SUMMER SUN IS BRIGHTENING UP THE WILDLIFE

The house sparrows are becoming even shyer as the signal from the blue tit nest box camera is intermittent at best.

I fear they’ve either pecked at it or pushed nesting material and forced the emitting antennae to malfunction.

I can’t try to fix the problem, as the eggs are about to hatch or have hatched in the last 24 hours – I suspect the latter as activity has certainly increased to the nest box.

I bought some mealworms last week, which attracted plenty of birds to the feeders, particularly the house sparrow parents in the neighbourhood – I counted at least ten adults at one point so presume there are at least six nests in and around the garden.

Unfortunately all the mealworms have now gone, after a night-time thief raided the containers outside the back door and took what was remaining.

The thief also carried out a daytime raid, so my list of main suspects is down to two – magpies or grey squirrel.

The squirrel hasn’t been seen recently, while the magpies have a nest nearby and are almost daily visitors to the garden.

I’ll have to keep the next lot of mealworms locked away more securely!

No hedgehogs yet, but I’m pretty hopeful of being able to pick up one or two rescued ones next weekend.

Finally I’ve planted out a number of sunflowers, broad beans and runner beans, all with biodegradable slug and snail pellets.

The first night didn’t capture many of the plant destroyers, so I hope for the hedgehogs’ sake that the neighbours have plenty!