Someone asked me......

Before I get into the birds etc.. bit, an old friend asked me if I would do them a drawing/painting of a bird for her Aunt, I haven't done any sort of artwork for about 20 years so was slightly nervous. I didn't know what bird she wanted as we spoke and I thought maybe a stooping Hobby would be nice or something colourful like a Kingfisher. It soon transpired that the subject was colourful, actually going to be a Budgie!!! So a Budgie it was, rightly or wrongly the result is below, as you can see I'm no expert but actually enjoyed picking up a paint brush again especially as it wasn't one for decorating anyway!

My dodgy attempt at Painting!!

So the I haven't been out much in the last few days but a couple of visits have produced a little bit of movement, firstly on Sunday morning I was sitting in my Dads sitting room in Sissinghurst and a MARSH HARRIER flew over the village heading west, later a SWIFT went through with a small flock of SWALLOWS. Monday the patch walk started with 2 flyover TREE PIPIT (99), a good start as I had already seen a HOBBY flying south before I left Dads house. Once again though the lack of Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and the like was striking, there was very little noise. Stephen was out as well and after a chat I headed to the veg garden where there were 3 CHIFFCHAFF and a WILLOW WARBLER, then Stephen called to say he had just seen a WRYNECK!! after a bit of searching we couldn't relocate the bird, which was very reminiscent of the bird I had in 2004 that just disappeared after it flew into a Silver Birch. There was a SEDGE WARBLER further on and 5 COMMON WHITETHROATS still around, a KINGFISHER called and a LITTLE OWL flew up from the rough grass as I approached it. The morning session finished, I came back later for a walk with Bec, there were more butterflies about and I counted 6 CLOUDED YELLOWS, by far the best year here as in many places this year. 3-5 BUZZARDS were seen and 2 YELLOW WAGTAILS flew from the hedge as I looked again for the Wryneck.

Another hedgerow Sedge Warbler

Clouded Yellow

Common Buzzard

Back in our little garden the Buddleia was full of butterflies, no less than 31 SMALL TORTOISESHELLS, incredible especially as just a handful of years ago I went a whole year without finding one!! There were 2 PAINTED LADIES, 1 RED ADMIRAL and 3 PEACOCKS, the highlight though was my first garden PURPLE HAIRSTREAK which landed on the small sycamore briefly.

Full of Butterflies! Small Tortoiseshells and a Peacock

This morning another look for the Wryneck proved fruitless but a SEDGE WARBLER was again in the hedges and 2 more TREE PIPITS flew south then circled round round and looked to land. I could also hear some HOUSE MARTINS in the mist, the first for a while.