Holiday in Corfu, where there were still plenty of swallows and, if I am not mistaken, some of the red-rumped variety. Also a number of very large birds of prey gliding at high altitude that I could not identify. They weren't buzzards.
A couple of light-hearted attempts to catch fish off the rocks on sweetcorn (!), the second of which was looking promising as I could see the fish scouring around the bottom and taking the free offerings - until a huge wave from an ocean liner introduced storm conditions into the microcosm. Once they had subsided and the bottom cleared again, the fish had moved on.
Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to fish for the large numbers of mullet hanging around an outlet from the nature reserve next to St Spyridon Beach, as a sign in Greek and Italian said no fishing. No rule against feeding them though and I could conclusively prove that mullet will eat sweetcorn, making it to my mind a better potential bait than bread, which they just knock to pieces most of the time. On Rhodes, I saw the Greeks catching them on houmos paste, float fished at distance, and was duly impressed.
Previously had been watching out at home to see if my theory that swifts will not be sighted or heard after the end of August is true. I think I did hear a couple yesterday, so perhaps sighting a swift in September is just about possible. Swallows are also suddenly scarce around the estate, although tonight I was out with some people who live in farming areas and tell me there are still plenty around.
