Can you believe it, Scotland the hottest place in Britain this week? We have had a terrific week for weather, sunshine since Monday & with us temperatures reaching 29C. Lovely. Of course this means everywhere has dried up, no water in the rivers, so Salmon have been slow coming through Pitlochry fish ladder only 354 so far this season, where by now it would be over 1000. Goodness knows when they will reach us 8 miles further up on the River Garry, we don’t normally get many until August as they have a few falls to negotiate before they reach my rod & flies.
But with this weather of course things are progressing with nature. Birds are hatching out, where we had no House Sparrows when we came, we have at least 5 boxes occupied and a fair few squawking babies wondering about being fed by very busy parents.
Cannot see it very well, but the Thrush above has managed to find a worm.
Also a fair few baby Siskins are independent, feeding themselves & flying well, plus we are having a constant feeding frenzy by the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, so that must have young somewhere. A rare visitor to our garden ( in fact it is the only time we have seen it ) is the Spotted Flycatcher, which I managed to capture an image of through the double glazing.
I was driving down to the village today & just in a small field beside the road was the family below, not 50 yards from me & not at all bothered about me being there, all they did watch my every move. As you can see the Mother is well pregnant & normally that is the time last years calf leaves home & fends for itself, but, unusually it is still by the mothers side. So pleased to have got these shots, another good reason to always carry my camera.
As you can imagine the garden flowers are shooting on, I don’t like to many wild ferns in the garden but the wife does so we compromise & take a few older ones out each year & let the young uns have a go. The picture below is the only way I like them, just as they are about to spring open, makes for some good photographs.
The person who owned the house before us was a wonderful gardener & we still have a few areas where her original designs still exists, one such area is her Azalea garden, these shrubs give off such a wonderful fragrance & the colours are outstanding, I have tried for a few years through my photography to do them justice, but I just cannot portray them as the beauty that they have. I hope through this shot you can extend your imagination to smell & see the brightness that is these glorious plants.
