BYE BYE HEATWAVE

The heat wave has now come and gone, but it has left behind some warm weather albeit with plenty of rain, particularly forecast for the week ahead.

There’s still been no sight of Spikey and I’m concerned now as I don’t think he’s been eating much of the cat food or mealworms that I’ve been handing out.

Indeed there seems to be a family of magpies that have been raiding the garden for my mealworms and the cat food, although how much of the cat food is left by dawn is something I don’t know.

I’m going to check the house sparrow nest boxes out this week as I’m not sure if another clutch of eggs has been laid yet, or indeed if there will be another brood this year; I’d be surprised if there wasn’t.

All of the plants are now out of the greenhouse, apart from the three ‘resident’ tomato plants, and most are surviving well outside.

The runner beans have flowered and the first signs of beans are now coming through, while the broad beans have flowered and some will soon be ready for picking and eating.

They’ve all been visited by plenty of bees and this year has seen the biggest number of bees in the garden for nearly a decade.

Every day the bees have visited the garden in huge numbers, with many varieties of honey and bumble bees.

As more and more flowers come into bloom it seems the supply of pollen and nectar will continue for the foreseeable future.

Currently the sweetpea plants are flowering and soon it’ll be the tomatoes, before the sunflowers continue the supply.

Of course all this means there’s plenty of colour in the garden.

The swallows appear to be in very big numbers this year and I’m predicting the count will exceed 40 when they start to prepare for the journey to their winter home and gather on the telephone wires.

Until then I’m going to enjoy their aerobatic displays and beautiful voices as the glide and swoop in and around the garden.

Next week I’ll bring news of a song thrush that has taken to singing loudly and at length around the garden.

WHERE IS SPIKEY?

It’s been two weeks since we set ‘Spikey’ (Max), the male hedgehog, free in the garden and sightings of him have been rare. I say rare, but what I mean is we’ve not seen him at all.

When he was release he scuttled into the undergrowth of next door’s garden and has not been sighted since.

Neighbours have been recruited to the on ‘hedgehog watch’, but so far the search has been fruitless.

I have been leaving cat food and water out for him late at night, and while the food has gone in the morning, I have no way of knowing if it’s Spikey, one of the resident cats or another wild animal has eaten it.

I just hope he’s ok and enjoying his new surroundings. If he is seen in the near future and regularly, I’ll be looking to rehome a female and set up a new colony.

The house sparrows are doing very well and both nests have just had their second brood of the year fledge.

I’m still not getting great images through the video cameras, but I’m probably going to leave them alone this year so as many house sparrows can fledge to boost the local population.

They may be noisy chirpy little birds, but they are part of the wildlife fabric of this country and it’s lovely to hear them in the morning as part of the dawn chorus.

The flora is doing quite well too, with sunflowers, broad beans, poppies and runner beans all growing taller by the day. All but the sunflowers are flowering and providing the bees and other insects with differing types of pollen.

I’m still seeing the odd small plant being eaten by snails and slugs, but most are escaping their hungry mouths.

Next week we’re meant to be in for as heatwave, which will be good for sun worshippers and the wildlife that needs sun, but everyone must be mindful that to flourish all wildlife needs access to fresh water.

So fill up that garden drinking bath or place small low level containers out at dawn or dusk and help the wildlife flourish in your patch.

IS THIS AUTUMN OR SUMMER?

Not the most exciting week in my garden, as autumn seemed to show its intent while summer still exists in the calendar.

The wind and rain we’ve experienced recently hasn’t been the weather we all wanted for the second half of summer, especially considering the lovely weather of July.

But it appears to have not been too negative for the wildlife.

The spring rain and early summer heat has combined to deliver plants and flowers with an inexhaustible supply of nectar and pollen, along with shelter for insects and invertebrates to breed; with many producing lots of young.

The bees and butterflies have been seen in much bigger numbers this year and have mainly been seen on the buddleia and the sunflowers.

I’ve not counted the different types of bee species in my garden, but there have been at least five different types, while a similar number of butterflies have been feeding on the buddleia.

The bird life has been fairly quiet this week with the odd sighting of a female blackbird and chatterings of house sparrows, some of which I presume used the nestboxes in my garden.

One thing that has been lovely to see, has been the amount of young blue tits – at one count six chicks – while a smaller number of great tit chicks have also been regular this week.

So with autumn weather set to continue, how will that affect the wildlife sightings in my garden?

BLOOMING GARDEN

The wet summer has so far resulted in lots of greenery, but not much in the way of other colours.

Over the last couple of weeks my garden has started to be full of vibrant colours from a wide variety of plants.

The numerous poppy, sunflower and rudbeckia plants are in full bloom and along with the gladiola and smaller flowers, are providing a colourful display.

There has been lots of bees making use of the pollen which is good news as the decline of food giving plants for the bees is a serious problem, especially for pollination of our food and crops.

I'm not sure if any of my sunflowers will reach over 10ft this year, but one or two might surprise me.

The tomatoes and pepper plants are going well and starting to show fruit, though how many will make it through the full growth is unknown.

I'm hoping to see my first red tomato by the end of July, especially as some of the pants I gave away to friends and family are already bearing fruit!

The birds are starting to come back into the garden and I've started hearing the warning calls again of the great tit and seen some young blue tits.

This weekend I've seen some fledgling robin chicks around the garden and along with the blackbirds, they are making use of the worms and other insects.

One thing I have noticed is the tree and house sparrows are not visiting in the same numbers, which I think is down to the chicks in nearby nests fledging and the parents showing them the neighbourhood while moulting themselves.

The swallows are increasing in number as youngsters fledge and join parents for formation flying to catch insects.

The wet weather is providing the swallows with a glut of food, when it stops and the sun warms up the air enough for the insects to take flight.

I'm hoping to have some more pics next week as I'm currently typing with one hand due to an injection into my elbow to help cure a long standing injury, so taking pics and writing with one hand isn't easy and it's taken me a while to complete this post!