Brook

Was pleased to see lunchtime so as to cool down and paid my usual visit to Sherborne brook. Swan family were on their lunch break so didn't pay me much heed, only a single heron and buzzard showed up plus the usual mallards plus 1 white duck. Difficult to believe we are in September already and still enjoying such great weather. Rest of the day was spent completing the transfer of supplies into the bat cave and all done without disturbing the bats. No construction today was possible without impacting the bats and it looks like further work will have to wait until next year, subject to another bat survey on 18th September.