Migrants

The swallows and martins have gone, all but a few, like the handful of swallows which were working the rabbits' field as we passed it on our morning walk. 

A little further on we heard a chiff-chaff calling, not the full-throated song of early summer but a pale imitation, as if it was hoping to meet up with a fellow-traveller for the long flight south; and on our return, as, again, we passed the rabbits' field, we saw....

....this little bird on the fence, which looks very like one of the warblers.

 I spent some time later in the morning sitting in the sunshine of our back terrace carrying out the arduous task of scanning the skies for swallows and martins - and saw only one.