June 2023: Quick roundup

 June 2023 Quick Roundup

Miserable unseasonable cold to start, but with warm relief by mid-month.

Ill-health this month limits time outdoors. Missing nature, fresh air. The season turns to quieter summer. Swallowtails on the wing (but not seen yet), and cuckoos migrating away homeward.

Very few butterflies, but buzz of bees is a constant sound throughout the month.

Garden bumblebee nest quieter by end of month, as are the blackbirds and starlings now with all their young fledged. 

Green growth in abundance. Strawberries and samphire seasonal delights.

House martins, swallows and swifts lacking.

Rarity to hear or see song thrush, no longer a garden visitor.

A magpie with a limp is a regular visitor this month

 

Wood pigeon pair try again with nesting in the wisteria.

 

 

 

Shelducks, sand martins and avocets at Cley

 

 

 

A summer view from the dashboard

 

Pines, Holkham

Red-backed shrike, seen through gap in brambles

Fragrant and beautiful honeysuckle

Bright, with cold winds but humid.

More orchids seen.

Scallop tartare starter

Bright but breezy at the broads.

First Pimm's of summer

Wood pigeon washing, garden

A view from the coast road

Blickling lake

 

 

Bright rose blooms on a dull day, garden

 

Blackbird fledgling, garden

 

Collared doves, garden

 

Froglet crossing.

 

Strawberry seasonal dessert.

Cranes, original oil painting

Long summer evenings.

Robin fledgling, garden

Bee on musk mallow, garden

My sounds of June

Blackbird

Fledglings begging (blackbird, blue & great tits mostly)

Linnet, goldfinch, chaffinch, greenfinch

Swift, swallow and house martin heard infrequently

May 2023: Quick roundup

Spring continuing cold, wet and grey.

Fragrant blossom and thickening foliage.

Goldcrest, garden.

 

A Goldcrest pair feeds in the garden. Small birds such as these are seen less often later in the month.

Swift

 

4th May 2023

Swifts return home, but no joyous chorus: just a few birds heard calling. Happy to hear, to welcome back, nevertheless. Unfortunately, as month continues, seems less have returned home than previous years. More often a pair, not a flock, are observed.

The French Lavender flowers, the English only by the end of the month. Bumblebees from the nest by the shed are frequent visitors.

Thunder, lightning and gusts for many days mid-month.

Cherry seedlings potted up, a pair of beechnuts sprout, and many things planted into the garden.

 

 

 Apple blossom

In search of Nightingales in the fens

First week of May and Nightingales sing strongly from thickets. Many warblers accompany, but less and less sing by the end of the month as breeding/territories are established.

The Cuckoo calls often at certain sites, but is only heard once from the garden.

 

Common Whitethroat

 

 

 

 

Coot and juvenile

 

 

Cuckoo

Cuckoo

 

Yellowhammer

 

 

 

A fine view from the coast road

 

One maybug in the garden. Starlings busy feeding screeching fledglings, later in the month blackbird fledglings fill the garden, some fed by parent birds but most independent. Ladybird larvae observed.

 

 

Common Tern

 

 

Spoonbill

 

 

Spoonbill

Spoonbill and Little Egret

Some fine spells amidst gloomy grey days, but a cold North/North-Easterly wind persists.

 

Hawthorn blossom, sunset sky

 

Turtle Dove perched up in hawthorn

 

Turtle Dove, preening

Snettisham coastal park

Sunset at Blakeney

20th May

"Two swifts seen, but skies seem empty."

Delicate whites: clouds, mayflower, lesser stitchwort.

 

Hobby

 

Marsh Harrier above the reeds

Small Red Damselfly on oak leaf, garden.

Dragonflies and damselflies seen in garden and about, but very few butterflies.

Wisteria (floribunda 'Rosea') in flower, garden.

 

The wisterias fill out in full leaf and flower. The buzz of bees and a delicate jasmine-type scent surround. Not just petals falling by the end of the month, but twigs and a cracked white egg from a poorly-constructed Wood Pigeon nest somewhere high in the boughs.

 

Rose 'Gertrude Jekyll'

 

26th May

The first of my roses to bloom is the fragrant 'Gertrude Jekyll', closely followed by the reliable climbing rose and abundant shrub 'Blue for you'. All the other roses keep their buds tight. Aphids kept away by busy Blue Tits, but cherry trees suffering with blackfly this year.

 

Flag iris

 

 

 

Cuckoo

Lemon posset

28th May

"Dismal cold, piercing Northerly wind."

Busy blackbirds in the garden.

 

Raindrops on a rose 'Blue for You', garden.

My sounds of May 

Swift

Blackbird

Cuckoo

Starling