We have two bird boxes on one of the walls of our house but only one was taken up as a "des Res", the other, directly below our bedroom window remained empty until some wasps decided it was a good place to live.

My wife arose one morning, and decided that everything needed a good airing. The duv'et was removed from the bed and hung out of the window covering the wasp nest. A few moments later a number of peevish wasps presented themselves at the open window and looked as though they were ready for an argument. I removed the quilt in the hope that they would calm down but they were quite unreasonable about the whole affair. I turned to comment to my wife only to see a rear view as she disappeared out of the door at a fair turn of speed leaving me to face the angry hoards. Discretion being the better part of valour I decided to follow until things had calmed down and rapidly vacated the bedroom shutting the door behind me. Later everything had calmed down, the bed linen was retrieved and the window shut. There is a moral there some where about having too much energy so early in the morning.

We later got a book out to decide what sort of wasps they were and I settled for "Wood Wasps", a fairly calm type unless you cover them with duvets.

Butterflies
Butterflies who's caterpillars are dependant on grasses are abundant this month. They hatch between June and August, living for about a month. There is the Meadow Brown. The female is larger and more colourful than the male with prominent false eyes on each wing; and The Ringlets, these are a dark brown colour, the male being darker than the female. They only live for about two weeks and like wetter areas. The ones that I saw were along the river bank. Other Buttterflies were also seen feeding on our Globe Thistles in the garden.

Commer The bright orange Commer loves hot sunny days and can often be seen basking in the sun. The one with ragged wings and a white commer marks under the wings. Commer butterflies seen in July are the first generation of the ones that have hibernated through the winter. They will produce a second generation, seen in the autumn which will overwinter to emerge next spring..

Gatekeeper Are bright orange and smaller than the meadow brown ie the commer , with darker edges to to the wings and false eyes on the upper wings. They live for about three weeks after mating. The resulting caterpillars feed on grass and over winter in the caterpillar state where they resume eating in the spring.

Small Skipper Tiny orange butterflies with large bodies compared to it's wings. The little butterflies dart about, which distinguishes them from other species. They overwinter in the grass as caterpillars, protected by a silken cocoon in the grass leaves which are pulled together. I also saw these beautiful butterflies along the river bank. They only live for about twenty days.

Late in the evening I could hear the owls calling. This is the Tawny Owl, if you call them they often will call back to you. We have seen Barn Owls but they are a rare sight now. The Little Owl is also to be seen in the evening.

This year promises to be a good one for apples, they are ripening well, and a good crop but some other fruit is suffering from the drought and the fruit is there but of a limited quantity and size.

We found some common newts in the pond, luckily the pond is close to the house or a heron would make a meal of them. The herons harsh calls are often heard and then seen flying overhead as we are near to the river and ponds next door.

We have also seen the sparrow hawks but I am not sure if they are nesting here this year.