Birds

Our swifts left around the 12th August but the martins and swallows stayed, until yesterday.  Although the house martins had lost out to the owl on the front of the house the nests at the back were much more successful and the one above my sitting room raised two broods, they were last heard on Thursday evening.  On Friday there were still swallows and martins hawking the field but I didn't see any at all yesterday and none again today so must assume they've gone.
Maybe they were scared off by the beautiful peregrine which was hunting across the field on Thursday evening, he patrolled up and down for a while before turning to work his way across the scar, dropping down a few times but no stoops - a little too windy I think.  There are reports of a buzzard at Green End too so it seems that our raptor population is doing quite well this  year.
At the beginning of August I took down our main bird feeders after throwing away the umpteenth lot of sodden, rotten seed.  Don't worry, we didn't abandon the birds to their fate, we fed from the bird table and a couple of other sites, just not from the main pole with the multitude of hangers. Recently there have been more young birds in the garden and some newly moulted adults so the winter feeders went out on Sunday, by Monday the birds were queuing along the washing line and by Tuesday a squirrel had found us, we'd not seen a squirrel for nearly two years.  This one was a youngster which didn't linger for long after a quick blast from the hosepipe but it did return the next day so a stronger deterrent was obviously required and so the small, black, rodent-seeking missile known as Hebe was deployed, one swift burst across the garden and small grey rodent disappeared up a tree and over the fence, it's not been seen since! And no the Hebester didn't catch or eat it, much as she'd have liked to.  without the distraction of a squirrel the birds are happily munching their way through a feederful of sunflower seeds every day plus all the extras. We've seen all the tit family except the marshy-willow, greenfinches which are looking healthy no sign of trichomonsis (phew), lots of house sparrows and chaffinches but the most numerous species is the goldfinch with upwards of 20 at any one time. We have a resident thrush, a couple of robins and plenty of blackbirds too. Nuthatches have been regulars as well, I think there are two individuals, one is slightly slimmer and paler than the other and they arrive and depart in different directions but as yet I've not seen the two together so I can't be absolutely sure.

The year has certainly turned, we lit the fire last night for the first time, this morning there was a heavy frost and the winds are picking up; lets hope we escape the worst of the equinox storms.