The three of us went on a wee walk this afternoon, to our favourite local area of lowland heath - on a dragonfly and lizard (and tiger beetle and hobby and sliver studded blue butterfly) hunt.

Lots of wildlife has "suffered" over this very dry, warm summer - dragonflies, butterflies and moths being quite obvious examples - and all the peaty bodies of water at the heath this afternoon had long been dry.

We even managed to walk across a "pond" that I've never seen the water level lower than a foot or two deep before - crunching on dead Ramshorn snails as we trod - all very sad.

That's not to say there weren't any dragonflies on our walk today - but instead of hawking over the water - they (migrant hawkers mainly) were to be found amongst the gorse and broom and bracken rides.

The reptiles seem to have done EXCEEDINGLY well (Mr.Kipling) this year, however. I (we) have never seen so many viviparous common lizards all over (and under!) the boardwalk as we poddled around the dry heath. Many were clearly this year's young too - and very tolerant of us - even allowing wee Ben to get a very close peep at these beautiful lizards.

I reckon there may have been hundreds (or certainly a hundred) skulking under the boardwalk at the heath this afternoon - regularly coming "up top" to get some warmth through the larch planks warmed in the milky sun today.

(We're trying to establish early with Ben that wildlife is endlessly-fascinating and there is absolutely no need to be scared of any of it (here in Blightly) ever!)

Other than about three dozen beautiful lizards and a handful of migrant hawker dragonflies - we didn't see much else.

No tiger beetles, no hobbies, no silver-studded blue butterflies, no adders, no grass snakes, no deer, no Dartford warblers, no nightjars (bit early in the day and late in the year).

A lovely afternoon's stroll though - and we (I hope) have ensured Ben is already au-fait with the lovely lizards of wildmoor heath.

All photos above and below taken by me with my new (2nd) camera, NOT the new Sony RX10 mkiv (as I described briefly in my last blog post), but the OLD (2nd hand) Canon 7d Mkii which I picked up for a STEAL this week from ebay.

More on this (camera stuff) soon, but right now, all I'll say is that I now run TWO Canon DSLR camera bodies - the 6D for sweeeet, detailed portraits and landscapes in good to low light - and the 7Dmkii for action shots (sports and wildlife) in OK to good light. Both use the same batteries and lenses and chargers and both work with my copy of Lightroom - so I'm all sorted really - AND to a (somewhat) thrifty budget!

Like I say, more soon.

For now - batten down those hatches. It's gonnae get woolly tomorrow, I hear.

(Dinna fash yersel though - the lizards will be fine I'm sure - under their boardwalk).

TBR.