SUMMER THUNDERSTORMS BRING RELIEF TO THE HEATWAVE

This week must be all about the summer weather, in particular the thunderstorms that swept the country and delivered much needed rain to many places, along with flashes of excitement.

In the garden the thunderstorms arrived in the early hours and while the thunder and lightning had left by 9am, the rain continued all morning and led to flooding down the lane that leads to the house.

But it was all over fairly quickly and the sun soon returned to dry up most of the water and provide the flora and fauna with some energy with which to continue growing.

I managed to take some images of the lightning, although not exactly very successfully. It only lasted for a couple of hours and trying to predict where the next flash would be turned out harder than I imagined.

The three flashes I did manage to capture show the garden and beyond lit up like it was daylight, but I can assure you it was pitch black at the time.

 

 

 

In other news the third tree and house sparrow broods are close to fledging and a number of blue tit chicks have been frequenting the garden, although I’m not sure if they fledged nearby or are simply visitors from the area who have happened on the garden.

The sunflowers are growing rapidly and at least four are as tall as me, with one over 10ft tall. More about them and the buddleia flowering which is attracting numerous butterflies next week, which means the diary of images about the garden growing will start in August.

 

 

HOUSE SPARROWS MAKING THEMSELVES AT HOME

So the house sparrows’ mating seems to have worked as there are now three new eggs in the camera nestbox.

I’m delighted that there has now been three clutches of eggs in my camera nestbox this year, and from two different birds.

If all the current eggs hatch and the chicks fledge, then a total of 13 chicks will have entered the wildlife world thanks to my nestbox.

But that won’t be all the chicks that fledge from my garden, because in the new ‘terraced’ house sparrow nestbox that I put up in March has at least one of the three nestboxes occupied by house sparrow chicks.

As I don’t have a camera in there I can’t tell how many, but I suspect three or four judging by the sounds coming from there.

I’m pleased that so many house sparrow chicks are being brought in to the world in my garden and it is providing a good home to a declining UK species.

The flora and wildlife homes in my garden have been the culmination of five years of introducing different species to the garden and also providing a regular food source for the birds.

Talking of flora, two new flowers have emerged from this years’ seed plantations, two poppies and a sunflower (teddy bear variety).

 

They are adding more colour and scents to the garden and attracting plenty of insects, particularly bees and an increasing number of butterflies.

 

Finally with the hot weather due to end with thunderstorms and rain in the coming days, I think it can only help increase the flora in my garden and add even more colours and scents.

Perhaps after the rain we’ll have even more sun and at least two fledgings!

Oh and before I forget I took delivery of a new bird box cctv camera from SpyCameraCCTV

 , which I ‘won’ during a Facebook competition.

Thanks to the guys at SpyCameraCCTV, I’m hoping to have two nestboxes covered by cameras next year!