Summer Visitor

This little summer visitor must wonder if she has come to the right part of the world, with all this cold, wet weather.

She is a Blackcap - the males have a black top to their heads, whereas the females have a chestnut brown coloured cap.

Blackcaps arrive throughout the UK at the end of April to breed.
They have a very distinctive alarm call that sounds like two stones being knocked together, twice in quick succession.

Blackcaps like rough grassland with shrubs and briars, as well as open woodland and are frequent garden visitors.

This was taken through my kitchen window, she is preening herself in a wild rose shrub. You can see the drips of rain on the branches if you look carefully.