too hot to stand

Cash, dreaming of lying in a field of buttercups. He sometimes gets up and does riding for the disabled.

almost done buildin'

it has been hard work (see here for the start of this year's work) but both nests are now restored and no doubt soon we will be woken every morning by the raucous sound of many hungry chicks demanding to be fed. The air is full of very busy house martins.

queen anne's lace

cow parsley is out everywhere, and for a short time looks quite pretty (and fluffy hence one of its folk names) although umbellifers are not usually so attractive and many are extremely poisonous.

easy to hear, easy to see

a yellowhammer (probably a male, but with a very rusty chest), calling attention to itself with the characteristic call "bit of bread and butter and cheeeeEESe" except the call can be quite variable and this one missed off the cheese. His mate was nearby, and usually they feed away from the nest. Like many birds they have been badly affected by the use of herbicides and other changes in farming practice

morning glory

The lanes feel beautiful now with the larks above and the morning sun.

easy to hear but hard to see

a sky lark singing with all its might, barely visible against the clouds (it is a tiny speck right in the centre of the top picture) and brought a bit closer by the zoom. Unfortunately, our new trick of taking fast photos at very high ISO values doesn't work so well with our old camera.