SPOTTED flycatchers are busy darting out from the shadowy branches of trees to catch passing insects. With their dark brown upperparts, they are not always easy to see as they wait for their prey, but once they fly out the light catches their silvery stomach. They will sometimes chase an agile fly for a long way, twisting and turning as they go. Many of them are now feeding young birds in their nest, which is often tucked behind a horizontal branch of wisteria on the wall of a house. They are not often heard singing, because their song is quite soft and often given from the dark depths of a tree, but it is a quite distinctive run of thin notes that swell in volume, rather like the first part of a chaffinch’s song. They also have a loud ticking call that is much more noticeable.
In waste places, teasel is growing tall — some plants are already six feet high — and the egg-shaped flowerheads are emerging behind a ring of sharp, curved bracts like little scimitars. The leaves on the stalk are also spear-shaped and prickly. The flowerheads will turn pale lilac. Spear thistle, which is likewise formidably armed, is also coming into flower.
DJM