I was able to get out about half an hour before sunset. Near the clinic a pair of common babblers were running around near a pile of brush and a black redstart was hopping around near the base of a bush next to the building.

Driving around the perimeter I saw the now nightly sight of 10,000+ rooks, with a few jackdaws mixed in, moving from the fields to their roosts near the river. There were also hundreds of Wood Pigeons coming in to roost in a row of large Eucalyptus trees.

At the laundry pond a pair of Pied Kingfishers were getting in some last minute fishing, hovering over the water and diving down for the catch. The pond also had a few coots and moorhens swimming around. All the ducks were on the far side of the pond and were too far away to identify. I did see one ferruginous duck fly by.

At the sewage pond a dozen black winged stilts were feeding as well as a pair of spur-winged plovers.

I saw half a dozen stonechats scattered singly or in pairs along a mile stretch of the fenceline. I've seen this species in England, but not in Iraq before.

The temperature is much cooler than a month ago. Last night the low was 36 degrees F and the high today was 58. Clouds will be moving in with rain later in the week so it won't get so cool at night. I think some of the insects are taking advantage of the rain and new plant growth to emerge. Last night I found a beautiful white Arctiid moth with black and red checks on its forewings. It was very distinctive and a little searching among Arctiid pictures on the internet proved it to be Utetheisa pulchella - The Crimson-speckled Moth . Interestingly enough this moth has been introduced into the West Indies, probably from Africa. Even though it gets cool at night the bugs don't mind as long as we don't have a killing frost. Mosul up north has already had frost.