Thrushes, and Robins punishing the raspberries and red currants.
18th. —A young Robin caught to-day was half through its moult, and had a good patch of red on its breast. I saw another showing this a few days earlier. The heaviest hay crop for twenty-nine years; and "got well."
20th.—Saw a female Red-backed Shrike on the Lessor Farm, Milcomb.
22nd.—Chiffchaff still sings.
30th.—A good many Willow Wrens about the trees, plants, and pea rows in the garden, taking small flies, &c, during the last few days.
31st.—Several Robins singing. All those that I can see well are young birds over the moult. Spotted young are still to be seen. Great numbers have been reared this year, and I have liberated as many as three from the Sparrow-trap in a morning. Most of them will leave us in autumn. Pied Wagtail on the roof of an outbuilding with food in its mouth, and probably feeding a second brood, as there were big young on the lawn some time ago.
August 3rd.—A young Cuckoo about the garden lately. Was this the progeny of the old Cuckoo which sang so late in the season close to the garden? And was the old bird hanging about until the young one was safely launched? I did not find a Cuckoo's egg in the garden this year, but I have no doubt this young one (which had evidently only just left the nest) was hatched with us.
13th.—Many Swifts, high up and noisy, in evening. Two Red-backed Shrikes on the telegraph wires on the Lessor Farm.
14th.—No Swifts to be seen.
15th.—The drought is very severe; apples and plums falling unripe from the trees.
September 1st.—Chiffchaff singing again. The hottest September I ever knew. A bad season for Partridges here, taking into consideration the large stock left at the end of last season. Barren birds numerous, but what coveys there are being good on the average. A dry season is usually good for the birds, but apparently it can be too dry, and I believe that this year many young birds died from want of water. It is on the dry
