Home thoughts

The plan for today and tomorrow involved a couple of fair walks but I had an industrial accident when picking up a very heavy bowl of cat food and ended up going to bed like Quasimodo scampering up the towers of Notre Dame. I found I could stand straight today but walking was a bit more of an effort than I'd hoped so I also scrubbed plan C which was to get the train to Silverdale and toddle down to the coastal hides to add the pectoral sandpiper there to the year list. Just as well, really as it had done an overnight flit. I decided I'd best do the sensible thing and not push my luck. I think tomorrow I'll use up some of my free rail tickets and do a bit of lazy train birdwatching.

I missed the dawn chorus, a combination of my waking later than usual and the chorus finishing early. The blackbirds are tending to sing late afternoons and evenings only at the moment anyway and it's the wren, woodpigeons and collared doves doing the daytime shift. A pair of woodpigeons are building a new nest a couple of doors down. Otherwise it's fairly quiet with most everything keeping a low profile. It's been a couple of weeks since I last heard the blackcap and the robins haven't resumed singing yet. I've refilled the bird feeders, they'll be fine for a week or more, there's enough insects about for most of the birds not to be bothering and the ones that do are just coming in for a snack between meals.

"Fairly quiet" doesn't apply to the jackdaws and rooks shouting down the chimney every so often.

There are more swifts about — a handful at a time by the station rather than twos and threes — which I hope means that both parents are working to feed hungry mouths. 

A welcome sign of Summer has been the speckled woods and holly blues chasing about the garden. I hope the weather stays mild for them even if it is insisting on a succession of muggy days.

• Blackbird 2
• Carrion crow 1
• Collared dove 1
• Feral pigeon 1
• House sparrow 3
• Jackdaw 5
• Lesser black-back 1
• Magpie 1
• Rook 3
• Swift 2
• Woodpigeon 3
• Wren 1