Lizards among the leaves

As a child I used to catch lizards on Hayes Common and keep them in a tank at home. I have always had a certain fondness for our Common or Viviparous Lizard, and still do, but I don't think I have the stealth required to creep up and catch one now, except that is to take photos. They are quick to detect any movement and are easily disturbed from where they are sunning themselves in amongst the leaves, then all you hear is a slight rustle as they disappear from view. But if you stand and wait keeping perfectly still they will reappear slowly but surely in the same sunny spot. Now mid-July and the females will be carrying young; as was the one I was pleased to spot in our wood a few days ago.

Perfectly camouflaged, the female Common Lizard

 There are other young things about too. The Song Thrush nest is now empty; hopefully the chicks are now growing well somewhere in the wood. It was good to see a young Blackcap with its brown head that appeared as I was checking my lizard photos.  But most birds will have finished nesting by now........ or so I thought ! It could have been a sad accident had I not spotted the movement at the base of a sapling birch I was about to cut back. I had been clearing bracken and brambles in an area where birch trees seed readily and the clippers were in full flow, when my attention was caught just in time by the nodding heads of two small chicks in a nest barely twelve inches off the ground. I backed away and left them, returning later to see if all was Ok, which it was. There are not many species that nest this close to the ground as it is a high risk strategy but both Dunnocks and Chiffchaffs are birds that do. I can only wish them well and hope that I had not disturbed them too much.

The lucky chicks

A juvenile Blackcap

The year moves on apace and the Rowan trees are  fully of berries, already being taken by the blackbirds, who don't  seem to know to save them for the Autumn. It looks a good year for berries so far. A few Common Blue butterflies are on the wing now. They favour the scrubby area near the entrance as it has a good crop of their favourite flower, Birds Foot Trefoil. Six-spot Burnet moths also like this area and feeding on the thistles there  - these day flying moths are great to see.

The Rowan tree covered in berries

The Six-spot Burnet moth

The Common Blue butterfly