Thursday 13 May 2010

This afternoons patch walk drew a blank on just about everything, no Butterflies, no Damselflies, and only the most common Migrant and resident bird species were seen. It's may for god's sake, the woods and fields should be kicking with activity, I even saw that the May tree (hawthorn) flowers are still in bud, it will be June at this rate before they flower.

So is it me being miserable ( probably!) or is it a particularly bad May ? Well I can easily find out! I can go back to my blog posts of May 13th for 2008 and 2009.

13th of May 2008.

Ha! I had man flu - good start :-) , but I was seeing Damselflies, and Beautiful demoiselles, and the Spotted Flycatchers had arrived. Although the weather looked cool with a northerly wind, it was short lived, the Maize crop at Migrant Alley was already sprouting - this years is still to germinate. Also the first cut of Silage had taken place, that seems some way off this spring looking at the field today.

So although the weather was pretty cool, 2008 was well ahead of this year.

13th of may 2009

Can you beieve it - I had man flu again :-) I had reported it being as 'dire' and barely light, and as in this spring the Spotted Flycatchers had yet to arrive ( they came the next day ). The day before I had recorded Broad Bodied Chaser and large Red damselfly.

So what can I conclude from these retrospective posts ? Looks like i'm due for a bout of man flu :-) :-)

But being serious, it seems that although this year is a little behind schedule, I am as usual being impatient, the weather had it's bad moments in the last two May months, so it is me just being miserable :-)

On the bright side looking at the latter half of both May 2008 and 2009, there was a lot to see!


Back to this afternoon, and I thought i'd show you the handywork of the Tree Surgeons working in the large garden by the lakes. Below is how they think an Oak tree should be, stripped of all it's limbs until 2 thirds of the way up, then left with a small canopy right at the top.
There are at least 70 more Oak Trees ( you can see some in the background) if they do this too all of them the place will look like one of those pictures of a wood from a first world war battlefield. VANDALISM!!

10 comments:

Derek Faulkner said...

Warren,

If its any consolation re. the Oaks, I'm suffering the same feeling of desperation on the Swale NNR at the moment, not with oaks but other things.
While it was noticeably warmer today, I think that we are still going to have to wait some time before most of nature catches up and emerges from a particually cold spring.

Warren Baker said...

Hi Derek,

Why do people have to interfere with something that is already perfect ?

Whats going on at the Swale then ?

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Bonkers! who decided trees should look like lollypops anyway - idiots!

Have a couple of precautionary stiff 'medicinal' malts just in case!

And it's nearly the weekend and (dare I say it) the weather looks like it'll be a bit warmer, with a much better wind direction...so chin up and sally forth tomorrow with renewed vigour and gusto.

Cheers

Davo

Warren Baker said...

Dave, Vigour and gusto have been sent for :-)

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Don't give up , I saw Hawthorn in flower today !

Kingsdowner said...

Does the timing of your snuffling give you a clue?
It's oilseed rape that casues it, I bet.

And no, it's not just you, it's been foul weather. Just think how the birds must be feeling - hungry, I expect.

Anonymous said...

"So what can I conclude from these retrospective posts ? Looks like i'm due for a bout of man flu :-) :-)"

I was going to say what Dave said. But as you can see, he beat me to it.

We seem to be a month behind now. So far this month we`ve had the showers of April. April was riddled with March winds. Summer might finally arrive, when ezactly, well, that`s anyones guess.

ShySongbird said...

As I just said on Dean's site, I had to sit, for an hour today, watching a five year old girl being tutored in the art of the 'beautiful game', (not beautiful to me, I'm afraid)! I couldn't believe how cold it was for May, it was absolutely freezing, it honestly felt more like November!!

Warren, my heart bleeds for that once beautiful Oak tree, I really don't understand how anyone can do it. Quite apart from the lost wildlife habitat the Oak is such a lovely feature of our countryside...such ignorance!

Kerry said...

My dear husband has just got over the man flu - so awful to listen to the groaning and moaning! Hope that it by passes you. :-)

Terrible to see those trees so badly butchered.

40 acres of overgrown land has gone on the market not far from me and I am dreading it being sold as I can see it being totally butchered by whichever farmer gets it.

Lovely and sunny here today and warm this afternoon after a rainy cold start. Buzzard has just arrived to be fed and is calling like mad - I had better run.

Monika said...

I guess the chilly, cloudy weather is better than the flu? At least it sounds like the weather has turned for you, I hope it stays that way!