I can't quite believe it's June already! Here are a few things I've noticed of late:
- There haven't been that many butterflies about – just a couple on sunny days, whereas I would expect lots. A symptom of the very dry weather for the last two months affecting the caterpillars?
- I saw a Ruby tailed wasp today for the first time. I'd seen pictures before so I recognised it near instantly, though it was surprisingly small. It was buzzing about the rendered wall of my house, which is expected behaviour as it looks for nests of other wasps to parasitise.
- Though there have been one or two downpours they still seems to be interspersed with weeks of hot, dry weather so things are getting seriously parched out there. I've even seen some trees that look like they're turning to autumn colours, though that may be unrelated.
- Lots of Blue tit and Great tit juveniles about, being fed by their parents at the feeders. They look somewhat similar but smaller and yellower all over. I blogged about juvenile Blue tits once before – that's one in the picture above. The Great tit youngsters have the black stripe down the breast same as their parents.
- Plenty of Damselflies about still.
- Even the weeds aren't growing, due to the dry conditions. Usually I'd be pulling them out of my gravel drive almost daily, but right now there's nothing unless it rains in which case a day or two later they're springing up.