Garden visitors

We also had a nest of doves high in one of the trees and last week the two chicks became old enough to learn to fly so there was much rustling in the branches as they tried out their wings. We were all keen to climb up there to help them along but the trees have netting 'collars' to stop us. Needless to say Lara just had to see how far she could get up there. I am pleased to report that in due course both birds safely flew the nest and visit each day to see how we are doing!

As summer continues we have been getting lots of new and exciting visitors coming to join us in our garden. First along was a big hairy caterpillar which Lara found on one of her excursions. You can see her in the picture alongside looking at it. It was big and fat and round, covered in lots of hairs which tickled her nose if she got too close! She spent ages just watching it wriggle along the ground and occasionally she patted it with her paw to see what it would do. It curled up into a ball and played 'dead' until it thought she had gone and then it resumed its wriggling to a safe haven under a pile of leaves. Max found it as well and was equally fascinated by this strange creature sharing his play area.
	We also had a nest of doves high in one of the trees and last week the two chicks became old enough to learn to fly so there was much rustling in the branches as they tried out their wings. We were all keen to climb up there to help them along but the trees have netting 'collars' to stop us. Needless to say Lara just had to see how far she could get up there. I am pleased to report that in due course both birds safely flew the nest and visit each day to see how we are doing!
As if all this wasn't enough one evening we heard a very strange a loud 'whooshing' sound that we did not understand. The birds were all flying around looking very anxious so we looked up into the sky to see what was going on. If you look on the right you will see what we saw - a huge red balloon flying low over the houses with a basket underneath which contained lots of people looking down on us! We know we are becoming more famous but really our fans must be going to enormous lengths just to try to get a photo - don't they know there are loads here on the internet?
	However we think that the prize for the strangest visitor over the last two weeks has to go to the character pictured on the left. This weird looking insect was spotted one day hovering over the flowers in one of the planters. It hovered over each flower in turn and then inserted a long tube down the centre of each flower to extract the nectar. We had absolutely no idea what it was and it appeared to be quite timid and very, very fast. In fact this is the best picture we managed to get of it and, as you can see, its wings are very blurred because of the speed they were moving. We are extremely grateful to the people at the Natural History Museum who kindly identified it as a 'Hummingbird Hawk Moth' which is apparently quite plentiful this year and has been spotted in many locations. Apparently the Humming Bird Hawk Moth is a native of Southern Europe and is the most frequently encountered migrant hawk moth in the British Isles! We just say welcome to our garden!
Our next two visitors are perhaps described as more mechanical rather than live although we did begin to wonder..............! The first was encountered by Max last weekend - he found it sitting on the lawn and as you can see he was totally fascinated by the water (as usual). He couldn't really understand why sometimes when he went near to it he got wet and then the rain would stop for a few moments only to appear again. By the time he went back inside he was really quite wet!
	Not to be left out Oscar found this strange item sitting on the lawn. OK - you might recognise it as a dustpan and brush but to a young kitten experiencing life in his first year it just wasn't something he had seen before. He started by stalking up on it and once he got close he had to cautiously prod the brush just to see if it wanted a game! He soon discovered that it wasn't planning on hurting him so he decided to make friends!
Needless to say all this action is fairly tiring for three cats who are used to fairly leisurely lives. So we finished up all fast asleep on the climber. Life in rural Suffolk has proved quite taxing this week so we needed to recharge our batteries ready for the next couple of weeks! Lara, Max and Oscar