Swifts off soon?

Today, I counted a shrieking crew of twelve swifts, massing together then scimitaring through the sky, arcing between houses, flicking sideways through trees, then soaring back up into the blue.

I have noticed that the ants always pick a hot, thundery day, usually at the end of July or start of August, to swarm. I have just been out and they are swarming now, two weeks early. The swifts usually leave soon after gorging their fill on ants carried upwards on thermals, so I think we shall soon have to bid these glorious acrobats of the sky farewell till next May. The skies will seem quiet and empty without them.

The birds and the bees

My partner was kneeling at the back of the pond, doing something to the pond filter, when his knee started vibrating. He shifted it and to his amazement, several bumble bees flew out from underneath. He had been kneeling right on the entrance to their nest which has been cleverly positioned in the roots of a plant. Last week, the white hebe bush was in flower and it was completely buzzing, absolutely alive with bees. Now the purple hebe is out, and the honeysuckle too, so the bees still have plenty of nectar.

Don't they have a splendid doorway?

Now for the birds. There is a huge flock of starlings roosting somewhere not far away. We often get more than thirty in the garden at once. The suet balls are very popular and they can strip the feeder in ten minutes. Here is a bunch of them queuing for their turn.

The collective noun for starlings should be a clamour, not a murmuration!

Last but not least, here is a cure ring-necked parakeet swinging on the peanuts.

Bye-bye Butterfly?

When I was small, I used to listen to Nursery Singsong on the radio and there was one song that always made me cry. It had a plaintive melody which was repeated in a different key, and the words, sung by a lady with a very pure voice, were:

Bye-bye butterfly
Born in a bower
Christened in a teapot
And drownded in a shower

Tears would cascade down my cheeks as I thought of that poor butterfly, although I didn't understand what 'christened in a teapot' was all about. I still don't!

The old song sprang to my mind today as I stood in the garden lamenting the lack of butterflies. Back in 1997 when I first started spending most of my time in Hillingdon, there were so many of them that for a season I kept a Butterfly Diary, logging all the species I saw. Peacocks were always the first to appear, followed by Orange Tips, Brimstones, Holly Blues, Gatekeepers, Commas, Meadow Browns, Cabbage Whites, Red Admirals, Fritillaries...the list goes on.

Well, the plants in the garden are still the same. The farm fields at the bottom are still there. Yet the butterflies have gone and I can only blame the dreadful winters. After the freezing cold one of 2011-2012, we counted five dead Peacock butterflies in the garage, frozen to death whilst overwintering. This spring I have only seen one, a very battered specimen. I have seen a couple of Orange Tips and a few small blues. That's it. I can only hope that a few more will appear during the summer, but I fear that those that didn't freeze during the winter have been 'drownded' in the extremely wet spring showers. I am very sad as, along with dragonflies, I find butterflies the most delightful and magical of all the insects.

(Photo taken in July 2012 of Red Admiral sunning its wings on a paintbrush on the windowsill)

A helping hand for the fox family

The cubs race around the garden so fast that it's hard to take a decent photo. But it's good to see them both doing so well. The odd thing is, a second vixen, whose coat is a darker colour, seems to be helping their mum bring them up. There's no sign that she is feeding cubs of her own. I wonder if she's a sibling of the cub's mother, or one of last year's cubs who failed to found a family of her own? She is so shy that the moment you raise the camera, she's off, speeding into the bushes.

Often, the second vixen is the one who appears first, like the lookout, checking that it's OK for the cubs to appear. Then you see a cheeky little face and the bolder cub ventures onto the lawn, followed by cub number two and Mum. Haven't seen Dad for a while. Perhaps, knowing that the family are being helped, he has gone on his way.

This year's fox cubs

The other night, Moma Vixen brought her cubs into the garden to introduce them to us. The first time I looked up, I just saw this one...

Suddenly, it looked round...

And up trotted its sibling.

One decided to inspect the fox food bowl. Although there was food in it, it wasn't sure how to get it out. It peered in, sniffed and gave up.

They were making such a noise, chasing and yipping, that the larger birds came down to decide just how much of a threat these small furry creatures were.

The nearer cub decided it didn't like the magpie staring at it and chased it off.

I have a feeling we might be seeing a lot more of this playful twosome. And who knows, there might even be a third, lurking shyly in the den. One year, we thought there were only two and in fact there were four!

Thieving magpies!

The magpies have cottoned on to the fact that we feed Charlie, the ginger cat, outside and are now helping themselves to any leftovers in his bowl. They sit on the privet hedge and survey the area to make sure the cats and fox aren't around, then swoop down and pick up what they can. They love cat biscuits, which they fly to the birds' water dish with, then dunk them to soften them. They're pretty bright, those magpies, and beautiful, too, with that glorious kingfisher blue on their wings. A couple of days ago, the parent birds took their youngster to the water dish and were teaching him how to drink. I expect he or she will be joining them soon on their cat food raids.

The vixen is weaning the cubs now. She eats a little food herself, then stuffs her mouth with as much as she can carry and scoots through the hedge with it. I dread the day the house next door sells. It needs renovating, so will probably go to a developer who will fill the garden with building gear. I hope she has a safe place to remove her family to. The fox path that she has worn in the grass goes down and across our garden, through the hedge, across next door's lawn and down to the bottom, but whatever happens next door, she will still be able to access our garden from the field at the bottom. Let's hope that never gets built on, as the local wildlife would really suffer. Hopefully, the old oak trees have preservation orders on them so any building would be beyond the tree-line. Fingers crossed...

Great Spotted Woodpecker seeks new home!

For those of you who didn't see my post on Facebook, the other day I was lucky enough to be able to grab my camera in time to snap this woodpecker checking out the nest box which hasn't been occupied since it was put up three years ago, apart from one cold night when some blue tits took shelter in it. I do hope something nests in it this year. It would be thrilling if it was the woodpeckers!