Garden update

Planting an area of the garden with wildflowers and leaving it uncut has paid dividend not only with the general attractiveness of the plants and the number of insects that visit but also because we've now got two species of orchid growing!

We had a Common Spotted Orchid appear last year and it looks as if its going to flower again this year but now we've also got three Bee Orchids! These can be found locally but are very ephemeral and don't always appear in the same place each year.

There's only one flower at the moment but plenty of flower buds yet to open.

The garden is full of young birds at the moment with Blackbirds, Greenfinches and Goldfinches all successfully fledging young. Theres plenty of Blue & Great Tits but curiously I've yet to see a juvenile Robin or Dunnock. Great Spotted Woodpeckers are visiting daily and the adults have been seen feeding the young on sunflower hearts they're hoovering up beneath the feeders.

With recent heavy rain the male Blackbird has been taking the opportunity to have a bit of a wash and spruce up and we seen from the window sitting on the lawn with his wings outspread enjoying a good soaking.