'We have had a wonderful summer watching a pair of spotted flycatchers nesting in the climbing rose next to our house, followed by the feeding of their two chicks, and now the surprisingly noisy teaching of the young to learn their fly catching skills.
When you realise these sparrow-sized birds are only summer visitors from May to October, and they have yet to fly 9,073 kilometre (5,638 miles) back to South Africa, I am filled with wonder. It takes a Boeing 747 airliner 10 hours to fly that distance at 913 kph (560 mph). We all know that swallows do a similar journey but let's not forget the less spectacular birds that also achieve this incredible feat.'
This lovely story and photo was sent in by one of our e-newsletter readers, Annie Williams.
As well as not forgetting the less spectacular birds that make amazing journeys to our shores each year (willow warbler, chiffchaff, blackcap, and whitethroat all spring to mind), it got me thinking that we should also not forget about the thousands of insects that also migrate here.
Moths like the hummingbird hawk moth come here all the way from the Med and North Africa, while the Silver Y travels up from Southern Europe, with some individuals not content at stopping in the UK, and instead going as far as Greenland and the Arctic Circle!
Painted lady butterflies join us from Morocco, red admirals from North Africa and continental Europe, and large white butterfly numbers swell when individuals from mainland Europe join our resident population.
However, it isn't just moths and butterflies that make the trip to the UK: Marmalade hoverflies, as well as dragonflies like the migrant hawker all get a population boost in summer too.
But how do they do it?
For my summer holiday this year, I stayed in the UK. It only took me a couple of hours to get to my chosen destination, and I also had a road to follow.
But every year, thousands of birds and insects travel much further distances than I did, with nothing more than the food they eat to fuel their journey there and back. And they certainly don't have road maps to help them should they get lost! So how do they do it?
Well, it turns out that they aren't just going wherever the wind takes them. A recent study found that they alter their flight paths to select winds that are going to take them in the right direction.
The scientists also calculated that adding flight speeds to wind speeds, butterflies and moths can travel as fast as 100 kilometers an hour (62 mph). And that at that rate, these little creatures could make the 2,000 km (1,243 mile) trek from Africa to the UK in just three or four nights!
Like Annie, I too am filled with wonder.
Can you add to my list of UK migrants? I'd also love to know what migrants you all enjoy seeing while out and about, or in your garden. Do leave me a comment below.
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We have swifts nesting in our roof. They've gone now of course arriving at the end of April and leaving for Africa early August. In the late warm still evenings of the summer I often watched about 10 birds scream about the sky catching as many flying insects as they could before nightfall swishing fast and close to the roof tops in groups of 4 or 5 and in the last moments of light, sometimes as late as 10.0 o'clock, they made a silent swoop into their nest sites for the night. I'm looking forward to their return and may be use my nest box!
Ma