A pleasant surprise in the garden... After a late-ish start this morning I was sitting in the Old School when I heard a sound outside. It was a fluty bird call that I recognised as that of a golden oriole. I went outside but couldn’t see it, but it was nice to hear anyway. Later, we went off with Jacek and two of his kids to Wisokie, which is where I nearly died last year after my too-close encounter with the adder. As we walked along the road from the car to the gate, I spotted a swallowtail butterfly, my first ever, flying around, but unfortunately it didn’t stop anywhere long enough for a photo. By now it was pretty hot and we were surrounded by butterflies, including lots of purple emperors, brimstones and fritillaries, among others. We spent some time at the pond, watching dragons and damsels, as well as the odd newt, before starting our slow climb to the top of the hill. There were loads more butterflies, moths and other small beasties, as well as buzzards and eagles in the sky. There were tree pipits and yellowhammers, red-backed shrikes but no adders - we didn’t go looking for them this time. There was no corncrake in the meadow where I first heard one, so I assumed it was too late in the year and we headed back to the car. A quick visit to the village on the way back, for ice cream from the little van and supplies from the Atlantik supermarket. I bought Cheryl some more Polish Zubrowka vodka and then we headed home, seeing a white stork in a field by a tractor and then a white stork on its nest on a pole by the roadside, with a young one. David and I put out a couple of trail cameras for the beavers and we admired the dams they’d built since the last time I was here. After dinner, two of our guests went to watch the beavers again and Neil got a great photo of one of them. Later, we all went for a walk with bat detectors and the thermal camera. We heard common pipistrelle, noctule and Daubenton’s bats and I scanned the fields and hills for wildlife with the thermal camera. There were a few roe deer in the meadows, but not much else so I stopped watching to chat to the others. Suddenly, there was a loud alarm bark from one of the deer and I spun around and switched on the thermal camera again. There was a canid walking between the deer, but I couldn’t tell whether it was a fox or a wolf. A little earlier I heard a sound, apparently coming from the roadside ditch. We’d been hearing crickets and I’d told my guests about the mole cricket - a strange looking brown animal that lives in a burrow in the roadside ditches and elsewhere. Naturally, I assumed the sound I was hearing was from a mole cricket, as I haven’t heard them for over a year and mis-remembered what they sound like. It was Neil who asked the question: “Isn’t that a corncrake?”. It turned out that he was right and the sound was actually coming from the meadow beyond. Needless to say, I couldn’t see it, even with the thermal camera, but at least we’d heard one. After returning to the Old School, I introduced my guests to the joys of Polish vodka. Sorry, Cheryl. Discussions ensued until around 0100, so now I’m typing this email and trying to stay awake long enough to do so. You can see below some images and videos. I’m very pleased with my new camera kit, though there are still many features I don’t understand. Oops, fell asleep so I’d better get to bed. Warm Regards, Martin.