We came home from a two-week trip to the southwestern USA on July 16 to find mama robin back on her nest incubating a second batch of eggs.
Three eggs this time:
Two had hatched by July 20 and we haven’t spotted a third baby. Possibly it never hatched:
We spotted this huge moth on the deck this week with interesting wings. Possibly a walnut sphinx moth but not sure.
The weather was very warm and humid when we got back from our trip. It was almost unbearable. Apparently temps were in the mid-20s but it felt much warmer with the very high humidity. No rain has fallen for a couple of weeks. I think this is helping the bug situation — we had dinner outside a few times while Elodie was visiting and didn’t spot any bugs. Not even a mosquito. Bliss. (Still nothing a week later.)
Very few hummingbirds around our garden this year, and no new sightings of any fireflies recently.
witches whiskers 
We have had a ‘Ragodin’ aka Coypu week. We paddled right up to one on the Charente before it finally dived. Yesterday on a walk with Lottie we spotted one next to a local Lavoir and later a couple of them swimming in a stream – Mum definitely wanted to keep L on the lead!! They are a real problem because of the damage they do to the banks and no natural predators.