Country Diary: Fordingbridge

The stiff brown shape under the conservatory window made a distressing start to the day. A well-formed fledgling song thrush had flown into the glass. It was blind in one eye, suggesting that it would have become a victim of the sparrow hawk that visits the garden every few days. A female blackbird made a similar mistake, but although she was badly stunned, it wasn't long before she was hard at work again feeding her brood. Here in the Hampshire's Avon Valley blackbirds, thrushes, blue tits, coal tits, dunnocks, house sparrows, chaffinches and green finches all seem to have had a successful breeding year, some with two or three broods. One of the funniest sights on the feeder was that of a frantically fluttering rook trying to get at the seed while a youngster sat below calling loudly for food, watched by a pair of jackdaws. Though the perch is designed for smaller birds, the rook eventually worked out how to do it. A day later a jackdaw, one of the watchers, perhaps, mastered the art very quickly.

Gardens are often seen as brownfield sites ripe for potential development but in fact each one is a unique mini-habitat. Together they offer an incredibly rich resource for wildlife. Within 24 hours of a new pond being filled towards the end of last month, two species of water beetle had moved in. Not long after, a pond skater and damselflies arrived. A mayfly died on the surface, its wings edged with mottled yellows and gold.

Butterflies draw on the nectar in the border flowers. Whites, large and small, are the most common but commas and meadow browns also replenish their energies. The long probing tongue of a hummingbird hawk moth hovering in front of salvias is so fine, and so deftly employed, that it cannot easily be seen. Both last year and this, wasps have been noticeable by their absence, but a neighbor trimming a hedge last weekend had a painful surprise. A large nest was being built in it.