IS IT AUTUMN OR AUGUST?

I go away for a couple of weeks and the weather goes from record breaking heat, to a soggy August in a matter of days.

They should rename August as autumn, given the late evening and early morning feel in the air, not to mention the wet and windy weather.

Over the last ten days the swifts seem to have departed for warmer climes, can’t say I blame them, while the garden birds have definitely quit the breeding season for this year.

I have seen the swallow family, now looking great with seven fledged youngsters, taking to the air and learning the aerobatic skills that a swallow needs.

It’s a fabulous sight, watching the newly-fledged swallows dancing around the skies, flirting with the fields and trees, and all the time chattering away to their parents.

They’ll be off soon and to me it means autumn has already started.

The garden is quiet with the likes of blue tits, great tits, house sparrows, dunnocks, blackbirds, robins and wrens only sporadically visiting.

I’ve cut back on extra food for them, apart from a couple of feeders, but perhaps with the weather conditions I’m tempted to put some fat balls out there.

The flora is growing significantly with all the wet and warm(ish) weather, but not the ones I want to.

The sunflowers are not as tall as last year (no they’re not dwarf ones), the tomatoes are only just flowering, and the broad beans have basically failed.

But the grass, rose bushes and ivy, the ones I have to trim regularly, are flourishing – so plenty of time in the garden for me at the moment.

With Bank Holiday weekend coming up shortly, the weather is bound to improve…

The wildlife might not care about this, but the humans who use the garden certainly do!

WILL IT EVER RAIN AGAIN?

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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.