Twitching and, er, (how shall I put this...?) - droppings

Saint Fernand
Yesterday's weather - just worse and worse

We wish we could recognise birdsong. There is such a variety of it here. Of course we know the blackbird, magpie, cuckoo, but the various small birds are more difficult to spot and as we don't know their songs we have to take a guess sometimes. There is one bird with a very complicated and exotic sounding song, we would love to know what it is. Meanwhile we are compiling a list of those we have seen or heard and recognised: hoopoes and nightingales are the rarer varieties we have come across, robins of course, redstarts, bluetits, coaltits, great tits, chaffinch, bullfinch and wagtails are fairly common. There are birds of prey but we can't be sure what they are. Not kites, red or black.

We also have a huge range of butterflies who are probably grounded now because of the rain. On Sunday afternoon we counted at least 10 varieties in as many minutes.

We found a few 'messages' around the garden the other day - I have been trying to find out who (what) left them and enlisted the help of a friend. Unfortunately he requested a photograph, which I duly took and mailed to him. We think it is hedgehog, which will be very welcome as there is no limit to food for him here, the slugs are enormous; unfortunately it may be a marten which is not such a welcome beast, especially if it gets into the loft space at all as they are known to be very smelly. Potential guests will be warned in advance if the marten takes up residence. Meanwhile we are poo-free in the house at least.