Railway path walk

We walked along the railway path towards Shotton yesterday evening. After the gales of the last few days it was a beautiful pleasant evening with warm sun and a lovely low light illuminating the fields.
We saw orchids all along the path edges and flocks of yellowhammers and linnets on the bushes and telegraph wires.

Wind and house martins

A very windy day yesterday with the trees in the garden in constant motion. Gusts up to 70mph and heavy rain.

I went out this morning to find all very calm. The rain from yesterday had created several muddy puddles in the lane behind the front street in the village. Lots of house martins were busily gathering mud. They must be building nests although I couldn't see where they were taking the mud.

Bird boxes and a flying snail

5th June
The tree sparrows have stopped building.
There are only 3 chicks now in the Great Tit box. Another must have died.

7th June
3 Great tits fledged today at 9.30 a.m. This is 19 days after hatching.

12th June
Opened the curtains in the downstairs front room today to see a huge snail crawling very quickly (for a snail) down the glass. With the light shining through its body I could see the waves of movement running down its foot.

bird box update

The tree sparrows are building at a great rate. Compare today's picture with yesterday.

Nest Box Update

I returned from a few days away yesterday to find only four chicks surviving in the Great Tit nestbox.

However the other nest box which was empty when I went away now has a pair of Tree Sparrows building a nest.