Like the first Cuckoo, the Swallows were heard before being seen but it was at the Farmers Market, a shrill squealing broke the air and I looked up to see them chasing each other across the sky. Where we live there tend to be House Martins although the occasional Swallow puts in an appearance.

The larger birds of prey can be seen in many places now. We saw a large fluttering bird over the water meadows that suddenly dived down to the ground. Di decided it was a Sparrow Hawk.
While passing a field in our road known to me (via the farm Bailiff Mr Moss) as "poor profit", or "starve acre" as my father knew it because it has poor soil and unless very well manure-ed and watered produces a virtually non existent crop; I saw a very large bird on the ground. It was either preening it self or eating something, perhaps a wild rabbit I decided it may be a buzzard. A friend of mine commented that he has seen lots of buzzards this year. Being up on the high ground at Cutmill he has had a good view of them and thought they may be after the rabbits of which there seem to be quite a lot this year.

Going along the road at Cutmill late one evening a Buck ambled out from the woodland a short distance in front of us and stopped to look at the car. It could only have seen the headlights and only moved with a blast from the car horns. Also on the road round the bend near our house a very long haired animal the size of a large cat doing a fast 'waddle' crossed the road to disappear into the hedge; it was a badger.

The other day I was commanded to go and buy some beer from the local supermarket and ended up in a well known place in Godalming buying the cheapest ale they had; their own brand, at 50p a half pint. Yes folks, the slugs were out in force and Di had discovered some strawberry plants had been stripped and the tops eaten. We spent some of the evening putting out beer traps. A few mornings later I got up at 5 am having heard a noise, looked out of the bathroom window and discovered a buck standing on the back lawn. He ambled to the front of the house to survey the front lawn and flower border before completing his circuit of the house and going off. A day or two later we had even better evidence; droppings and hoof marks in the front flower border next to eaten flowers. I didn't think deer liked strawberry plants as well but this one did. 

Rain in early June! Whatever next. I remember when the Fair used to spend a week on the Village Green, one of the stallholders commented, "it always rains when we come here!" and it usually did!

I was gardening the other day when I heard a lot of commotion, much aggressiveness and cawing. Looking up, a pair of crows were harassing a heron that had ventured into their territory. Round and round the field they flew following the heron until it finally left. They probably had a nest nearby and feared for their chicks. They had good cause to be concerned as herons are great opportunists and are partial to baby birds.

The young of the Blue tits have fledged and the nesting box on the house is quiet (a bit like our house when the younger members had finally left). It has been great to watch the hard working parents ferrying back and forth with offerings of aphids and caterpillars (who needs to spray roses with these little predators around). Sadly I think they must have flown the nest during wet weather in early June which is cold as well as wet for a little bird body especially when it does not have an adult set of feathers. We need not have worried; a few days later Di was near a large Oak tree and heard a different twittering commotion, that of young birds stuffing themselves with caterpillars on the tree.

There is a distinct lack of common wasps this year (in our garden anyway) a good thing you may think until you learn that one wasp will eat as many as 1000 flies in its life time. The wasps that have been seen are hornets (very Large) and the longer but thinner looking wood wasp (that does not sting).  I think the late frosts killed many of the early nests just when they were hatching, a pity, as there are plagues of flies in Elstead, which are a real pest.