First Flight

Mowing the lawn was part of the plan this morning. And I did that, but interruptions meant it took some time .......

A lot of house martin activity, and it soon became clear why. The youngsters were having their first flights:
* top left, this attracted the attention of the local magpies. Fortunately, they cannot readily reach the nest. The chick has moved to the room below here - the artificial nest they have otherwise ignored. Note the piece of twine wrapped around the nest because ....
* top right, a youngster got its feet trapped in the twine and found itself suspended in the air. Eeek ! Fortunately an adult managed to somehow unhook it.
* bottom left, a youngster following an adult from the nest
* bottom right, a chick returning. They spent most of the time today in the nest, they need to build up flight muscles and confidence

The other interruption was a large dragonfly, which landed on a sunflower stem and spent an hour there resting (extra). I took a lot of shots, even managing to change a lens so I could have a go at a close up of those amazing compound eyes (extra).