Hello everyone
Two of my informants (!!) have told me that we have not one, but two red kites in the area. In fact, they are a pair who are nesting. I haven’t seen them myself, but I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled. As you may know, red kites are making a big come back in Britain, having recovered from near extinction. They are large beautiful birds of prey, with a forked tail, so if you see them, do let me know.
I hope the pair of bullfinches I reported on last month are still about—I did see one in my garden a couple of weeks ago. We have a song thrush’s nest containing four eggs near us. The swallows and martins have arrived in force now, plus their larger cousins, the swifts. Did you know that swifts spend nearly all of their lives in the air, only occasionally coming in to land.
On a walk to Blue Anchor, I saw several whitethroats and a couple of buzzards. I also heard and then saw a male blackcap. Blackcaps are small grey warblers. The male sports a black cap to its head, but the female’s head is brown. The male sings quite beautifully. To crown all this, there was a blue flash as I approached the river Tale. Yes, a kingfisher streaking by—you have to be very quick to see these super little birds. There must be fish in the river, so I had a look and there were a few tell-tale splashes, as the small trout jumped for flies.
I haven’t seen very many butterflies yet. There are a few orange tips about, plus tortoiseshells, but not much else yet.