The River Thames behind my back garden

Stan the Stag Beetle

This evening, as I walked home after yoga, I nearly stepped on Stan, a beautiful male stag beetle who looked a little lost as he crossed the pavement on the busy Kew Road. I picked him before he got trodden on and tried to get him back into Kew Gardens, but this was a hopeless task, so I brought him home. Amazingly this is the second live stag beetle I have seen this summer. It's been a good year and I have never seen a live one before - only dead and pinned in museum drawers!

So, this is is where I took him - to the river bank where it is nice a woody and let him go. He's got all night to find a hiding place and very few cyclists and feet to contend with. It was a beautiful night - the moon was bright in the sky and bracing itself for another eclipse.