New brood of ducks in July

Taking a walk by the canal yesterday, 2nd July, and I was surprised to see a new family of ducklings swim past. The ducklings must have been no older than 2 or 3 days old. It does seem quite late in the year for such a thing to happen.

With the milder winters that we are having now, I'm sure there's planty of time for them to grow and prepare for the winter months. There's lots of food around now and it just does not get as cold as it used to.

The othr thing I noticed on my morning stroll is the number of birds of prey now flying in the skies of Wales. There is definately a lot more buzzards arround than 20 or 30 years ago. On the other hand there is a lot less song birds. Whether this is just a barren year for songbirds or part of a pattern is too soon to say but the countryside deffinately sounds quietr than last year.