Most recent evenings there have been a few swifts darting around – four or five, sometimes six. Late afternoon today there were 14! It’s around a week early for young birds to have fledged, but it very much looked as though that was what it was – in which case it’s extremely encouraging.
They are one of my favourite birds – the decaying “Stonesfield slate” roof of my mother’s house was home to several pairs every year, and for me they are the essence of long summer evenings.
The vivid pale green of this little creature stood out vividly against the dark green / bronze foliage of the dahlias as I was passing this morning. I have very little familiarity with this kind of beastie, but a quick online hunt suggests it’s probably a female speckled bush cricket.
Orange Hawkbit (“Fox and cubs”) is not a British native, having been introduced as a garden plant in the 1620s. However, it very rapidly escaped and established itself across wide swathes of England. As it doesn’t compete heavily with other species (long grass and many meadowland species out-compete it), and as it attracts a fair number of insects (especially hoverflies, as here), I’m happy to consider it a “wildflower” – it lives on the fringes of my little wildflower bank in shorter grass, and in cracks in the concrete path..
Clutching the first morning mug of of coffee, as yet untasted, I opened the curtains this morning. Eeek! Coffee abandoned as I went for the camera … a heron on the fence, eyeing my tiny (and butyl-lined) pond. A few shots through the French windows, then up to the bathroom where the top window was open.
A most unexpected visitor – the nearest sensible body of water is the canal, some 400 metres away and about 100 feet lower in elevation. It stayed for about five minutes before flapping off. Beautiful to see, but slightly worrying, in that I’ve had previous experience of herons stabbing holes in plastic pond-liners (eventually solved by changing to fibreglass – not something I really want to have to do here!).
Two pairs of mating damselflies around my pond this afternoon, and at least one unattached one. The glare of the sun on the water makes them really hard to photograph, but I thought this attempt was interesting, with the insects themselves largely in shade but the shadows of the tracery of their wings showing up delightfully.
I don’t normally use the downstairs loo (stairs several extra times a day are “exercise”), but due to still-bad back IIve been using it the past few days. Something caught my eye this morning … the start of a wasps nest on the underside of one of the shelves, which is amazingly pretty, but really not needed: it definitely can’t stay. I’ll clearly have to do something about it, and sadly spray-can of insecticide seems the best bet. I’m not mobile enough at the moment to risk physically engaging with it!
It’s pond sorting out time again! A mass of stray grass roots, over-abundance of Canafian pondweed, and fleshy tangles of water-lily roots have been removed. That upset the resident frog, but he’s now decided that where the edge of the pile of detritus enters the water is a prime hunting place, as the small creatures will follow the dampness away from the drying pile towards the water. I’ve also replaced the nozzle on the water flow: I’m not sure that the bright brass really suits the Green Man plaque, but no doubt it will go green within a few months.
The baby robins seem to have successfully fledged, and the nest is currently empty. I don’t know if the parent birds will return to try for another brood, but I’m making full use of the opportunity to finally get into the shed! Plastic cloches to cover a courgette I’ve planted out, fleece to cover the luffa at night (one of this year’s experiments), the plastic cover for the tomato cage (which needs a bit of repair). Tomatoes have been planted out, two days later than normal as I usually aim to do it on my birthday. Forecast is for about 1C tonight and tomorrow night, with daytime highs of 18C or so, so covering is pretty vital. Tomorrow, I will shuffle things round in the shed to get the lawnmover and strimmer out!
It’s a little hard to see any difference between the lawn and the “wildflower patch” behind the pond! Not laziness, and not “no mow May”. I’m effectively barred from the shed so can’t get the lawnmower out – a robin is nesting on the shelves there, and when I went in a few days ago to get the stepladder she gave me such a filthy look that I’ve avoided going in ever since!
Still, it’s pleasant to sit on the patio and watch the parents rushing in and out through the shed window. I assume the eggs have hatched, as visits are much more frequent and hurried than they were a few days ago.
In my suburban heat island of little terraced houses, the outside minimum was down to -5.9C overnight. A couple of young foxes – I think last year’s cubs – were chasing round the neighbouring gardens, delightful to see. Photo taken through the slightly steamed-up bedroom windown – hence a bit washed out!
This afternoon I took the Christmas tree down. A day earlier than 12th night but I’ve got the alarm engineer coming tomorrow (for the service postponed from November) and I needed to rearrange things so he can get to the control panel. Due to severe frosts, I’ve put the tree by the window in the (unheated) spare bedroom, rather than bunging it back outside.
and after increasing the contrast a bit in my photo-editing program:
