Around the Garden

I've not had much free time recently so heading out for walks and such have been few and far between! I have got into a habit of noting things down though after 30 Days Wild, which is not a bad thing!

The garden has perked up a little bird wise, we've had Blue Tits and juvenile Great Tits on the feeder along with Woodpigeons and the odd Blackbird. The garden at the front of the house with the bird bath has been awash with Sparrows on the lawn and in the Buddleia. I can see the Magpie family from the bedroom windows either in the yard across the way or on the little road that runs down the side of the houses. The lavender is always busy with bees.

The Swifts seem to be getting noisier by the day and every evening spend a couple of hours screeching low around the house, they're a bit too fast to catch with my camera when they get so low but I caught a couple of them in the air.

With the heat recently we've been leaving the doors and windows open till late into the night which means we've been getting a fair few moths in the house. My favourite so far has been the gorgeous Common Emerald (thanks to British Moths for the ID confirmation!) which flew into the bathroom and landed on the mirror.

Snout Moth

Common Emerald

We tied the Buddleia to the side of the house last year, it's branches just brush past part of the living room window and now are just about reaching the bedroom windows too, hopefully now flowers are opening it'll prove good viewing for butterflies! Though it's going to have to be cut right back later in the year before it encroaches on the neighbours!

I've let some parts of the garden go a little wild and I think my favourite thing that has sprung up is this flower amongst my mint. I think it's St John's Wort?

Elsewhere my climbing rose is going strong and a lone poppy has flowered by the bird feeders.

I'm typing this blog whilst sat in the garden at 9.45 in the evening, it's finally cooled off a bit so it's lovely being outside now. The Swifts are still going and the midges are hovering (luckily I never seem to get bitten by anything so i'm pretty safe!), I can see a spider making a web between the washing line and the roses. It's just about perfect.

And they're back

Coming home tonight after doing my voting duty and putting my x on the necessary forms, I saw 3 Swifts flying over the house, they're here a little earlier than usual, 2 or 3 days, and there's not so many yet but it's a good start.

There's something about the Swifts turning up that just makes my day!

Swifts

Finally had my first Swifts over the house yesterday.

Originally they used to turn up around the 3rd or 4th May but they've been getting later every year. There's only 3 at the moment but it's already so nice to hear them screeching about, it's a sound I miss!

No photos yet but they usually put on a wonderful low aerial display out the front of the house a few times so hopefully i'll snap a few then.

Swifts

We have had up to eight Swifts in 'residence' above our house since May. They are lovely to watch and i've spent a fair few evenings sat in the garden watching them screech about in the sky long after all the other birds have disappeared for the day.

They are difficult to photograph though I have tried and the best shot i'd come up with is this one, with the sun just catching the wing as it turned.

This morning though I watched all 8 birds behaving liked i'd never seen before. There were all flying at roof height and below, which made for great views from the bedroom window. They were flying pretty close to the buildings too. Three of them kept landing on the old factory opposite and seemingly trying to get into the cracks. I have never seen a Swift land before and it was quite something to watch!

Amazing what you can see from your own window!

Quick Post

It's been a quiet week, not too many birds the past couple of days in the garden but the Mistle Thrush has been back. Walking back home from dropping the little one at nursery I almost got dive bombed by a bird flying straight at me.

I looked about and realised it was a Swift and there were another 3 nearby too, all flying low. I added to my list when I got home and then realised it wasn't on my overall list at all. Today was the first time i've seen one up close enough to positively id it. I also realised over the past couple of weeks that i've seen Swallows, House Martins, Sand Martins and now a Swift. I usually have trouble confirming id's with these so very pleased!