The gulls are to-ing and fro-ing overhead from the crack of dawn to dusk. Most are lesser black-backs with about half as many black-headed gulls and the occasional herring gull. Ordinarily this time of year they'd be congregating on the school playing field, loafing or padding for worms in between peak scavenging periods just after break times. The grass has been mown to the point of being scalped and the ground is rock hard so the gulls haven't lingered, leaving the crowd scenes to a flock of pigeons.
The magpies have managed to raise a couple of very noisy youngsters, They've not been much in evidence this week as the cat's been spending all her time outside in the warm weather. As far as I can determine the only other difference this arrangement has made is that the hedgehog is getting regular free feeds. Even the woodpigeons aren't much fussed: I was astonished to see the cat and one of the woodpigeons asleep together at the bottom of the cherry tree in the back garden in the worst of the heat wave.
The young robin keeps well undercover regardless, I'll often hear it squeaking in the rose bushes but I'll see it perhaps once a week. The blue tits and great tits have been similarly shy. There's nothing remotely shy about the spadgers, the hard part is catching them and keeping track when they come in for one of their hit and run raids of the feeders. The breakfast run is usually the busiest, I only managed to catch part of the early lunchtime trade this morning.
Easily the most conspicuous birds in the garden have been the family of blackbirds that have moved in to make inroads on the rowan berries, a pair with three noisy full-grown juveniles that between them can send a squirrel off on its heels in a welter of pecks and bad language.
- Black-headed Gull 1 overhead
- Blackbird 5
- House Sparrow 5
- Jackdaw 1
- Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 overhead
- Magpie 1
- Woodpigeon 1
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