Swift half news - 13th June 2010

• The honeysuckle at Swift Half is in full bloom - and the big bumblebees and moths are loving it.
• Talking of flowers - the elderflower is still going strong (the bottled champagne is taking on its fizz and losing some of its cocktail sweetness), the rear (rear) garden has been carpeted with "scarlet pimpernel" in the recent dry spell -and the twenty-one potato plants have flowered nicely.
• The sunflower has avoided being nibbled by our hens, and is now about 20cm tall.
• The swift chicks are growing well - they look pretty prehistoric still (at 7 days old) and their eyes are still closed.
• Talking of swifts - a hobby raced through the garden pretty low today - chasing swifts and dragonflies I expect - not good.
• I think we have another woodpecker nest on the go to the west of the house - the woodpecker attractor is still being visited not only by adult birds and fledglings, but also adult birds carrying food somewhere other than the nest which produced the first set of fledglings. I'll keep my eye on that lot...
• Bit of rain tonight and tomorrow and then a nice, sunny, warm settled period (again) to come this week.
• Anna and I ate our first two home-grown strawberries this year.

Swift half news - 6th May 2010

• Last night both swifts spent the entire night in the roof space and this afternoon, both came back for 30 minutes or so, but as I type this, only one is in the roof. I trust the other is around and ok - the only things that can take a swift are the weather (no food) or a hobby (pretty well the swift's only predator). EDIT (20:56) BOTH swifts back now...
• Talking of birds of prey, this afternoon provided a three species bird of prey afternoon from the back garden at "Swift half" - with kites, a female sparrowhawk and a male kestrel all seen within one hour.
• A new addition to the birdtable - one of the local jackdaws had a go at the monkey nuts - must have learned that trick off the jays (which the nuts were successfully, originally put out for).
• Had to drag Malu off the blackbird's nest in the honeysuckle this evening - the hen is still sitting on four eggs - Malu will get them in the end - I still think thats pretty well inevitable.
• Anna (6th May) and I (4th May) both wrong with timing of first swift egg then -no swift eggs in space as yet!
• No odonates (especially damselflies) over pond yet - incredibly late this year.