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The grass is almost completely a tan colour, the birds are
constantly searching for water and the plants are often found with drooping
leaves after being battered by 12 hours of sunshine.
Yes, it’s the continuing heatwave that us and the wildlife
is experiencing.
I’m watering the whole garden nearly every night, but even
this isn’t enough for the grass as it’s given up for a while on being green, although one flower is liking the conditions enough to flower.
One surprise is that the robins have finally hatched some
chicks in one of the two open nest boxes.
Bizarrely it’s the one at shoulder height next to the patio,
in the honeysuckle bush and right next to where the family currently enjoys
sitting for every breakfast and lunch.
Unfortunately my mealworm supplier has closed for the summer,
meaning I can’t help the robin family grow up, apart from keeping any pesky
cats away.
However they do appear to be growing, even if I can only
tell from the louder sounds they’re making when a parent visits with food.
I don’t know where the parents are getting food from, but
imagine the local streams, that are both down to a trickle, are helping with a
supply of insects.
I imagine they’ll fledging, if they do indeed reach that
stage given it’ll be 30-32C this weekend, in about a week.
The good thing is the nest box is very sheltered from heat,
wind and rain, particularly as the honeysuckle has grown right around it.
In fact you wouldn’t even know it was there because it’s
well camouflaged.
This is only the second time this nest box has been used, and
the previous time it was a family of robins too.
But with at least another week of summer warmth, and no
rain, it looks like it’ll inevitable get slightly tougher for the wildlife
before the rains bring some welcome relief.
