During the spring Birding season, the garden tends to get a big overgrown with weeds as obviously the Birding takes priority. But as the local Birding quietens down, then I end up having to spend a fair bit of time to get the garden back under control. Usually there are a few bonuses of spending time in the garden & this year was more interesting than usual with my third & fourth records of Large Skipper.
Dark Bush Cricket: Nymph
The highlight of the gardening was getting adopted by one of my local Blackbirds. Occasionally, in previous years, a Robin has appeared to check out the gardening. However, when that has happened, they have never got particularly close. This summer this male Blackbird appeared quickly as soon as I started gardening & was very happy to be looking for food about as close as two or three feet away. In the end, I kept moving up & down the garden a bit more to give it a bit more room to look for worms in the area I had just been working on. Although, he quickly moved to where I was currently removing weeds from, if I didn't move on. Clearly, this gardening worked out well for both of us, as I've had up to four young fully grown Blackbirds in the garden for the last few weeks. What I particularly enjoyed was being able to get the SX60 down at ground level & angle the viewing screen up so I could frame the photo without having to lie down to take the photo. It's rare that I get the opportunity to get a up close ground view: when I do it always feels very rewarding.
Large Skipper: Only my third record for the garden, with the fourth on 1 July 17
The gardening also produces the first records for the year of my resident Dark Bush crickets.
Blackbird: Male. Great to be adopted by this individual
Blackbird: With this interest in gathering worms, it's no wonder why the youngsters were well brought up
Blackbird: Must have been watching Puffin videos with a bill full of fish through my window