We have a yellowhammer somewhere nearby and I have seen it in the (absolute) tops of the fir trees - which seems to be one of the diagnostics for it - along with its song which is supposed to be "a liitle bit of bread but no cheeeeese"- but this one is missing the cheese (as are we, with the EU idiocy on dairy products, all we see in the brit shops is mountains of Irish cheddar).
When I first saw the yellowhammer, it was in the top fronds opposite the lounge window and I at first thought it could be a sparrow in an unusual place, as its back
is like a fancy sparrow with extra bars, but it was in such an unusual place I got the bins on it and when it turned around, wow!, beautiful yellow scarf and chest.
Yesterday morning it was right up in the top of one of the pines and singing its little heart out. Lovely.
The garden is in full bloom at the moment, before the real heat of summer kicks-in. The butterflies are limited in type, but plentiful in numbers with wall-browns (like a dusty-brown red-admiral) and large whites (exactly as sounds) fluttering about.
The large whites are easily seen, even 200m up the mountain-side as they stand out against the green of the trees.
The wall-browns are much more inconspicous as they merge with the ... dust!
On the (replacement) bouganvillea in the courtyard, I spotted this bee. Well, it actually followed me around the garden for a while, demanding to be snapped, so eventually I took it.
I had asked my hornet-fancier pal what this might be (or might bee), but he said he wasn´t too "up" on bees (and when I looked, there are actually hundred of "types"). For me this is a large naked bumble bee with an amiable manner and a predisposition to want to be the centre of attention. We shall name it Jamie.
Amidst all the wildlife, I managed to obtain a new lime tree, following the demise of the old one earlier in the year. Gardener Daniel volunteered to remove the old stump, but probably wished he hadn´t as he was heaving and straining at it for a couple of hours in the heat of the day. Still he reckons he is a martial-arts expert, so it was good training for him.
He was supposed to come and put in the new one, but had some car problems, so I did it myself (a lot easier than removal).
It is already quite sturdy and bearing some fruit (which i would bloody well hope as it was 90€), so hoping that it will be a productive part of the garden in short order (and while we wait for the little lime bear in the courtyard to reach its potential)
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