The Wrong Weather Forecast

Monday, June 25th 2012

Rain hammering off the roofs and hitting the windows accompanied the bird ringers as they headed to Foxglove for CES 6 earlier today. The last 4am start! It looked like the weather forecasts were right - it was going to be wet! Heavy dark clouds, drizzle, dripping vegetation and biting midges were all present as the nets were put up.

However as the morning progressed the clouds broke up, the drizzle stopped, the sun came out and the temperature rose. A few spots of rain during the ten and a half hours of CES 6 but no heavy showers and no persistent rain. For once the wrong forecast was good!

The cold wet weather has caused many problems for ringing groups throughout the country. Invertebrate life is suffering and consequently the animals feeding on them are not having an easy time. We await with interest the results of CES to see how the birds have coped during the wettest June for 100 years.

Today 153 birds were processed including juvenile Robins, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Goldfinch. Thank you to everyone who helped today and again made it a success. It was the 234th time we had carried out our CES day and 22 different species were caught.

Early this morning the rain drops were stil hanging on the grasses and this enlarged photograph of Yorkshire Fog shows the droplets. If you look carefully you can see that one of them is acting as a magnifying glass.

Water droplets on Yorkshire Fog

The Common Spotted Orchids are finally beginning to flower and can be seen along the edges of some paths.

Common Spotted Orchid

This beetle was seen on Cock's Foot Grass this afternoon. These carnivorous beetles are usually found in and near ponds although they readily take to the wing.

Pond beetle

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