This weekend the air space above the meadows is filled with House Martins and Swallows as they gather ready to start their journey across the channel to Africa. The dog is being driven crazy as she tries to chase every swooping one of them.

The hedgerows are harbouring ChiffChaffs, Willow Warblers and other migrating birds. Here is a male Redstart that was here today:

Interestingly it was chased off by a Robin who then immediately took possession of the same perch:

Did the Robin mistake the Redstart for another Robin? I think it must have, they are very territorial towards other Robins.

The feeders are being much visited:

I didn’t have the right lens on my camera unfortunately, but a Kestrel flew low past us as we were working on the pond:

Always a delight to see a bird of prey here.

But its not been all about the birds. The reptile sampling square that has been turning up a lot of slow worms and lizards recently, also had this little fellow this morning:

Its a juvenile Smooth Newt. This square is right up at the top of the second meadow, a good 200m from the pond.

There are also a few butterflies still about such as this Small Copper:

And also this Common Blue:

We also found this yellow flower growing that we have never seen before:

Despite trawling through all our Wildflower books, we cannot find out what this is and so have asked an expert who lives locally and are now awaiting an answer.

We have had such a dry summer here but it has now started raining on and off and so there is plenty of scope to get muddy should you be so inclined:

A wonderful September weekend.