Spot Flies

  The garden has fallen strangely silent today as our pair of Spotted Flycatchers led their newly fledged youngsters away to the edge of the wood as they usually do. How we'll miss their scolding 'sweee-chh-chh' warning calls whenever we venture into the garden. Like many migrants this year, they arrived later than usual because of the cold Spring and didn't settle down to nest in the creeper on the south side of the house until at least the middle of June. During the recent sunny weather they have continuously perched on the roof of the birdhouse.....or the back of a garden chair.... or indeed any other vantage point from where they can sally forth to gather insects for their brood. They have nested in the garden every summer for the last twenty years or so, except last year, when the cold wet summer seemed to defeat them.
Click the following link to watch a short video (48 seconds)of the Spot Flies          Meanwhile our even later broods of House Martins are filling their mud nests to breaking point, and the recently fledged Swallows still come back to roost next to the nest in the porch above the front door each night. Must be summer.