February 09'

Weather This Month

Max Temp =  9.4C                 Min Temp = -6.4C

Max Wind=   19.6 mph              Max Rain in 24 hr Period = 7.7 mm

Max Rain in 1 hr Period =  2 mm          Total Rain For Month =  25.3 mm

Diary

23rd.  Firstly things in the garden have taken a nice turn as I noticed a pair of Robins deep inside our woodland edge part of the garden. I then noted the male pass food to the female and she accepted it, and ate it. This is significant in this species of bird as the acceptance of food from the male always means that the nest is finished and breeding will begin. I have not had chance to take much notice of too many goings on around the garden due to time collating information regarding our India trip but I am pretty sure that the Robins nest is not in our garden, although I shall try to keep an eye on activity of these two from now on. It's always a risky strategy at this time of year this far north as a cold spell could prove fatal to any young in the nest. I have lost signal to the camera installed inside a Robin nestbox in the garden so I shall (when times permits) have a look to see if anything obvious is wrong.

Frogs have returned to the garden pond but as yet remain silent. Talking of Frogs we went out on our 5 mile Monday night walk tonight and spotted a Frog trying to cross the road! I caught it and placed it high up on a grass banking hoping it may chose a different route. On our return the Frog was back on the road not 1m away from where I spotted it first time so I crossed the road and placed it next to a stream.....and wished it luck. Not half a mile further on another Frog on the road side. By this time we were not far from home so we decided after a short debate to take it with us to our pond. It was shown the pond and left to it's own devices.

I had a little time away from work this afternoon and decided to do a few overdue jobs in the garden. I wanted to move the Meadowsweet and Hemp Agrimony to a more suitable spot but boy did they take some digging up. I also wanted to move a purple Loosestrife but it was a woody bulk so I gave in although it really does need to be moved. I also erected a mini fence framing a path up the garden as I find this one of the best ways to stop Cat's ambushing the ground birds. It gives the bird a chance as the Cat has to go up and over rather than straight out at it's target. I am also toying with chicken mesh in several places but I really think this would spoil the look and feel of what I have tried to achieve...we shall see. I have not seen any Cat's of late so fingers crossed we will have a Cat free year.

16th.  A long break in the website entries due to a holiday in Goa, India for two weeks. I feel very cold already after temps of over 30C. I read that some parts of the country have had fantastic amounts of snow, upto 10". Just my luck to be away on such an occasion. The temps also plummeted whilst away with a minimum of - 6.4C being recorded back on the 7th at 05:30 and the fact that all my feeders are totally empty suggests that it may well have been a prolonged cold spell. I hope my regulars have not fled the garden! I am writing this early morning as the time difference between Goa and UK is 5.5hrs and my body says I need to be up as whilst local time is 06:30 the time In Goa is 12:00 midday and I would normally be coming back to the hotel after an early morning birding session.

I loved the place of Goa but I can't imagine life without British flora and Fauna. I shall be collating a full trip report over the next couple of months for those interested with contact details etc.