July 2023
Unseasonable: the word of this month, but unseasonable weather has been routine these last few years.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Bats flit past after dusk, but evenings are now drawing in: it's dark not long after 21:00.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 graze on Cley marshes and pools, lapwings at their hooves.
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
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