Not a good start to the day.

[cycleruk]

Got up and the sun was shining with wall to wall blue sky.
Sat outside having morning coffee watching the House Martins congregating on the telephone wires.
That's it then, summers over, and they will soon be off on the long journey to Africa.

With the unfavourable weather forecast for this weekend I would advise postponing departure for a couple of days and stay indoors.

As a side note I don't seem to have seen the usual number of Swallows this year

[reohn2]

or Swifts FTM

[rich.hr6]

No drop off in the number of swifts over and around this part of HR6, or so it appears to me. As for swallows and house martins, flipping dozens, possibly hundreds of them, playing in the breeze around the quarries at the top of the Clee Hill, probably trying to spot the easiest/flattest/shortest way to Africa!?!

[DaveP]

We've experienced a notable lack of bees, hoverflies, moths and butterflies And I don't recall seeing a single wasp (as in yellow stripy stingy!) so far.
Last year we had a wasps nest in the attic and you needed ear defenders to stand near the ivy there was that much buzzing going on.
How did the insectivores know not to bother this year?

[cycleruk]

We've experienced a notable lack of bees, hoverflies, moths and butterflies And I don't recall seeing a single wasp (as in yellow stripy stingy!) so far.
Last year we had a wasps nest in the attic and you needed ear defenders to stand near the ivy there was that much buzzing going on.
How did the insectivores know not to bother this year?

We have been fine for bees this year but for some reason we have had quite a few "walking" across lawn and patio.
They appeared to be struggling to fly, whether due to cold weather or something else.
A couple I managed to revive by giving them sugar water and away they went.