June has been a glorious month with enough rain earlier in the year for some of my Sussex plants to thrive.  This season, the Stipa gigantea flower stems are a good 2-3 feet taller – still not attaining the 8-10 feet that they managed in the UK, but taller never the less and not minding the crowding of the seedling Rudbeckia plants. Alchemilla mollis is more robust too but still shows no signs of being a nuisance.

We’ve had an infestation of caterpillars on most of the rose leaves, which I’ve left, partly because the blackbirds, sparrows and other little birds are collecting them. 



Are they full, sleeping, cooling their back legs?

Many of our blackbird eggs/and or nestling blackbirds were taken by the marauding magpies.  At least three pairs of them were on patrol.  Last Sunday they held a tiding (more like a murder if you ask me); squabbling for half an hour or more before they left.  Were they discussing whether to stay or go? I am glad they took the decision they did. We’ve not seen or heard them since. 

Philip took pictures of the four nestlings blackbirds alive and hungry over a couple of days. 

 

27 June 2012

 

30 June 2012



We spend ages watching the parent’s behaviour.  The male appears to be the hardest working – swooping over the hedge and diving into the laurel hedge some distance from the nest with impressive accuracy. The hedge shivers as he makes his way along to the nest.  The female leaves instantly by the quickest exit – a couple of times when we watched her she flew away a little, turned and rested in the shade of the wooden bench, waited for the male to leave, pecked a couple of ants from the ground and went back in the hedge.

Of course the blackbirds didn’t come from Sussex, or the sparrows but it is a small reminder.  Here we have redstarts, blue tits and robins (which never stay).  We suspect that it is too hot for them and they fly back up the wooded mountain slopes.  A pair of wagtails has joined us in the garden this year too.

The tall lavender (don’t know its name) – a pale lilac is covered from sunrise to sunset with honey bees and bumbles making it difficult to pick any stems.  They are ruthless in their attention to the flowers taking from each open one on the stems.