It's fair to say that the extreme weather conditions here at Lake Vyrnwy over the last week or so have caused absolute chaos, with 36 hours worth of power cuts, road disruption and hard conditions for wildlife. With between 30 – 40 centimetres of snow falling in a 48-hour period, it was also quite rapid! In true fighting spirit however, everyone has battled the snow and ice together to restore communications to the area.
Before communications were restored, I felt as if I had gone back in time, with the log fire and reading being the main forms of entertainment! Food supplies fell low too, leading to some interesting meals, the most bizarre being an ‘Utterly Butterly’ Sandwich made by our housemate Chris! In truth, life was not too exciting until we could return to work. Last week mainly consisted of hacking away like a mad man at the snow and ice on the road, which proved quite therapeutic. A real sense of community was apparent with the village residents, and many thanks to the team at Artisans Cafe who kept us fuelled with refreshments, it was much appreciated!
In terms of bird life, the behaviour of garden bird species has reverted to a frantic search for food sources to survive the arctic conditions. Although this has meant excellent views from the reserve feeding stations, it also means that the breeding season will now occur later on in Spring, and this could be even more evident on the upland areas of the reserve. Unfortunately, not all the birds can survive such harsh conditions, and I have found a Song Thrush and Chaffinch in the last week which have perished, putting into perspective how difficult these conditions are for wildlife. A positive of the last week was a hat trick of Sparrowhawk sightings, culminating in the magnificent sight of a male making a kill outside our accommodation, sadly the open ground meant it took the prey elsewhere to devour so the sighting was all too brief. The adverse conditions have meant a resident Cormorant has understandably abandoned its usual resting place of a buoy on the far side of the lake. My walk on bank holiday Monday produced a distant Goshawk sighting and a first for me at Lake Vyrnwy, a fleeting glimpse of a Kingfisher travelling downstream on the river, where I will definitely be casting more of an eye in the future.
The first working day of this week saw us completing and ultimatelty passing, our 4 x 4 course which was postponed due to the snow. It was a lot of fun, despite getting stuck at the end (not my fault!) and having to be the subject of a rescue mission, I learnt a lot and feel much more confident handling a variety of off-road vehicles.
Hopefully my next blog will be full of stories about warm temperatures, huge numbers of spring migrants and exciting survey work!