Sunday 28th June 2020 - Change in the Weather and Three Visitors in our Garden

Well here we are almost at the end of June and what a change we have seen in the weather. The first part of the month was disappointing, with rain which we really needed but not all at once, then we had sea frets, plus there was a general lack of sustained warmth. But the last half of the month has made up for this, in particular this past week. The sun, blue skies and temperatures in the mid to high twenties have brought numbers of visitors into the village. Thursday was the most popular day when the car park and side roads were full of cars. The beach was busy but looking down from the cliff top, with a few possible exceptions, social distancing was being observed. It was a different case in Bournemouth when thousands flocked to the beach. This made headline news in the media and was reported as far afield as New Zealand.

We have enjoyed early morning walks on the beach and pottering about in our garden. During the hottest parts of the day, we have taken care to stay indoors. On Friday we welcomed three visitors to our garden. The first appeared when I popped out to the vegetable plot to pull some radishes to go with our lunch. A male broad bodied chaser, initially near the pond, was extremely active and far too flighty for me to photograph. The second, an immature male southern hawker (thanks here to wildlife expert Carl Chapman who clarified its identity) landed on a fading bloom on one of our pyracanthas. He was far more obliging and posed while I took several shots. Peter alerted me to the third, a privet hawkmoth, resting on the wind break at the end of his vegetable plot. He (the hawkmoth and not Peter!) was definitely a poser and was still there when we went back indoors about 10 p.m. I felt truly privileged to have these three beautiful visitors in our garden.

Today I am sharing some of the photos I took on our early morning beach walks, plus two of our garden visitors.