It may not be the Sahara, but wildlife does not care for comparisons. It's hot



Yet life has to continue. Squirrels are busy; the first fruits and nuts are developing on the trees and there are rivals to bark at and balconies to explore



In truth it's a bit too warm for ideal wildlife watching. Having seen little on my walk yesterday, I crept outside about an hour after dawn this morning, in search of a different world. Morning mist lingered, waiting to be scattered by the sun.



Khamsin found a new friend



He was very determined to follow us, trotting along on his side of the fence, but there's not really space for him in the garden, so he had to say farewell



The hills, meanwhile, were reduced only to suggestions in the haze.



This is, firstly, the county of trees; we don't have the sprawling wild forests of Canada, but Surrey is the most treed county in the UK, and in late summer the land is very green with them. The woods are overwhelmingly deciduous.



And in those trees shriek those flying emeralds that no longer seem so strange when the temperature is so high.