THE CALM BEFORE SPRING STARTS?

Well we’re all awaiting the Coronavirus impact, while nature carries on regardless.

The dawn chorus is getting louder every morning, and my walk to work is full of various birdsong, from blackbirds and robins, to blue tits and chaffinches.

The buzzard that had been hanging around in the area hasn’t been seen for a week or so, but a kestrel has replaced it.

I’ve seen the kestrel perched a few times over the half-flooded fields, mainly on hedgerows, and the smaller birds always keep their distance.

A few frogs have been seen on the road, unfortunately all squashed by vehicles on the lane.

I’m sure there are a few around, but I don’t think any will frequent the pond, mainly because I’ve not done much upkeep on it recently.

I will be getting in the garden in the next couple of weeks and will hopefully get some seeds planted.

I’ll stick to sunflowers and tomatoes, and also get some small plants for the borders to help stop the cats using them as a toilet.

The feeders are still going down quickly, with long tailed tits still seen almost every day.

The lighter mornings and evenings enable me to see bird activity, and perhaps even another glimpse of the robin taking nest material into the ivy, close to the place he/she chose last year.

Whether we have a nest this year, only time will tell.

DOES ANYONE REMEMBER WHEN IT WASN’T STORMY?

It’s fair to say that I’m struggling to remember when the last time we had some calm weather, given we’re experiencing storm after storm hitting the UK.

And, if there hasn’t been a named storm, then we’ve been hit be continual low pressures or the windy edge of a high pressure.

The fields are soaking, and large ponds of water are now forming and not draining at all.

Even the stream alongside the lane regularly breaches the banks when we’ve had a few hours of rain.

These videos are taken one day last week, then below are two mages taken the same time, on the following day.

To see all that in one go, here’s a collated image. What’s not shown is the water on the lane is gradually damaging the surface and there’s not a day goes by when the lane doesn’t have large puddles dotted along it.

 

The wildlife is not appearing to be affected by the weather, well from what I can see and hear.

The dawn chorus has been getting stronger each day recently, although the storm and wet mornings have limited activity.

During the day we’re now hearing more territorial songs from the robins, blue tits, great tits and also the odd chaffinch.

The breeding season is largely dictated by the day length, but I do wonder how the storm will affect it long-term.

If the butterflies and moths, which lay eggs that then turn onto the caterpillar food for the small garden birds, get impacted by the storms, then how will the birds cope?

That will also impact some the birds of prey in the area, but we can only wait and see how that all plays out.

If the stormy weather continues for a while, then our summer migrants might also be impacted; so swallows, house martins, swifts and cuckoos.

Again only time with tell, until then we’ll continue to batten down the hatches and hope the water levels gradually drop.