Wettest Ever June

So far Summer has comprised of six glorious days in May. The rest of Summer has produced record amounts of rain, like the six inches that has fallen in June. Upon checking one of my Kingfisher sites I found that last weeks deluge not only flooded the tunnel but covered the bank three feet above the tunnel! The local farmer informed me that two pairs of his Swallows had dead young in their nests due to the adults not being able to find food during the heavy rain.

All week I have been filming the local Green Woodpeckers and their young that are due to fledge today. It was a real privilege and bonus to be able to leave the house and within ten minutes be filming such spectacular birds as Green Woodpeckers. The benefits of a camoufladge cloth are immense and despite the fact that I was only fifteen feet away from a well used path neither man nor beast discovered my presence. In fact on one occasion two country park rangers sat on a bench below the woodpecker tree talking . Suddenly one of them saw the Green Woodpecker in the Oak tree above. The other commented that it must be nesting somewhere nearby. Little did they know that the nest and young were only ten feet above there heads!!

In the garden the male Sparrowhawk has made an unwelcome return. Early one morning he caught a juvenile Goldfinch and took it away to his young in a nest nearby. It is definitely survival of the fittest.