Well the baby swifts look like bats, and the baby bittern just looks plain weird! Although I should think seeing a baby is pretty rare, at least in my part of the world in the UK. I have been watching young sparrows here in Portugal, they are more fearless (ie less experienced) than older birds, so ...

I too am sorry to hear all your woes, they sound pretty serious. I had heard about the hail in France wiping out grape harvests. Everything is calm here, not super hot, not super dry, just very pleasant which is just as well after last year; but the weather globally is certainly extremely topsy turv...

You are doing exactly the right thing, LadyA, good luck to you. I used to keep a small watering can in the bathroom to capture the water I ran to get it hot, in the big scheme of things I don't suppose it made much difference, but it made me feel better. BTW I remember we had a brief chat about carr...

Just leave her be, it can take ages, or it could be that she is thinking of going broody, but no need to panic, lets see what the day brings!

I was back in the UK last week and it is definitely hotter and drier than here in Portugal. My mother has a brown lawn, whereas we have green grass and weeds. It is still unseasonably cool here, with positively cold nights, heavy mists (like autumn) in the morning and plenty of moisture on the groun...

I have had to look all those up BYM, they sound so poetic, and I didn't realise a Banded Demoiselle was a damselfly, I assumed it was another moth! That does look enormouse bigjim, whatever it is! My nature observations have consisted of watching a lizard eating his way through a pack of winged ants...

I shall cheer you all up (?!) by telling you that you are all warmer (except HG) than me! It should be well over 30 by this time in June, but it is struggling to hit 30. I can't abide the cold, so this is the right place for me, although I am returning to the UK tomorrow for a week to warm up!

Yes, sometimes its a bit embarrassing in the summer when you want to go to bed but you have to stay up to put the chickens away!

Congratulations on your new girls, I'm sure you will have a lot of fun with them!

Dottes certainly do have a tendency to go broody, and frankly unless you are hatching its a right pain. I would go with hybrids for your first outing with chickens. They will supply you with plenty of eggs, which is one of your core criteria I think. They will be super happy in a garden environment ...