Summary of July 2011
Weather
Very hot at the start of the month getting wetter towards the end of the first week. By the middle of the month it had gotten very wet. We were away between the 14th – 18th and on return we got the impression that there had been heavy rain throughout the period. By 24th warm to hot and sunnier again and sometimes humid right up to the end of the month.
Garden
More signs of bird attacks. This time a Blackbird looks like it got attacked – probably by a cat – but got away. It seems that the cat that was giving us all the bother was not our neighbours’ cat as Anne says she has seen it again recently ! The war continues. As regards birds the Goldfinches seem to have picked up in numnbers and we are regularly getting half a dozen or more. Some days we see three Greenfinches – it looks like one male, one female and a juvenile male – and we are still getting our two Chaffinches on a regular basis. We seem to have a somewhat scruffy Blackbird visiting us regularly though whether this is our “old one” moulting or a new one is hard to say. Still no Robin in our garden and Dunnocks entirely invisible. A couple of Great Tits and a couple of Blue Tits regular. In the sky above – though usually in the evenings rather than daytime – half a dozen Swifts criss cross the sky. By the middle of the month most days we do not see any ground feeding birds. The cat continues to be a menace. Around 25th we started to see a couple of Dunnocks and even a Blackbird in the bird bath. There are still Swifts darting around the sky. We get Chaffinches on the feeders and up to 8 Goldfinches. The next door’s kitten has ventured out and got a water pistolling for its efforts – so now we will have two cats to deal with ! On 30th we sat out in the back garden on a lovely sunny afternoon. Most of the neighbours had gone away for the weekend so it was very quiet. This is probably the first time we have sat for several hours in the garden and we were rewarded with a visit from six Long-tailed Tits, two Coal Tits, two Blue Tits, a Great Tit, a Dunnock, a Chaffinch and half a dozen Goldfinches – so quite a variety for July which has generally been quiet in the garden. It is still notable that we have not had a Robin for months now and we didn’t see a Blackbird today.
Other Trips
On 6th July we went to Leighton Moss RSPB; on 11th we went to the Gauntlet Bird of Prey Centre; on 14th we drove up to Musselburgh where we were based for trips to the Bass Rock and the Isle of May. We also got some birding in at Musselburgh at the Lagoons behind the links. On 26th we went to WWT Martin Mere and on 28th we went for a walk to the Upper Derwent Valley.