I've had a really great August. A lot of my time has been spent with children, the weather has been beautiful and by the end of the month fifteen new species had been added to the Ray's Rambles list, which now stands at 1,227.Our youngsters love the moth mornings, they have no problems with moths crawling over their hands, one or two of the parents are not so keen! The traps got me five new species, two of them micro-moths, Eudonia truncicolella and the pretty little willow ermine. Treble-bar, small phoenix and archer's dart were the other three.Directly after the moth events I've been taking special 1-2 hour long children's walks through Patsy's Reedbed and along to the Autumn walk. The idea is for them to find as many species as possible, and I must say they have done very well. I've lost count of the bloody-nosed beetles, snails and baby toads they've saved by moving them off the paths. Probably their favourites have been the bright yellow and black clouded yellow butterflies on Patsy's Reedbed, but I was very pleased when one of them found a pygmy shrew and another a red capsid bug. One very enthusiastic young lady spotted a speckled bush cricket which was a totally new species to me, she gets awarded a gold star!One of the younger members of staff is a keen botanist and he has found me four new flowers and a grass. Two of the plants he came across, horseradish and lemon balm, were on the edge of the tank range; gypsywort, a rather nettle-like member of the mint family was right in front of the Parrinder hide; a 45 metre bed of Canadian goldenrod came into view when a new length of path was opened along the top of the east sea bank and the distinctive canary grass was located very close to the Visitor Centre.Many of you may think my final species is a cheat because it came from a wildfowl collection. It was a very smart white-cheeked pintail that spent several days on the lagoons, mostly in the company of gadwall. Would my critics have said the same about the first people who noted escapee ring-necked parakeets, ruddy ducks or red-crested pochards? September has started off with a bang but you'll have to wait till next time to know about it! Ray.