The weather started to settle as June began and the river level dropped back down to summer level again.
On the 10th we had a visit from the SSPCA, and they brought round some birds for releasing back into the wild on the estuary. These birds were from their rescue centre at Middle-bank near Dunfermline. There was a heron, four oyster catchers, a mute swan and almost forty mallard ducks released. All the birds settled quickly into their new surroundings and hopefully they will be fine.
A lot of the other birds round about are all busy feeding young, and we have seen whitethroats feeding in two different areas. There are more warblers around but they can be a bit difficult to identify most of the time.
A lot of our nest boxes have been successful again and the house martins, sand martins and swallows are all being kept busy with young ones.
There seems to be a lot more fungi about this month, I am not sure if it is down to the previous wet spells that we have had! There have been some unusual shaped examples appearing in the woods.
In between all the routine jobs and grass cutting this month we had a day away from the estuary when we were invited up to an open day at Scotia Seeds. This is always a very interesting day out with plenty going on from guided tours, talks, wild flower meadows and much more. Our thanks go out to Giles and Fiona for a having us along.
On one of the warmer days we had a good look inside the bee hive and checked it over, the bees are doing well and our one super is almost ready for spinning the first honey of the season. In recent times when many hives of bees have being lost over the winter, it was good to see that we have had a swarm of bees take over one of our older hives. We will keep an eye on them and hopefully they will be successful in their new home!
While strimming in one area towards the end of the month we disturbed a common emerald moth in the long grass, it is quite a distinctive moth to look at but soon blended back into the background when it was returned to the long grass. We were also treated to a sighting of a six-spot burnet moth in the same area, along with a few ringlets.
The weather was settled and warm as the month ended.
