Well let us see what the rest of the month will bring us, it appears the weather is going to get warmer over the Bank Holiday, but as usual the weather people may change their minds before the weekend gets here. But overnight we have had a fair amount of rain and it looks like putting drainage into the flooded area in the garden has paid off as we have no puddles or swampy grass. The wind has changed to a Westerly from a Northland Easterly so that is an improvement for the fishing when I eventually get out for a decent session.
A terrible grainy picture but taken a long way off and cropped down mainly to identify the bird as we had seen it out on our walk and every time we got near it flew off and eventually I saw it settle at the top of a tree and knew this would be the closest I would get to it. It was a Reed Bunting.
19th.
You may remember a couple of blogs back I quoted the old saying “don’t cast a clout till May is out”, referring to don’t take your coat off until the Hawthorn flower was in bloom. It appears we can now take our said coats off as here is the delicate little flower of the Hawthorn, though with the rain I will keep mine on.
Just to ruin that saying above, one hundred yards up the path this Hawthorn flower isn’t quiet out yet, so I was right to keep my coat on.
Just loved the way the water droplets shine like little diamonds on this plant.
Laburnam out in full bloom, though poisonous a striking colour. The surprising thing with this tree is that every single part of it is poisonous, roots, bark, wood, leaves, flowers and seed pods. Of these parts the seed pods contain the most poison
I love this wee plant it grows all along our riverside walk and for such a small plant is so colourful, it is called a Water Aven or a Billy Buttons.
The elusive and fast Wren, heard it, saw it, but would it stay still long enough for me to get a good shot of it, no way. This was the best I could do, right at the top of the image.
On the other hand the Blackbird was more accomadating, singing it’s heart out from on high.
23rd.
Built this Sparrow hotel before we left our old house in the hope of carrying on our tradition of increasing the House Sparrow population, three nest boxes in one block, just as they like it. So imagine my surprise while out digging the foundation of my new pond I saw movement out the corner of my eye. Grabbed my camera and sat a good distance away to capture the Sparrows building a nest.
But no, the Sparrows turned out to be a pair of Great Tits, not building a nest, but feeding BABES.
Insect in mouth watching me before entering.
Waited patiently for it’s mate to feed the wee ones and then enter.
Exit time.
Exit complete with poo sack in the beak.
24th.
Started to dig out my new pond, have worked it out if I do this much each day it should be completely dug out in 20 working days or so, hard work for an oldie. Not sure what the remaining depth of soil will be but I would say I have it half the depth I want it, if that will be possible. Ground conditions will determine where the shallow and deep sections will be, not me. This will be my third pond I have built and the last two properties were a lot easier than this one is, hence the pickaxe.
I told you May was a good month and we are just at the start of a week long heatwave, beautiful, hot sunny day today and finished of at sunset by these unusual clouds around them P.M.
25th.
Another beautiful day and went for a walk before the sun got to high.
What a surprise that one of the two horses in the field has a foal, must be fairly old and we had not seen it before. Note the old bull watching on in the background.
Did a bit more work on the pond building then it got to hot so out came the camera to capture the insects on the Scottish Cornflower.
Well I am glad to say the second half of May didn’t let me down, a whole week of lovely weather and only the last couple of days in the month have gone back to not very warm and the occasional shower, but due to my enthusiasm in getting a pond built no fishing Im afraid.