SUMMER BIDS A FINAL FAREWELL FOR 2016

While summer appears to be fighting the onset of autumn, the battle is slowly being lost.

Darker mornings and evenings, along with cooler nights are slowly taking over, puncturing through warmer spells of autumnal weather.

The swallows appear to have mainly gone, although one or two can still be heard and seen, while the onset of cooler weather is diminishing the numbers of crane flies trying to access the house.

Families of house sparrows have selected the garden as a roost site with about 30 staying overnight in the wall climbing plants.

Unfortunately this won’t last for long as the plants will soon lose their leaves and provide little shelter.

Of course the birds may choose to roost in the garden’s next boxes once the current roost becomes inhospitable, so the cameras will need to be checked.

The garden birds are only slowly coming back, as the bounty of natural food keeps them away in the surrounding countryside.

The local population of cats, which is continuing to be extremely excessive, does seem to be having an affect on the birds coming into the garden.

They are aggressively chased away, but for some this needs reminding quite often, others don’t dare come back and can be seen giving the garden a wide berth.

Yet again another prediction of a cold and snowy winter, which will have an affect on the local wildlife population but, as these predictions happen every year with little accuracy, the chances of it happening must be remote.

The search is now on for the most unusual visitor to the garden during winter once again a waxwing would be the best.

SEPTEMBER WARMTH LENGTHENS SWALLOWS’ STAY

The sudden warmth of September delivered the hottest day of 2016, which was good news for the thousands of insects that seemed to come out of nowhere and into people’s homes.

It also meant the local swallows extended their stay in the UK, although in the last 24 hours they have been seen gathering on the telephone wires again.

This is a sure sign that they will soon head for their wintering grounds of sunny and warm Africa, many for the first time.

Judging by the amount of youngsters seen in the local skies, it would appear to be another good year for swallow fledglings, so many people will be hoping to see even more next year.

They are beautiful birds and one that many link directly with the return of warmer weather and, when they leave, the signal to darker nights and colder days.

The roosting sparrows seem to have outgrown their site next door and some are now in the small amount of wall climbing plants on the house.

A couple of birds are roosting about six inches from the door and appear to be quite happy even when human eyes are gazing at them.

The next box cameras haven’t been checked for a while, so with autumn starting to make it’s presence known they will be checked and cleaned to provide roosting opportunities for cold birds this winter.

Once again the crane flies are out in big numbers this month, just like last year, which has provided a feast for some.

The snail and slug ‘explosion’ prior to the recent warm weather appears to have dropped off, presumably because of the heat.

They are sure to make a comeback soon, although we’ll probably only be able to tell when we hear that tell tale crunching sounds while walking in the garden in the darker evenings.