Our garden seems to have become the local delicatessen for wild life. The deer have given the roses and the bottom leaves of one of the apple trees a good pruning and Di looked out of the window early one morning in time to see the cock pheasant strolling past the raspberry canes and having his breakfast of the choicer fruits.

The sparrow-hawk chicks are getting very bold and practicing their aerobatics above the field next door. I was in the field mending a fence when they broke from the trees about 20 feet above my head. Two of them were fighting over some food that one had caught, with much screaming as the bird with nothing repeatedly tried to thieve the other ones lunch. The fight was given up as a bad job eventually and the successful hawk flew off to a distant tree with it's meal.

Later in the day I saw the swallows circling high in the sky catching insects when one of the hawks tried to grab one of the swallows. He missed and I then had an excellent view of the hawk and the swallow in a bird 'dog fight'. The fight was one sided as the hawk was no match for the agility of the swallow in the air; it easily out performed the hawk who gave up after a short while and went off to catch something else.

The sparrow hawks later came over the field in a little flock and there were six of them which made me think that there must be two nests in the woods opposite. By the time you read this they will have flown the nest and our garden will be quiet, and the smaller birds will breath a sigh of relief and get on with their lives more safely.

Dutch elm disease is still active; a young tree had reached 20 feet in height but this year the leaves  suddenly went brown and most of them fell off. It is now quite dead. A hole appeared in one of our flower borders, not very large but too big for cats and not big enough for rabbits and dogs. we think it may be a badger. Butterflys seen on our yellow pompom buddleia were, peacock, commer, red admiral, white admiral, meadow brown and a holly blue. The dry weather has meant that lawn mowing has not been needed but the effects on the farmers crops means that the hay crop is reduced by one third.

Hedgehogs.
Hydestile Wildlife Hospital have many hedgehogs in at present that they are treating and although hedgehogs have few predators they face many hazards. Many of them are victims of the motor car, they roll themselves up when in danger. In a garden they can be hurt by garden power tools (strimmer) as they hide in overgrown corners of the garden. The bonfire is also another danger area as are swimming pools  and ponds that don't have escape routes. They can also be poisoned by chemicals used on insects, slugs and snails as they eat vast amounts of them and can soon accumulate enough poison in their bodies to damage their health. We have not seen any of these delightful animals in our garden for many years as we are visited by the occasional badger, who I am sorry to say, eat hedgehogs.

Unfortunately the bird virus in the far east (mainly China) has been found in migratory birds and because of the threat to local wild birds Hydestile Wildlife Hospital are no longer taking any birds in for treatment, as a precaution.

August is the rutting season of the Roe deer when they actively seek out the female. Because of this it is likely that the buck will be seen during the day as he seeks out a partner. We saw one running down our lane one morning and I believe a buck was killed by a car on the Thursley road recently.

A friend asked me to solve a mystery; a rock in her garden was being covered with the seed husks of a verbascum a biennial plant with large grey felt like leaves and tall stems. The seed heads had been bitten off and taken to a rock in the border. I thought it likely to be a squirrel as they tend to chose a spot higher than the rocks where they can eat the food and also keep an eye out for any enemies. What do other readers think?

Diana & Richard Terry

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