Somewhere in an earlier I blog I wrote about how wet the winter had been and commented that it had been surprisingly dry for the time of year since my permanent return for the season. I said I hoped we weren't going from 'feast to famine'....but that's how it has proved. Overnight we had 6mm of rain, nothing spectacular until you consider in those 6 hours we had as much rain as the whole of the previous 6 weeks combined! Even with more rain falling as I type and showers forecast for tomorrow this will almost certainly be the driest April in the past 15 years of regular weather recording, and most likely one of the driest months of any recorded in that time.
This evenings much needed rain on the farmhouse windows
The rain, and a more generally unsettled outlook for the next week at least, has come just in time for the chough. With females incubating males need to provide a regular supply of food. The ground was becoming perilously close to being both too hard to effectively forage (i.e. stick their downcurved beaks into) and too desiccated for some of their key insect prey to survive in. Chough like 'well drained, warm soils' as it is better habitat for their prey than cold and waterlogged soil but there is a limit! Luckily the very wet winter means the water table is still quite high so a sensible amount of rain should keep things ticking along nicely
Waking up to rain this morning was a shock to the system - this was taken just last night and typifies April
As we get ready to turn the corner into May we are starting to see the first fledged birds out and about. Young blackbirds, still hiding in the undergrowth around the garden, are revealing their presence with clamorous squawking whenever the adults are close by with food. Last night when checking out the chough roost the first stonechat fledglings of the year were on show. 3 birds fledged from a nest at Aber Mawr, the splendid male bird 'chacking' at us as we walked by. For some birds the season hasn't even started yet, our storm petrels are barely back from their southern hemisphere winter travels!
Juvenile stonechats on heather yesterday evening
The parent male stonechat was close by warning me off
The first cuckoo of the year was at Aber Myharan yesterday and a second merlin, this time a male, was recorded along with the regular female, a fairly regular occurrence in most springs. Both are probably young birds and despite there being ample suitable habitat for them to breed here and plenty of prey they never settle and always just pass through - one day!
First cuckoo of 2020
Thank you. Another lovely catch up blog. I have stonechats in our allotment in Haverfordwest. A nice reminder. Lovely pictures and welcome rain for the garden too.