THERE'S A WREN IN MY KITCHEN...

This week has been hot again, although it looks like next week could bring normal summer conditions and a little better conditions for sleeping in for many. 

By regularly watering the plants and vegetables, they have grown very well in the hot climate, particularly the sunflowers and poppies.

Both of these had debilitating starts when a number of young plants were lost to slugs and snails, which were a by-product of a warm winter.

Luckily I managed to put a stop to most of the snails and slugs – leaving some to keep the balance of nature – and the plants have responded magnificently.

Here are two pictures of the sunflowers, one showing just how many seeds it will be producing later in the summer and autumn, which the small gardens will thoroughly enjoy.

 

 

The poppies have been great and I’ve grown an Icelandic Poppy for the first time, this is the orange one below.

 

 

The buddleia is attracting endless numbers of butterflies and look like doing so for a few weeks yet.

 

Finally for this week there was a shock visitor that entered the kitchen from the garden, a fledgling wren.

After a few minutes the little fella was outside, but looking very miserable and with low survival hopes from me.

 

Fortunately after about ten minutes the fledgling had perked up enough to be climbing around the rose bush, calling and looking very much better.

 

A good end to the week.

SUMMER THUNDERSTORMS BRING RELIEF TO THE HEATWAVE

This week must be all about the summer weather, in particular the thunderstorms that swept the country and delivered much needed rain to many places, along with flashes of excitement.

In the garden the thunderstorms arrived in the early hours and while the thunder and lightning had left by 9am, the rain continued all morning and led to flooding down the lane that leads to the house.

But it was all over fairly quickly and the sun soon returned to dry up most of the water and provide the flora and fauna with some energy with which to continue growing.

I managed to take some images of the lightning, although not exactly very successfully. It only lasted for a couple of hours and trying to predict where the next flash would be turned out harder than I imagined.

The three flashes I did manage to capture show the garden and beyond lit up like it was daylight, but I can assure you it was pitch black at the time.

 

 

 

In other news the third tree and house sparrow broods are close to fledging and a number of blue tit chicks have been frequenting the garden, although I’m not sure if they fledged nearby or are simply visitors from the area who have happened on the garden.

The sunflowers are growing rapidly and at least four are as tall as me, with one over 10ft tall. More about them and the buddleia flowering which is attracting numerous butterflies next week, which means the diary of images about the garden growing will start in August.

 

 

A BUMPER BREEDING SEASON?

Plenty of butterflies and moths have been in and around the garden recently, which makes me think it’s been a good year for them.

The most ‘popular’ attendees to the garden are the orange tip butterfly and the cinnabar moth, both of whom have been seen daily in the garden.

I’m beginning to think this has been a significant boom year for our small garden birds. I’ve now seen two lots of blue tit fledglings, the latest this week and the robins are looking distinctly scruffy, which makes me think they’re on to their third brood.

The blackbirds have had at least two, the swallows second brood also fledged this week and there appears to be large numbers of magpies and goldfinches.

But the big news on the nesting front is that both the house sparrows and tree sparrows are busy raising a third brood in the garden nest boxes.

The parents seem to be having a competition with each other as to who can raise the most chicks, as invariably when I can hear chicks in one nest the other follows with a day or so.

I’m not sure how many have fledged from each nest since April, but it must be double figures.

I very much doubt there’ll be a fourth fledging, but with the hedgerows around the garden swaying under the weight of sparrows, I wouldn’t be surprised.

What it must mean is it’ll also be a bumper year for the birds of prey. I know there’s a few sparrowhawk around here and certainly kestrels. The crows, magpies and jays may also pick of a few weaker young too, plus the resident little and tawny owls might pinch a couple from night roosts.

In the next couple of weeks I’ll be showcasing the transformation of the garden, showing images taken at weekly intervals from March this year.

The transformation is stunning, well I think so.