Peregrine over the Cemy.

Sunday 24th April 2022.

The female Peregrine circling overhead with the Cemy.

A busy day doing household chores, getting the garden ready for the Landscape Gardener to arrive tomorrow and a trip around Highland Road Cemetery with our Isabelle. There was no time to go birding anywhere today, but there was always something to look at throughout the day and to round off with a circling Peregrine over our heads within the Cemy capped a really pleasant day.

This Hairy- footed Flower Bee was my first of the year.

The Borage plant I found this afternoon.

A bright start to the morning with unbroken sunshine, I found my first Hairy-footed Flower Bee was sunning itself on our back door window as I managed to grab a few photos of it using my mobile phone. Both Small White and Holly Blue butterflies were fluttering over my garden during the day and hopefully, once the garden has been straightened, we should get a lot more butterflies being attracted to my garden (and moths!). For now, I have to put my moth box away for the next few weeks and so will have to rely on Andy’s moth box to bring in the goodies.

Above, the female Sparrowhawk showed superbly overhead and below, another photo of the Peregrine over the Cemy.

I took Scruff for a walk with Isabelle (and her bike) around Highland Road Cemetery this afternoon in the sunshine. As Isabelle thoroughly enjoyed herself on her bike, I kept an eye out for anything of note and I finished off with a total of 15 species of bird during my walk round. Easily the best sighting was a female Peregrine soaring overhead for around 3 minutes, closely followed by the female Sparrowhawk which flew very low over our heads calling in doing so. The bird flew into one of the Chestnut trees and I am sure I saw the male literally fall out of the sky into the same tree at speed!

The beautiful lime-green of the Horse Chestnut trees.

A Small White butterfly nectaring on a Horse Chestnut spike.

There were plenty of plants in flower with mostly Common Speedwell, Daisy, Buttercup and Chickweed, which were all abundant within the Cemy. Groundsel was over a lot of the graves within the Cemy and plenty of seeding plants for the local Sparrows and Goldfinches to feed on. I did find a Borage plant (also known as Starflower) on one of the graves, traditionally a medical plant from the Mediterranean, so why it is growing here is anyone's guess. Both Small White and Holly Blue flew across the Cemy, the former also seen feeding on one of the Chestnut tree spikes. 

My first Chickweed of the year that was growing near the entrance of the Cemy.