Tern,Tern, Tern.

5^th July.  With so little sunshine of late I thought I best take the chance this afternoon and have a walk on patch.  I decided to take a look at the lake.  Despite the flooding Coots still sit on nests and there are successful broods of Coot and Mallard, one of the latter with nine ducklings following.  It was nice to see some youngsters being introduced to them.  Sadly, as far as I can tell, there has been no successful broods of Mute Swan.  At least two pairs built nests and were sitting on eggs.  The eggs from one of the nests disappeared very quickly!  The family of Great Crested Grebes disappeared from the small lake last month.  A pair of Great Crested Grebe remains on the larger lake.

Five adult Lesser Black Backed Gulls were on the sports-centre roof along with a small number of Black Headed Gulls.  A few Swifts, Swallows and House Martins were flying over the lake.

Thankfully the grass has not been cut right up to the edge of the small lake.  I’ll give the council their due in this respect.  The edge is always left to grow wild.  I hope this will remain to be the case and that the current fixation from certain quarters concerning a desire to ‘tidy’ everything up does not alter this pattern.  Some things are best left alone for the sake of the wildlife.  I for one do not want to live in a sterile area.  I noticed that the cutters were out today, but seem to have just cut back some edges.  One of the roundabouts has been also cut only around the edge.  Is this a sign that the council are taking more note of conservation?  Let’s have a clean area to live in, but for goodness sake leave as much as possible of what is natural!

I didn’t walk down to the far end of the lake.  Instead I watched the Common Terns (six of them) and took a little time to capture some photos.  It’s a while since I had some practice with them.

 

I approached the lake and returned via the area which is often very good for butterflies and insects.  I saw no butterflies today.  A very bad year for them, despite a good start.  I did notice Common Blue Damselflies in tandem over the lake.

Once back at home I stood by the front door in the sun for a while.  I suddenly realised that there was a newly fledged Blackbird in the bush right next to me looking as though it was waiting to be fed.  I left it in peace.

For several nights before the ‘Great Storm’ of 2012, a Song Thrush sang throughout the night.  I haven’t heard it again since the storm occurred.  Now if it had been a Mistle Thrush aka Storm Cock that would have really had me thinking there was something to its vernacular naming!

The fledgling Blackbird is now on the windowsill!

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late
Courtesy of Pete Seeger