The house martins seem to have had a very good year for breeding. The houses in the road below us provide a big choice of nesting sites and we're fairly sure that the numbers of martins swooping up to them suggest that the parents have seen the first brood safely into the air and....
....are now coming back to our pond to collect mud to repair their nests so they can have another brood before the season is out.
It's not all been easy for them. We've noticed that....
....crows often perch just above where the nests are, presumably in the hope that one of the nestlings will fall out and provide a meal.
Another problem for the martins has been our big windows into which....
....a number of birds have flown. Most stun themselves and, given the chance, seem to recover. This bird did, but not before it had given us plenty of time to identify it. We think it may be a sand martin but are very open to suggestions.
The house martins seem to have had a very good year for breeding. The houses in the road below us provide a big choice of nesting sites and we're fairly sure that the numbers of martins swooping up to them suggest that the parents have seen the first brood safely into the air and....
A female Blackcap.
ReplyDeleteMy granddaughter had some Painted Lady catapillers in an insect cage. They successfully pupated and hatched. Released into the garden, it was interesting to observe that they remained local, often visiting flowers in her garden; the identification was made easier due to one butterfly having a wing defect caused during emmergence. This is curious, as the wild population heads north continueing to breed until the cooler weather prevents this and eventually kills them off.
Thanks for responding to this post, Derryck.
DeleteOf course now you've identified the blackcap it's blindingly obvious what it is!
You'd really have expected your painted ladies to move away from you as their limits extend north of us. We've not seen one this year but in previous years we have.