Maxi

My heart is broken. I've lost my close, bonded companion of 25 years. It's only 2 days and I don't know how to explain why this hurts so much. The depth of this cut is not known yet, as living with any death takes time, time, time. There are so many other factors involved.

I felt the first blow of this loss when Ziggy died so suddenly in 2021. My beautiful birdy--Maxima, Maxi, Sweetcheeks--slipped quietly away whilst I was so busy gardening, pulling weeds, trimming the front border, watering. There was still some warmth under her wing when I found her.

I can't look through her pictures yet (I've posted the first found on this computer). I always knew it was a privilege to have a bird, such a bird, in my life. She should have been a free, wild creature; but she had been bred to be a caged bird, she'd've been in a cage whether with me or someone else. I have been privileged to have her companionship all these years.

I'm not ready to say goodbye, but it's not my choice. Love you Maxi.

 

Scritches for Maxi

Maxi (Maxima)

Lacewing pearl cockatiel

1998-2023

July 2023: Quick Roundup

 July 2023

Unseasonable: the word of this month, but unseasonable weather has been routine these last few years.

Hickling broad

Gusts bend reeds and sheet water over the broads. Too windy for swallowtails; they've been on the wing, but I've yet to see one this summer. Too cold for adders or grass-snakes on the path.

Hickling broad

Spoonbill

Battling gusts, a spoonbill flies to meet its partner, before together they fly eastward. Spoonbills and egrets now seem commonplace, and are noted in large numbers across Norfolk this month.

Summer moon rising

The moon rises into a light summer evening. Stars seem unfamiliar this time of year with late twilight and early dawn.

 

Samphire a salty seasonal delight, whether harvested by hand or purchased from a North Norfolk wayside, deli, fishmonger.

 

 Yarrow, ragwort and a few poppies on verges.

Chiffchaff

 

Blackcaps and chiffchaffs continue singing into this late season. Sedge and reed warblers quieten by the end of the month, blackbirds no longer sing regularly and the dawn chorus disassembles.

Goldfinches, greenfinches and linnets continue to sing in the garden.

Salts Hole, Holkham

Most days accompanied by a gust or a breeze. Butterflies much more abundant, and ladybirds welcome in large numbers as the nights warm by mid-month.

Comma butterfly

Cinnabar moth caterpillars feeding on ragwort

Juvenile starlings

Strawberries, garden

Strawberries and raspberries ripen. Autumn calls from the pink blackberries, green haws and holly-berries. Foxgloves go to seed whilst hollyhocks flourish in many gardens this month.

Crow flying to roost

 

Blickling lake

Shorn ewes and plump lambs graze amidst jackdaws and crows. Some lambs bend upon their forelegs as they take their fill of the milk bar, whether their ewe is willing or not. By the end of this month, ewes will call for their lambs.

 

Grasshopper on hazel leaf, garden

Half-mown meadow, Blickling

 

The harvest begins, whether a tractor mowing a Blickling meadow or scyth-bearing beginners a Gressenhall orchard. Sweet chestnut pollen is strong, potent, as the calls of swifts above. Butterflies skim across tall grasses and fallen alike, whilst song thrushes sing at a distance--a reminder of spring.

 

Mowing a meadow

Scythe

Butterflies are more abundant this month, mostly whites or meadow brown. A box tree moth--an oriental migrant first seen in the UK in 2007--is spotted upon a garden conifer. No vapourer moths caterpillars seen upon the wisteria since 2021. Grasshoppers heard in long grasses. Many jump away when walking across the front grass.

Box tree moth

Sweet chestnut in bloom

Harebells

Rain on Blickling lake

Doors rattle, wind whines in pulled-to windows, leaves rustling on the wisteria. Fallen branches and leaves on the road when traveling. Above average rainfall for July; all the grass is green, not scorched yellow as it was during the record heatwave last 2022.

Stormcloud, garden

Curling clouds, hairline cracks of lightning and thunder grumbles from the west.

Crepuscular cat

Michaelmas Daisies at night, garden

Bats flit past after dusk, but evenings are now drawing in: it's dark not long after 21:00.

 

Holkham village

 

 

 

 

A room with a view, Holkham

 

 

 

Hemp Agrimony

 

 

Hemp Agrimony is in full bloom, as is the more well-known butterfly plant Buddleia. A Silver-Y moth is rescued from the kitchen; upon release, it seizes upon a Buddleia flower, probing, probing, for nectar.

 

 

Beach-nesting birds sign

 

 

 

Ladybird wash-up, Holkham

 

Bright-green seaweed lines the shore, but many ladybirds also. Some swim, float, or die upon the lapping waves. Some of our ladybirds are continental migrants, and ladybird wash-ups are not yet fully understood. 

 

 

Evening drink at the Vic, Holkham

 

 

 

Moo goes there?

 

Who goes there? Little tern on patrol

Oystercatcher beachcombers

Oystercatcher

Squeak, squeak, squeak! Oystercatchers

Delighted to see a bullfinch pair at Holkham pines. Calls heard; I stop and look; the female a blur as she flies away; the male a vision in rose pink between a frame of leaves. He too flies away, but is found once again between leaves, but only fleetingly, too quick for my camera to capture. Not seen this species for at least two years.

Felbrigg

Felbrigg

Felbrigg lake

Calling ewes, Felbrigg

Shorn ewes call for their lambs; many stand by a gate, others stand calling from the grass, whilst others graze on for a time before raising their heads to call also.

Cherry tree, Blickling

 

Greylag geese graze on the new green growth following the pasture's mowing earlier this month.

A multitude of oak seedlings crowd beneath oak trees: produce of last year's mast year.

Juvenile magpie, garden

A juvenile magpie stalks the front garden, lunging for the grasshoppers that have proliferated in the long grasses. Later, a beautiful satin blue wing feather is found on the front drive. Magpies have been a more regular visitor to the garden in the last two years.

Swallow, garden

Welcome visitors above the garden, as three swallows swoop and chitter. These birds (and house martins) were once resident to this area, but are usually only seen in passing. This trio is seen regularly over a few days, to my delight. Will they return? There's a mud-stain still under the gable where the long-departed house martins used to nest. There have been less swifts this year, and whilst they continue to circle this month, their departure is sure to be soon.

 

Wood pigeons continues to sit on the wisteria nest. A collared dove tries again to build a nest on the satellite dish--often seen wandering by the front door picking up the fallen twigs.

26th July, many flying ants about but a modest flying-ant day compared to last year when showers regularly rained down upon anyone hapless enough to be outside at the swarming.

 

 

Salthouse marshes

 

 

Twilight
 

  One evening spent "Jarring" at a North Norfolk coastal heath. At twilight, moths rise, a bat zips away and a nightjar churrs. Only one male, so the song does not last long; it's a welcome sound nevertheless, as I had no chance to listen for this species earlier in the season.

 

Cattle at Cley

Cattle graze on Cley marshes and pools, lapwings at their hooves.

Juvenile Shelduck

Greylag geese

Cley marshes

Mute Swan and cygnet

 Grunts, snorts and a terrier-like yipping: mute swans in the reeds cause confusion and disturbance in the reeds at Cley East bank.

 

 

The month ends with sun, humidity, low damp clouds and cold wind. "The weekend was really rum."

Goldfinches witter in the garden. 

My sounds of July

Greenfinch, goldfinch and linnet singing

Magpie rattling chatter

Gulls and rooks cawing in early morning