Lockdown Diary: Saturday 16.5.20

Again, I awoke to the sound of Blackcap singing this morning. I wonder if there is a possibility that they are even breeding somewhere in or near our garden. After all, I was not aware of the Robins during the nesting phase, but the young speckled offspring is still hopping around our lawn.
‘Our’ baby Great Tits are getting bigger, judging by the volume of their squeaking from the nestbox outside our kitchen window. The adults are very accurate at flying straight into the hole in the box, bearing food.
I went to check on our nesting Magpies, and they are still in and around the nest, but with no evidence of any hatching, yet, or at least none I could detect during my brief spying mission.
The other wildlife highlight of my day was a chance to photograph a Hairy Dragonfly. This species is one of the first to ‘emerge’ and fly as adults, each spring. It looks a bit like a small ‘hawker’ dragonfly but there are no hawkers flying this early in the year. In this photo you may get the idea of where it gets its odd name…

Hairy Dragonfly (Mike Weedon)