Foxglove – David Austin (RSPB-images)                            Dead tree on skyline – Jarrod Sneyd        

 

Heather and I went for a catchup and a walk around the reserve yesterday – the light was fading so it was too late to make out any flowers!  I just captured this shape of a dead tree against the skyline – it’s on the Woodcock trail and is a favourite with drumming woodpeckers (though I’ve not heard them at Coombes yet, they have started elsewhere, so it’s time to start listening).

Still, we were discussing the fact that Foxglove was in flower in December and Pink Purslane and Herb Robert are still flowering on the reserve now!

  

Herb Robert - Ernie Janes (RSPB-images)

 

What’s that all about then?!

I looked back at my flower books and they are supposed to flower from spring/ early summer up until August, July and September respectively. 

 

And then I remember that my partner Gill, had mentioned an article on the BBC website – ‘Unusual number of UK flowers bloom’.

 

So, I googled it and I quote ‘Botanists have been stunned by the results of their annual hunt for plants in flower on New Year’s Day...They say that according to textbooks there should be between 20 and 30 species in flowers.  This year there were 368 in bloom’.

So, our winters are becoming milder and ‘the Met Office has confirmed that 2014 was the warmest year on UK record’ (including the hottest Halloween!).  It’s also ‘the warmest year in the Met Office’s Central England Temperature series, which dates to 1659’!

 

The Met Office are also saying that human influence on the climate means that it is 10 times more likely that temperature records will be broken!

If you want to find out more, click on the link - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30754443

 

So, some good news – watch out for winter flowers – what have you spotted?  Let us know...

But what else will human-influenced climate change make happen...!?!

 

 Sunbeam through the trees – Darren Barker