It's another grey and humid morning here in the valley with cloud well down blanketing the fells.  Sitting here writing this I am struck by just how many young sparrows are about now.  Looking out of the window I can see well over a dozen lined up along the gutter of the farmhouse opposite the widow all noisily waiting their turn at the nut feeders in the back garden.  It's becoming a challenge to keep these feeders topped up as in addition to the sparrows we are getting lots of blue tits, great tits, green finches, dunnock, gold finches, blackbirds and wrens.  All these birds seem to arrive with families in tow and it's heartening to watch so many  the youngsters demanding food.  They all seem to have got our four cats well sussed and so far this season I have only had to remove one corpse from the house, brought in as a toy that soon ceased to work.

The wet weather has meant that the hay meadows are being cut rather later than usual and little silage was got round here earlier in the year so the increased availability of seed and insects that inhabit the growing meadows must have helped to ensure that more young birds survived.

The Tarn fish should be here shortly so anticipate better returns per visit from tomorrow onwards.

Ian