Stormy Weather

[Anna]

Sunny spells here and there, reached a max of 10, but - oh the N/NNE wind is bitter! It's dropped to 8.3 now, take off 3 for windchill and it's not a day for idling outside. It was 2.2 overnight but a friend living not much higher up had a frost.

[amateur51]

Just one half-hearted cumulonimbus seen some way west of here so far on what was predicted to be a day of continual heavy showers for this area. Could be wrong, but so far not much build-up: you normally need a lot of cumulonimbus clouds in a cold unstable airstream of this kind to get a small number of really heavy, thundery-type downpours.

Maximum of 10 C just recorded - 4 C below the average max for late April here.

The little girl from upstairs has just shouted "It's snowing!" - in fact it's blossom blowing from nearby trees!

A strange girl that Blossom - but not as strange as poor Hope, who springs eternal, we are told

[Serial_Apologist]

I was a tad hasty 2 posts ago - shows the problem of not taking a good look before shooting my mouth off, since we have a very dark based cumulonimbus now bearing down from the NE, previously hidden by the hill mass. One way to distinguish a cumulonimbus from a large cauliflour cumulus is to look out for the top of the cloud going "snowy" indicating that the cumulonimbus stage has been reached.

Always remember that, children!

[amateur51]

I was a tad hasty 2 posts ago - shows the problem of not taking a good look before shooting my mouth off, since we have a very dark based cumulonimbus now bearing down from the NE, previously hidden by the hill mass. One way to distinguish a cumulonimbus from a large cauliflour cumulus is to look out for the top of the cloud going "snowy" indicating that the cumulonimbus stage has been reached.

Always remember that, children!

I'd make detailed notes but I'm restricted to the dust on this screen

[salymap]

Bramley apple tree burst into leaf overnight. Beech hedge looks dead - at least no green shoots yet.Birds restricted to the 'thugs' - pigeons, magpies and seagulls overhead, the latter afraid to land because of the telephone lines from all around me. Not many of ams51's 'sparrers' to be seen.

[Petrushka]

Birds restricted to the 'thugs'

A couple of weeks ago we watched in astonishment as a hawk (possibly a kestrel) swooped down on our garden and took a pigeon in it's claws and killed it with its beak. Seconds later all that remained of the pigeon was a heap of feathers.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A couple of weeks ago we watched in astonishment as a hawk (possibly a kestrel) swooped down on our garden and took a pigeon in it's claws and killed it with its beak. Seconds later all that remained of the pigeon was a heap of feathers.

Something similar happened here about a year after we moved in: a Sparrowhawk attacked a smaller bird and devoured it in our back garden as we watched from the kitchen. At one point it gazed balefully at us between mouthfuls as if to say "And what are you doing in my dining room?!" and then returned to its lunch. Astonishing - nothing like it has happened since! ('Tho'a baby Little Owl did perch on our bedroom windowledge - outside! - late one Summer night and called out for its parents. We just heard this strange squeaking noise, not unlike the sound my old cassette player used to make when a tape got to its end but was too loose to automatically stop the machine: I went to investigate and there was this ball of fluff calling out. It looked at me, decided I was of no use to anyone and carried on calling out. Very cute: it had gone by about half-an-hour later.)

[salymap]

This reminds me of that comedy skit, "I look up to him, I look down on...". Pigeons have their enemies but they stop the small birds getting anything I throw out for them.

I've only once seen a Kestrel here [had to look in my birdbook]. It was standing on a lamb bone I had put
out and fighting hard to get some meat from it. No owls but have heard them once or twice in the distance.

Sun is out here, clearing the frost on the grass.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This reminds me of that comedy skit, "I look up to him, I look down on...".

Believe me; the look the Sparrowhawk gave me left me in no doubt that I was very low down in his ... err ... pecking order!

[BBMmk2]

Amazing what you see i your garden! My parents used to live way out in the sticks, quite a few years ago now. I had this German /shepherd dog(quite a big one too!), we went out walking, a few seco0nmds later a great stag leapt out in front of us andgoodness made us jum. The dog stood rigid, ears up(!) and the stag jumped off ass soon as, quite a few amazing seconds!

[Anna]

My neighbour saw a pigeon taken out by what he thinks is a kestrel but I've never seen that happening. What I have noticed is that I rarely see sparrowhawks anymore, they used to be very common. Also, very common are buzzards being mobbed by crows, why they do this I don't know, are they being territorial? No deer near to here but it's reported that the Forest of Dean has a serious wild boar problem - you wouldn't want to meet one of them whilst walking the dog!
Weather here is as forecast, wind now SSW, 10 but feeling like 7, grey cloud. I'd forgotten next weekend is a bank holiday - no chance of a day out at the beach I guess?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Also, very common are buzzards being mobbed by crows, why they do this I don't know, are they being territorial?

I've only ever seen this happen twice - once on holiday in Llanfallteg ten years ago, the other on holiday in Aberaeron a couple of years ago. I've never seen buzzards outside Wales.

[Anna]

I've only ever seen this happen twice - once on holiday in Llanfallteg ten years ago, the other on holiday in Aberaeron a couple of years ago. I've never seen buzzards outside Wales.

According to the RSPB the biggest populations of buzzards are in Scotland, Wales, Lake District and the S.W. but they are breeding in all Counties and have even been seen in Glasgow!
There was a big fuss last year when DEFRA announced they were going to issue licences to some gamekeepers so they could capture buzzards and destroy their nests as they were eating some pheasant chicks. As you can imagine, huge outcry ensued with the Countryside Alliance backing the buzzard cull. However, the Government retreated as the public protest was so strong but ominously said they would be looking at other measures to control them (they have protected status) and other birds of prey from impacting on pheasant shooting .... Buzzards were eradicated in most areas except the S.W. at the end of the 19th century because of the field sports lobby. I feel gamekeepers should give more protection to the runs that the chicks are reared in and as for adult pheasants, it seems more are killed by collisions with cars than succumbing to buzzards who are just doing what they've been born to do, snatching some fast food!

[amateur51]

According to the RSPB the biggest populations of buzzards are in Scotland, Wales, Lake District and the S.W. but they are breeding in all Counties and have even been seen in Glasgow!
There was a big fuss last year when DEFRA announced they were going to issue licences to some gamekeepers so they could capture buzzards and destroy their nests as they were eating some pheasant chicks. As you can imagine, huge outcry ensued with the Countryside Alliance backing the buzzard cull. However, the Government retreated as the public protest was so strong but ominously said they would be looking at other measures to control them (they have protected status) and other birds of prey from impacting on pheasant shooting .... Buzzards were eradicated in most areas except the S.W. at the end of the 19th century because of the field sports lobby. I feel gamekeepers should give more protection to the runs that the chicks are reared in and as for adult pheasants, it seems more are killed by collisions with cars than succumbing to buzzards who are just doing what they've been born to do, snatching some fast food!

What a shower the gun lobbies are on either side of the Atlantic plus within Europe. This right to hunt escapes me. What about my right to play piano to Grade 8 then?!?

[salymap]

So the poor little pheasant chicks must be preserved from buzzards and cars for humans to get their sport[?] killing them.

I know, they wouldn't be born at all ifthey weren't game birds.