Some nice photo opportunities in the garden just lately. A male blackbird has obviously had a close escape but has shown some great resillience in bouncing back. He has protected his territory despite what looks like a nasty injury and as of today his feathers are well on the way to growing back.

The house sparrows have been gathering small insects off the red campion so much so that they have nearly all disappeared-great to see a wildlife garden doing what it was intended to do-if it wasn’t for the red campion there’d be no insects and the sparrows would have to look elsewhere.

The goldfinches are now regular visitors and have been quite tame whilst gorging on the nyger seed. Starlings have been bathing in the pond (completely ignoring the bird bath!) and providing some nice photo opportunities-one to focus on throughout the summer.

Great to see our house martins back-they look like they are going to have another try at building a nest after it fell down the winter before last.

A cracking mint moth and holly blue gave some nice colour from the insect world and the masons bees continue to build their cavities within the bee hotel.

Up to 4 hedgehogs now but no sign of any young ones-still plenty of time yet.

Cool weather this week may slow things down a bit, but an unexpected wheatear in Beverley was nice as was the first 2 swifts of the year.