Breeding Season Ends

Apart from last week’s Kingfisher disaster the period June to late August has been the busiest I have ever had with the camera. The fact that this has fallen during the wettest Summer in over a century is amazing. The two juvenile Hobbies were the icing on the cake and something I have waited a long time to see. At Hopwood the Swallows are now fledging their last broods of young. A change in the golf club’s attitude has meant that this year they have had only one room in which to breed. Being slightly territorial I never expected five pairs would all use this one room but they have and reared good numbers of young. It is to be hoped that they are allowed continued access to this room next year as over the last two decades thousands of young Swallows have been reared at this one venue. In the garden we have had a record of four Dunnocks together one day as nine Long Tailed Tits fed at the same time. In the fields all the thistles are now going to seed so the garden Goldfinch numbers have fallen dramatically.