September part 3

8th Squirrel in garden.
At the river the kingfisher zips past us at 7:30.
12th Various tits , sparrows, magpies and collared doves visiting garden. A mouse scampers around.
24th Lightening lights up the sky.
25th Another walk along the river bank ( I'm obsessed with that blue bird). Did see a dragonfly, heron and a buzzard overhead. A swan and her cygnets floated along by the park.

Mute Swan ( cygnus olor) Identified by the orange bill. Legend says Richard th Lion Heart brought the swans back from the crusades. Unmarked swans on the Thames are owned by the Queen. Both sexes are alike. They feed on water vegetation and lay 5-7 eggs.
26th Conkers are falling from the trees and it is cold autumn is around the corner.
27th 2 squirrels fighting in garden. 2 wrens flitting back and forth by the river and a grey wagtail stands on a rock in te middle of the river.
30th September ends with a day of sun after a day of rain.

September part 2

6th We go back to the river but no sign of the kingfisher. We did see rats and herons. At home the hedgehog is also absent as are the blackbirds. However we are still seeing sparrows, robins, pigeons,collared doves, magpies and blue and great tits.
7th spent some of the day watching a variety of tits perching in the blossom tree before coming to the bird table. Then they all dive for cover!  A sparrowhawk lands in the garden.

 Sparrow Hawk (Accipter nisus)
Usually seen in forests and woods. the female is larger than the male. They can kill birds a sbig as pigeons but normally eat finches , tits, sparrows, mice, voles, and young rabbits. They lay 4-6 eggs.

September part 1

"September blows soft till the fruits in the loft."
1st starts sunny and warm. both the old and young robin have been today along with the sparrows and the collared doves and lots of brown and white butterflies.

 Speckled wood (Pararge aegeria)
In flight from March. The caterpillar is darkgreen and yellow stripped. In Europe the spots are orange here they are creamy white.

2nd Went for a walk along the river after tea, saw some mallard ducks, a heron, which flew over us before landing in the river to fish. Best of all however we had 3 sightings of a kingfisher. The flash of blue and red was unmistakeable. To fast for a picture sadly. We also saw a lardge red dragonlfy catch food on the wing.