We are currently in Rhodes, Greece. Plenty of Swallows, House Martins and Swifts that look somewhat different to UK variety.
Wife took a couple of pictures on her phone, one is mum sitting on her chicks which we could hear now and again. She chose a nice cool position inside the hotel near the lifts and stairwell.
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Only 5 eggs were laid. That’s the lowest count I’ve ever had in my nest boxes in 20 years. Usually it’s 9-12. Never mind, better than nothing. I’ll look after you. 4 eggs have hatched at the moment. Ordered mini mealworms, but should have done it earlier tbh. Seems like people have done the same, as a lot of places suddenly out of stock.
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Making waves
A well disciplined tight formation of ten tiny Mallard ducklings following their mother.
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Pretty sure it’s a female Red-winged Blackbird.
Definitely not a Redwing as they have distinctive red flanks and underwing, rather than the red shoulders of the bird in your image.
Cheers,
Ian
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Sun & Shade
A visiting Yellow Warbler male before continuing his northwest journey.
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5 chicks in total, which as I’ve said, is very poor. Both female and male are feeding them, but the male looked very wet and scruffy this morning, so no idea what’s going on there. Here’s the female feeding a caterpillar.
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Crikey, Pete, you have SO MANY gorgeous birds down there !!! 
(On this occasion I mean the avian variety…) 
Here’s the male feeding today. Head looks so tatty with hardly any feathers. Think it might have lice infection. Nothing I can do, but not nice to watch.
Bit like when I return from Tesco on a Sunday morning…Only without the caterpillar.
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All 5 chicks doing fine and being fed by both male and female. You can see the difference in both heads here.
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An orange dart
It is 95% luck to be able to capture (with my old tele) the super nimble Baltimore Oriole in mid flight.
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A Prothonotary Warbler
A little wet after foraging on the water edge, waiting for the gentle breeze to do its drying.
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No pictures because I’m not quick enough, but a query. Can the eurasian kestrel have orange wings? Our kestrels that nest here usually have dark outer portion of their wings. Fo the last two weeks we have a kestrel sized hawk that has been harrying other birds that appear on our garden field. Usually seen pursuing something or the other but it is a bright orange across the whole of its body to the wingtips. So orange that you can’t help but see it flash across the field even when you aren’t looking that way. Young kestrel or something else?
Wing tips look dark to me, as per usual.
Very nice. I used to have a pet Australian Port Lincoln In the UK he lived well into his or her 20s. I am sure you know about them. He was quite a character and good fun we called him Abraham. For others, it is a similarly shaped and sized bird, but it has mainly green/yellow/black plumage with a dash of red and blue.
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All 5 chicks still doing fine. They’re starting to look like blue tits now. Male still looking very tatty.
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Upset this morning. We have been watching the Blue Tits working hard to feed its young which we could hear in the box. This morning we came down to an empty box. We assume a woodpecker, the ones we see on the nut feeder?
The box was 12 ft up the trunk of a silver birch quite well protected and hidden by it’s trailing branches.
My wife has ordered a metal plate with hole but it may not stop them attacking the box in a different place. More thought needed.
There may be time to nest again?
