As you can tell there haven't been many new items on this site for a while. This is an update:

The site has been updated to the latest Drupal 6 code but unfortunately the project module hasn't been updated yet. This means the issues database for reporting bugs and enhancment requests will be offline for the immediate future. Until it is fixed please post any such items in the forum.

Ladder hosting - there are now over 1000 ladders being hosted and over 9000 players. Hosting continues to be free at squash-ladder.net and the games-ladder.net, tennis-ladder.net and sports-ladder.net domains are also available.

Ladder development - this is on hold for the forseable future. Programming takes up spare time that I unfortunately don't have at the moment :o(

Downloads - are now through the project page at Sourceforge.

Chicken house - there has been some recent interest and some new ideas from other poultry automation fans so the project pages may get an update.

This evening there was a mink on the lawn in broad daylight. The initial excitement of this sighting was soon overtaken by concern for the chickens who were only a few feet away.

I followed it in to the bushes where it sat quite boldly apparently not too bothered by my presence - at one point it even lay down and was cleaning itself! Unfortunately my camera was low on battery and I didn't manage to get a decent shot of it even though I had a clear view. After a while I chased it along the bottom of the wall and back again before it disappeared I think through a hole. It is probably an American Mink (Mustela vison) rather than the European Mink (Mustela lutreola). The latter has a white spot on the upper lip/nose but I don't know of any other differentiating features. This one had a white patch over the throat but was otherwise a wonderfully soft chocolate brown fur with a hint of reddish / chestnut. Not difficult to see why they have been farmed for their fur...

After such a hot July, August felt a bit disappointing being rather chilly and windy. At least there was plenty of rain to revive the plants. The wildlife sightings seemed to tail off too but maybe because we were outside less. The flycatchers were busy but no more nests. There have been plenty of tits, sparrows, chiff chaffs and finches. The second clutch of swallows fizzled out. The parents seemed to visit the nest only intermittently. One egg was pushed out and smashed on the floor below and a couple of weeks later a dead chick was on the floor beneath the nest. There have been no visits since then but the nest in the chuch porch is still going strong with chirping chicks almost ready to fly. Other bird sightings were a kingfisher and the green woodpecker especially when it picked a fight with one of the chickens!.

There have been plenty of newts, dragonflies and damselflies. The number of butterfly sightings was slightly disappointing overall but there were regular visits from a red admiral, peacocks, whites and blues. I discovered an area of woodland nearby with literally hundreds of woodland butterflies along the bramble covered edge. It is a long while since I saw butterflies in those numbers. We also paid a visit to a new community woodland called Weavely Furze (SP464182). It has recently been restored and looks promising, I was interested in the small hazel coppice which is in its first year. Whilst there we saw a hare. The only other sightings that come to mind are several muntjac deer and last night a hedgehog on the lawn but it managed to run away before I returned with my camera.

I had a surprise this morning when looking for a marrow to stuff. A small amphibian was resting inside one of the courgette flowers and it was well coated in pollen. At first sight I thought it was a common frog (Rana temporaria) but the warty skin and similarity to previous sightings make me sure it's a baby common toad (Bufo bufo). It got me thinking whether toads or frogs are flower pollinators anywhere in the world. I didn't manage to get an answer after a quick google around although I suspect there must be some species of perhaps tree frogs that are rainforest pollinators?

Whilst watering the plants by the back step I was surprised to see the soil in the pot starting to move. This was followed by a bubbling noise and all of a sudden a face appeared! It seems like a strange place to make a home buried inside a flowerpot but the toad seemed happy enough...

The old uknature site will shortly be closed down and all the content moved to the current nature diary / Nature & Wildlife (UK) blogs. This should hopefully enable me to keep the content more accurate and avoid some duplication. To see a larger image of the front page and read some of the history click on the read more link below.

Bird visitors to the cottage always seem to end up on the same windowsill. So far they include a juvenile blue tit (Parus caeruleus), swallow (Hirundo rustica) on its first day of flight and a young robin (Erithacus rubecula)...

There was a rustling noise in some leaves yesterday and when I went to investigate I caught sight of the the last foot or so of a grass snake slithering behind the garden shed. It was slithering along the bottom of the wall again today but again I only saw the tail end of it. I'm not sure how it and the chickens will get on when they meet...

The spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) nest is rather inaccessible as it's a bit above eye level and jammed in against the wall behind a rose branch. I'm reluctant to spend too much time near the nest in case I scare off the parents. To get a nest shot I mounted the camera on top of the tripod and set it to a manual focus of 30cm with the flash stopped down by -0.7. Setting the timer mode I then pressed the shutter button and lifted the camera on the tripod to above the nest and about 30cm from it angled down...