It’s been a strange few weeks in the garden. I recently emptied one of my water features because of fears about my granddaughter visiting and the having an accident. I hadn’t realised to be honest, how this water was having such an impact on the insect life in the garden. The usual interesting Hoverflies have been few and far between this year and I can only make the assumption that the water was the attraction. Now birds in the garden, that’s another interesting story.  The resident local Sparrowhawk is causing mayhem!  Yesterday for example, my laying hens were hiding in their house and making an almighty commotion. My assumption is that the sparrowhawk was in that part of the garden. Anyway, the outcome now is total silence and not a bird to be seen anywhere. I love to see the Sparrowhawk but she is now just becoming a real nuisance.                                          

I decided to try the Kingfisher hide for an hour or so and had a nice visit from her. It was just a fleeting visit, usually I can get the camera trained on her  but today she was gone after just a few seconds, but still good to see that she is in the territory and using the perches as normal. An interesting find was a dead Flounder. Could have been carried there from the Estuary by a Gull, Cormorant or Heron or, who knows perhaps made it’s own way up the brook but I would find the former more likely.
I have decided to use the flash gun a bit more and I think that will give me the best chance for a good Dipper photo, but in the mean time here is one from the other day when I thought I had actually cracked it and got the photo I want. But not quite!