One Swallow Does Not a Summer Make

Since we've reached June, summer seems to have arrived with long sunny days at last.  It seems to be that this year, we have been constantly a month behind with the weather - in April we had March winds, in May we had April showers and now we're in June we're having sunny May days and suddenly all of the animal life has woken up and there's blossom and lush greenery everywhere.

This morning I spotted the first swallow of the summer, swooping around above the garden catching insects.  It must have recently arrived on the South coast from Southern Europe, or even Africa.  But where were all its friends?  I hope they arrive soon.

And today there was much activity and lots of tweeting in the bird nesting box.

My camera is just not fast enough to catch the action of the parent birds flying in and out.  Its now early June and the chicks have been in there for a while so I think they will fly from the nest any day now.....

Finally, the most exciting find of today was a trail of some hedgehog poop along the garden path!  Last year we had at least one hedgehog in our garden (referred to as Heggie!) and we have been looking out for him in the hope that he has survived the long, cold winter and unusually cold spring. A lot of hedgehogs didn't survive because they were having to hibernate for longer and so waking up weaker but unable to find food because their food sources were not yet available due to the cold temperatures.

We think his favourite sleeping place is tucked away at the bottom of the pampass grass (a very dry and sheltered spot) and although I've heard rustling it could have just been another animal such as a mouse or toad.  But now I've seen the hedgehog poop, I'm more confident that Heggie is still around and has survived the winter.  I'll be looking out for him now, camera at the ready.....

In the meantime, here's a cute hedgehog picture courtesy of The Telegraph