Diary: 22nd June 2005

Flaming June in the Garden

For the first time this year, the weather has, at times, been hot enough to make gardening uncomfortable. An excuse - if one were needed - to kick back and just enjoy it.

This common spotted orchid (Dactylorhiza fuscii) first flowered in my 'flowery hiccup' last year (see diary entry for 22nd June 2004). Here it is exactly one year one - this year looking rather sturdier than last.

The backswimmers (Notonecta glauca) reported on 7th June have grown a lot. The largest of them is now around a centimetre in length. These are predatory insects and today I watched one devour a mosquito larvae.

After a good spawning year for frogs (Rana temporaria), tadpoles rapidly became fairly scarce. This was due, in part, to a female blackbird (Turdus merula) which learned to catch them very efficiently. However in today's late afternoon sunshine I saw good numbers of large tadpoles basking and feeding near the water's surface. You can see the back legs on this one.

This spring, for the first time in the eight years I've been in this house, we've had a resident pair of bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) in the garden; indicating that they have nested nearby. Previously they have only been occasional visitors. The male likes to feed on the ground underneath one of the hanging seed feeders.

The spring wildflowers near my pond have just past their peak, but still look very beautiful. Here are meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris), red campion (Silene dioica) and oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare).

Both families of blue tits (Parus caerulea) have now fledged from their nestboxes leaving only the starlings, (Sturnus vulgaris), which look about to fledge at any time judging by this nestling peering out of its box.

Diary: June 2005

Sights and sounds of June