Christine's walking & birds blog

It was a a fresher morning after the rain, and a bit breezy out on the common. A kingfisher zipped away along the shrinking stream and vanished among the cattle.

A lesser whitethroat was still present in the hedgerow; I caught a few glimpses when he crossed open areas in the bushes. Three Cetti's warblers were singing. A redshank stood preening on one of the islands, and the tufted duck was still escorting the mallard mother.

I finally saw my first reed warbler of the year....

A bit later two flew side by side, one of them cuckooing, across the north bank and down onto fence posts just above the river.

At home I was trying to photograph this itsy-bitsy leafcutter bee when something enormous droned past my right ear.

We get hornets in the garden in late summer and they're big enough, but this one was huge - it must have been a queen. Before I could collect my scattered wits she had zig-zagged up the house wall and disappeared over the roof.