The earliest Hillingdon swifts yet!

 I saw my first swifts on May 2nd. I heard my first on the 3rd. Today is the 7th and the sky is full of the joyful sound of shrieking swifts. Summer is definitely on its way.

It's a blue sky, puffy white clouds afternoon, following a drab grey morning, and a pair of red kites is soaring high, too far for my rather feeble camera to photograph. I just spotted a red damsel fly on the pond netting and earlier, saw a pair mating in midair. 

Our first badger

We have never had badgers in the garden before, but I was alerted by a neighbour from two doors away, who had caught sight of one on her garden camera. So we checked ours, and lo and behold, there was the rear end of a badger! By the time we'd perused the whole batch of photos, we found we had caught a blurry shot of the badger's face, proving beyond doubt that the hairy bottom did indeed belong to a badger, but we also spotted our first hedgehog since last summer. I am now worried because I had been told that badgers will kill and eat hedgehogs. I wonder if that's why we have seen so few over the last couple of years when we once had whole hedgehog families visiting the garden?

Swifts are back

 I heard a shrieking in the air, looked up and saw a swirling group of swifts and knew our local group had arrived. After conversing with each other, they then flew off in different directions, and probably won't meet up again till August, when they gather to fly back to sunnier climes. Last year they arrived on May 9th. This year it was May 11th. I heard from Edward Mayer of Swift Conservation  - https://www.swift-conservation.org/ - that they had been held up by bad weather and strong winds en route. 

If I didn't live in a bungalow, I would love to erect a swift nesting box. Maybe next year, if I move... 

They're back!

 I was out on my daily walk when I heard a familiar sound that I hadn't heard for many months and looking up, I saw swifts! The sight made me feel so happy that I just stood on the pavement with a silly grin on my face. 

    It's a cloudy, breezy day today and it did cross my mind that, as the weather in the South-East has been so awful lately with heavy showers and gales and temperatures way below the norm for May, they might delay their arrival, but they're bang on target. 

    I just hope that, with clearer skies due to the lack of flights, and fewer humans milling around, the insect life might have recovered over the lockdown periods. I shall keep my fingers crossed and hope the swifts will have a good feeding and breeding season in the UK in 2021. 

A swirl of swifts

Following a disappointing start where the swifts were late arriving and there only seemed to be two of them, there were at least 50 high in the sky over the fields and gardens late yesterday afternoon.

And today, when I walked down the street, there were about ten swifts flying low, darting between the houses, circling and passing me at shoulder height, so I could see every feather and look into their eyes and boy, they are much bigger close up than the tiny eyebrow-shaped arcs you see in the sky! It was a magical experience.

I felt privileged to be so close to these speedy, beautiful and increasingly rare birds.

The swifts have arrived - hooray!

I had been getting very worried, especially as the red kites are swooping majestically over our local patch in ever increasing numbers. The latest the swifts have arrived since I have been logging them has been May 11th. But I have just spotted two today, the 13th and my spirits have lifted. It's wonderful to have them back.

Swifts 2019 - none yet!

It's now May 11th and I have not seen a single swift. The weather has been showery and blustery and the temperature is low for the time of year. Could this have put them off arriving? I shall keep my eyes glued to the skies in order to note the first local viewing. A friend in West Hampstead got 'his' swifts back a few days ago. As there is plenty of countryside round here on the Western fringes of London, I should have thought they would be here by now.

I apologise for the dearth of posts. Quite honestly, I have been so depressed about the dwindling numbers of the local wildlife that I haven't felt like putting finger to keyboard. But... we do have hedgehogs. Two of them, in fact. I hope to see the numbers increase.

Sparrow numbers are definitely down. I have planted bird pockets, e.g. mini nests that you can buy from many wild bird seed websites, in the privet hedge - what's left of it. New neighbours on both sides have torn down their side of the hedging and replaced it with fences. They have also cut down all the beautiful trees, thus robbing the birds of nesting sites and cover. The outlook from the back of our house looks far less verdant than it used to.

In previous years, I have seen a lot of peacock butterflies, sometimes as early as March. This year, the score is 1 so far. A couple of blues, one orange tip, and that's it.

We are visited by a limping vixen who scouts around the garden in broad daylight, no doubt trying to feed hungry cubs that are stashed in a den amongst the oak trees in the field beyond our garden. At least we have made sure that wildlife can get in and out via the bottom of the garden - or The Wild Bottom, as I call it! I promise to write some Tales from the Wild Bottom this year!