Summary August 2013
Garden
The weather was a bit mixed for the first couple of weeks of August with some good dry days, some uncertain days and some plain wet ones. The combination of sun and rain has done wonders for the garden and it is easy to see why some birders turn to insects at this time of year as the bees and butterflies have been abundant. There does some to be a, somewhat erratic, return of birds to the garden and some days we see quite a bit. On other days the cast of characters is reduced. But we have started to see juvenile Blackbirds and both adult and juvenile Goldfinches in modest numbers. We have had a Greenfinch coming to eat the black sunflower seeds that I have started putting out again. Indeed even the Blue Tits seem to prefer them. I have head a few Starlings and briefly seen a Dunnock. A Coal Tit has returned to the feeders as well so things are starting to look up in the garden bird department – at least by the middle of the month.
By the end of the month things were mixed again and the garden birds seem to come and go. We did see a Sparrowhawk flying over the garden in settling on a neighbour’s shed.
Continue reading