We've had some really nice warm weather for the past couple of days. Despite this, there wasn't much going on in the garden so I had to resort to taking photos like this one of an apple I've had my eye on for a few weeks now. It looked absolutely perfect through my camera, so we clipped it off this morning and will see what it tastes like. The other apples in the garden are usually inedibly sharp.

I don't usually take photos of chaffinches anymore as they're so commonplace, but this one was posing nicely and had an unusual moult going on.

We've seen a lot of wall brown butterflies this year, but I've given up trying to photograph them as they don't like the ultrasonic focus motor on my camera. As soon as I push the shutter button, they're off. As it's probably one of the last times I'll see one this year, I thought I'd have a go photographing this one as it was sitting on a verbena for a long time and didn't seem bothered by anything we did. Sure enough, it stayed still and I got a couple of half-decent photos. Pity it's got that damage to its wing.

There are still a few butterflies about. Today we had a pair of small coppers looking very fresh.

A small flock of starlings showed up in the valley today. We don't usually see so many. They were quite well hidden in this conifer, but this photo shows two of them.

The terrible weather continues.

There wasn't much going on in the garden today as it was so cold and wet. I did see this young red-backed shrike lurking in the hawthorn. He really should have left by now. He wasn't finding much to eat. I hope he manages to get off to Africa soon.

The rain and cold didn't bother the kingfisher. He's visiting nearly every day at the moment.

The migrant birds are still about despite the appalling weather we had yesterday - it rained continuously all day and was dark and miserable.

The pied flycatcher was out hunting again along with a few black redstarts and common redstarts.

Both male and female blackcaps were enjoying the apples and plums in our trees.

I've been trying to take a photo of this moulting robin for a couple of weeks now. He looks a lot better now than he did two weeks ago.

There was a grey wagtail down by the pond and the white wagtails were still about too - including this slightly older juvenile.

Another house sparrow was on the bird table today. This is not the same one we saw a few days ago - this one has a much stronger eyestripe. I managed to get a photo from an open window this time, but the focus was on the bird's back - so not perfect.

The hawthorn berries are nearly ripe and we've seen a few more blackbirds than normal.

To finish, here's a photo of a hummingbird hawk-moth. They've had a good year - we've seen quite a few.