Home thoughts

A quiet weekend for birdwatching. Friday I set aside as a writing day and ended up going to bed just after 3am, yesterday's plans were shelved after rain stopped play in all senses of the word. Today looked a much better sort of day but the lure of the Test Match proved too much for me.

The spadgers have hammered the feeders so yesterday I braved the weather to get a big bag of sunflower seeds to keep them going a while. So, typically, after spending yesterday sitting in the roses in the rain calling me names they've waited until after mid-afternoon today to come a-calling. They're as bad as the cat. One of the juvenile blue tits is hanging out with the baby spadgers. It's getting harder to identify the young blue tits: the cream tones on the feathers of their faces and wings are starting to wear away and more grown-up colouring showing.

The magpies and woodpigeons have been in and out like a fiddler's elbow for the past few days. The woodpigeons are keeping an eye on the ripening cherries and the magpies keep testing the rowan berries to see if they're ready yet. The fledgling magpie that's been making a racket every night in the tree across the road has made its first foray today and has spent a few hours lurching round next door's back lawn chasing cabbage whites. It's a scruffy-looking article and I can understand why it's keeping out of the way of the teenage yobs for a day or two.

Today's sun brought out the butterflies, the large whites and holly blues being the early risers. By lunchtime the speckled woods were chasing each other round the blackcurrant bushes and commas and red admirals were sunning themselves on the rose leaves.

Across the road half a dozen of the first black-headed gulls of Winter spent yesterday lunchtime loafing on the playing field. They were back today, being harassed by young magpies that will find themselves heavily outnumbered and outgunned before the week's out. A dozen rooks are more or less fixtures, I've only seen a couple of youngsters come in. There haven't been that many young woodpigeons either though they're only ever in single figures here.

Starlings are notable absentees. I've not heard or seen many youngsters locally this year. Late June and July every year all our starlings disappear to join the flocks feeding on the cereal fields along the Mersey Valley, which get further away every year. They'll be back once the silage has been cut and wrapped up in polythene.

It looks like this week will involve a fair bit of dodging the weather and I've made plans accordingly. And a good few alternatives just in case.