1st - 5th July.

July 1st Watched a female green woodpecker probing the lawn for ants and grubs, a good start to the day.

Weather changeable, managed a walk later passing fields of flax, a fairly unusual sight in the countryside around here.

Joined the footpath to Pednor.

Came across a battered, broken antlered buck muntjac, been in too many fights over the does.

On way home passed goldfinches topping up on minerals, eating from a heap of rock  salt at the side of the road. Early Friday and a male sparrowhawk shot through the garden and grabbed a juvenile great tit. A magpie hangs on to the feeding station pole and picks at the last bit of the fatball.

 A walk on Saturday and saw our first hummingbird hawk moth of the year feeding on bramble flowers.

Heard common whitethroats, blackcaps, chiffchaffs along with blackbird, song thrush and yellowhammer singing en route.

Winter barley looking well and beginning to ripen.

Sunday 5th and thought about removing some duckweed from the pond, had to stop, first small netfull contained several very small newt efts along with tiny damselfly larvae and a tiny frog all hiding in the duckweed.

A warm afternoon and the honeybees were enjoying the common mallow in the garden.

Stewart.
Images Copyright : Stewart Dennis.