Home thoughts

Juvenile blackbird

Another hot day started with a thin and patchy dawn chorus kicked off by the robin, the only time he sang all day. The collared dove kicked in after the robin finished, a quarter of an hour later his rival from down the street came over for the usual morning punch-up then they sang at each other for half an hour. The wren had been about, he and one of the blackbirds had escorted a cat out of the garden earlier, but he waited until he was sure the collared doves had packed in before giving five minutes' worth of song. The blackbird didn't even give it five minutes when he took his turn. The woodpigeons had just started their turn when I finally dozed off.

I'm not seeing much use of the bird baths because I've put them all under shady cover. A damp blue tit confirmed they are in use. The spadgers are mostly dust bathing under the Pyracantha bush. And the blackbirds are sunbathing on the rooves of wash houses and garages.

The school playing fields have been deadly quiet the past few days, mostly the haunt of a few woodpigeons and the local flock of pigeons tend to call in at midday. The family of carrion crows, two youngsters and their parents from the nest over by the old library, come in late teatime. One of the youngsters must have found something really good this evening because four lesser black-backs appeared from nowhere to try and mug it from them. The crow family tore in like the Seventh Cavalry and one of the adults chased off the gulls. Then stole whatever it was from the still-bewildered youngster.

Wildfire haze

Every year in the hot spells we get a few days of hazy skies as some dozy pillock or other manages to set fire to a bit of the Pennines. This weekend it's been the moors above Dovestones that's been set ablaze, it's twenty-odd miles away but the prevailing wind has been blowing the smoke this way. It was particularly bad this evening when I was working in the front garden. I thought we'd have the consolation of a spectacular sunset but it turned out to be a bit of a fade into beige. The swifts have spent all day hawking way above the haze, only coming down into sight late on when bits of clear sky started asserting themselves.