Hello again
Well, the hot weather has gone, and has been replaced by windy, wet stuff. It isn’t Autumn yet, but it sure feels like it!
The swallows and martins are still here, but if the weather doesn’t warm up, they’ll soon be off to Africa. On 21st July, I saw hundreds of them in the evening at Mousehole, sweeping low over the ripe corn, catching insects. Their larger cousins, the swifts, will probably have all left Britain by now, and will be on their way south.
John was telling me the other day that he heard a commotion going on in the sky. Looking up, he saw two birds of prey chasing swallows. He wondered if they were hobbies, which they probably were. These are medium sized falcons which feed on large insects like dragon flies, and small birds, which they catch on the wing. They are recognisable by their black facial masks, like small peregrine falcons. I haven’t seen any this year yet. Talking about birds of prey, there was a terrible squawking as I left my house one day last week. Two large birds flew out of the willow tree opposite us—a green woodpecker being chased by a large female sparrow hawk. I think the woody escaped, because I saw one here yesterday.
Yesterday was typical of the weather we’ve had over the last few days—a mixture of hot sun (a bit), cool winds and rain. In the 
sunshine, we had a large number of butterflies in the garden. Amongst whites, tortoiseshells, red admirals and peacocks was one painted lady—the first I’ve seen this year. A very pretty butterfly, but not all that common.
There seem to be a lot more rabbits about this year. Two of these furry”friends” have taken up residence in our garden, and are quite tame. There were six of the blighters in Anthony’s field. Where is his gun! We 
have nocturnal visits from hedgehogs. They leave their calling cards behind!
See you next month—Alan
