I hate to say it, but I had the first ‘whiff’ of autumn today.  Today is 23rd June!!
I’m not sure exactly what it was.  Maybe…
 
…the movement of small flocks of tits through the apple trees in the garden
      …the calls of young Goldcrests on the move
          …the news that a returning male Redstart was found this morning on the Herts border
             …a slight damp in the air, despite the warmth
 
Of course, summer is still to come…at least I really hope it is…but certain sights and sounds trigger seasonal feelings, and they are not altogether inaccurate.  After all, the return passage of waders is underway with Green Sandpipers reappearing at the local gravel pits along with a lone Redshank.  Lapwing numbers are increasing although new broods of chicks are still appearing.  Gull numbers are growing and today the first juvenile Black-headed Gull joined the growing numbers of adults at the local pits.
 
And yet our butterflies are hardly out yet and the Ragwort not quite in bloom.  Summer still has plenty to bring forth and yet, in the background, the quiet recession back to winter has begun!  I love it and for me there is no sadness, only anticipation.  Change brings the unexpected and while it would on occasion feel good to be in a forever-summer, the long days would grow dull and I don’t mean meteorologically!

Small & Large Skipper Butterflies - signs that summer still has plenty to give!

This Thursday I went on a long walk with a friend in hot sunshine through the Hertfordshire countryside.  The birdlife was by and large subdued in the heat - typical of this time of year - but the usual Red Kites and Buzzards were in evidence along with the occasional song of Blackcaps and Whitethroats.

Our walk finished in a quiet lane in the village of Benington and as we entered the lane we were immediately greeted with the sharp tsick! calls of Spotted Flycatchers.  I knew the call immediately as it was the summer soundtrack of my childhood garden in St Albans when these birds used to nest in our porch.  Though they have not nested in the garden since the early 1990s there is still faint traces of their droppings on the stonework of the porch but the nest material has long gone.

Spotted Flycatchers have sadly been in sharp decline with little understanding of how we might arrest this decline.  The plummeting numbers of insects must surely play its part but it seems other factors abroad and perhaps beyond our control may also be at work.  Encounters with these birds are therefore a mix of nostalgia, joy and sadness at their demise.

Watching the flycatchers in Benington on Thursday they give you no hint at their troubles but are as they were all those years ago in my garden.  I have always loved how such a drab, brown little bird can exude such presence: perched up prominently on a jutting twig, swooping and darting to catch flies and issuing their contact calls all the while.  Hopefully their family-raising will be successful and they will return for many years to come.