DURING the recent hot sunny spell we were very well entertained by the birds and bees in our garden. All wild creatures seemed to be rather busier than usual, sometimes seeking water from our pond and/or shallow dishes placed in sheltered places.

The birds presented a great show because a cuckoo flew over our garden, the first I have seen for a long time but I did not hear its voice – despite seeing a cuckoo I have yet to hear one this year. But it may now be too late – they generally leave this country around this time or perhaps as late as August.

I have to say that a cuckoo looks very similar to a sparrow-hawk

when in flight but it is much slower than the hawk and its tail is distinctly

rounded at the tip. The cuckoo’s wings are very pointed too, and from

beneath, the bird has distinctive bars on its breast and tail. It’s general

appearance is grey whereas the sparrow-hawk has shades of light

brown and its wings have a rather rounded appearance.

Another charming sight was a family of five young swallows that had just left their nest and were being fed by their parents. All had the distinctive blue feathers and russet throats.

They settled in a line upon the branch of a cherry tree, all facing the same direction as if arranged on parade by a stern sergeant-major. The parents fed them in full view of my wife and I, but it was difficult to know whether the chicks took turns in accepting the food or whether the one with the widest gape received more than the others. After a while, they moved to a telephone wire strung between nearby poles and feeding resumed but we have never discovered where they nested.

Another regular trip by the adult swallows was to our pond where they flew low over the water, dipping in to take a scoop from the surface or perhaps seize an insect from the water. We were sitting only a few feet away but our presence did not seem to unsettle the birds.

Other regular visitors to our pond are wood pigeons who make use of a ramp I have fitted so they can waddle down to the edge of the water, whilst blackbirds sip water from the inlet pipes and sometimes take baths among the dense reeds. I’ve seen smaller birds actually sit on the surface of the water to take a bath – logically they cannot sink even if they cannot swim and seem to know their buoyancy will keep them safe.

Among the products of our small pond are hundreds of tadpoles which should now have matured into tiny frogs and left for pastures new.

I have not noticed their presence in or near our garden but tadpoles do fall prey to other creatures – birds and fish – and due to their massive numbers, some manage to survive into adulthood.

As a matter of fact, we do have a resident frog among the reeds but whether he spent his young life here as a tadpole is not known.

Our very modest pond also attracts dragonflies and damsel flies. These large insects with their elongated bodies and whirring wings can be frightening to children and even adults but are quite harmless to humans although ferocious hunters of smaller insects.

Probably the most recognizable is the Emperor Dragonfly with its long, brilliant blue body and two pairs of wings. This is the largest of our dragonflies but there are many varieties of the species in several different colours. Some are known as hawkers because they patrol a stretch of water in search of prey, whilst the more sturdy-looking darters spend a lot of time clinging to water plants before darting out to seize their prey as it passes by.

Damselflies are smaller and daintier versions of dragonflies but appear in a range of bright colours as they live very similar lives to their larger cousins, preying on smaller insects usually at or near rivers, ponds and lakes. They have the ability to catch insects with their legs whilst in flight, and sometimes snatch them from plants.

Nature is constantly entertaining and interesting.

One of our favourite walks is along the beach between Sandsend and Whitby at low tide.

Apart from the views, that walk has the added possibility of finding real jet on the beach. The difficulty is distinguishing jet from sea-coal and my most recent visit produced a splendid brick-sized lump of coal that later burnt brightly in my hearth.

However, I have yet to find any jet but am assured it can be found through a combination of good luck, knowledge of its likely whereabouts and the ability to recognise coal. People do find jet on Whitby beach and must then decide whether to take it home and attempt to carve it into exquisite objects, or present it to a skilled carver with or without a particular design in mind.

Its likeness to coal is not surprising because both come from similar ancient sources. Jet is a type of fossilized brown coal from the araucaria araucana tree, widely known as the Monkey Puzzle. Although the tree was not re-introduced to Britain until 1795, it grew near Whitby in the Jurassic period 160 million years ago. It is the fossilized remains of that tree that produce the rich seams of jet in Whitby cliffs and further inland.

If you come across a piece the chances are it will look like a piece of rather jagged coal, probably more brown than black and it will be far lighter in weight than coal. It might contain light coloured flecks but if you split it along the seam, the interior will be a magnificent deep black. If you scratch it, however, the scratch-line will be brown, hence its old name of brown coal.

Down the centuries, even 4,000 years ago, jet was used in the manufacture of jewellery - even Venerable Bede (AD 673-735) wrote about Britain’s excellent jet. It generated various exquisite items but it was Queen Victoria who made it fashionable in the nineteenth century. The jet found at Whitby is widely regarded as the finest in the world but it was not the only English source.

Since the time of Caedmon the poet of Whitby Abbey (d.680), jet has been mined on the moors at Egton, Rosedale, Bilsdale, Carlton-in-Cleveland and Westerdale, whilst Jeator Houses near Kirby Sigston is named after jet miners. Jeators were jet workers and the term appears in the Rolls of Whitby’s Benedictine Abbey where one of the Abbots left a jet rosary to his brother in 1436.

Its popularity in Victorian times, especially as a symbol of royal mourning, led to its decline. Cheap poor quality jet was imported from Spain but the public realised they were being cheated and stopped buying any jet although there now appears to be a renewal of interest.

But if you are both lucky and observant you can find pieces of genuine Whitby jet on its glorious beach.