January '12
Weather This Month
Max Temp = 10°C Min Temp = -4.7°C Mean Temp = 3.6°C
Max Wind = 34mph
Day's Of Rain Over 2mm = 20 Rain 24hr Max = 27.2mm Rain For Month = 176.6mm Rain For The Year = 176.6mm
Diary
29th. I took part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch this morning...did you????? If you did not there is time and if you did don't forget to submit your sightings. Click HERE to find out what it is about and submit your sightings.
Here is the results from the Whitworth Jury.
Jan 29, 2012 8:10 AM - 9:10 AM , Clear skies -1.9ºC - 0.9ºC.
17 species
Common Wood-Pigeon 2
Eurasian Collared-Dove 2
Eurasian Jay 3
Common Magpie 2
Coal Tit 2
Great Tit 1
Blue Tit 1
Long-tailed Tit 8
European Robin 1
Eurasian Blackbird 4
Mistle Thrush 1
European Starling 11
Dunnock 1
Common Chaffinch 5
European Greenfinch 2
European Goldfinch 29
Eurasian Bullfinch 1
28th. A break from the garden wildlife had us making use of our RSPB membership on Saturday the 28th.
After a heavy flurry of snow the evening before and a hard frost the following morning I found it increasingly difficult to walk with the mattress attached to my back.
Non the less having defrosted the car Mandy and I set off as we had never been to the Old Moor RSPB reserve before. The temp at 08:00 was -2ºC but as the day progressed it reached about 5ºC with lovely clear skies.
We stayed about 5 hours with a leisurely walk around the six hides and screens. It was the usual RSPB reserve setup and a good cup of coffee and a sarny could be had. It seems it could be a good place for wild flowers as Mandy noted the many seed heads of lot's of wildflowers.
I was interested in seeing a few Yellowhammer as I had failed to see any of these for some time. The visitor centre is quite informative as a huge map also includes a long circular walk outside of the reserve which looks quite good as many other flashes and agricultural areas are encompassed.
Anyway what did we see
55 species (+1 other taxa) Canada Goose 15 Mute Swan 6 Common Shelduck 2 Gadwall 30 Eurasian Wigeon 50 Mallard 100 Northern Shoveler 10 Eurasian Teal 30 Common Pochard 5 Tufted Duck 20 Common Goldeneye 1 Goosander 2 Common Pheasant (Ring-necked) 20 Great Crested Grebe 1 Great Cormorant (Eurasian) 20 Grey Heron 1 Little Egret 1 Common Buzzard 3 Common Kestrel 2 Common Moorhen 10 Eurasian Coot 50 Northern Lapwing 100 Common Sandpiper 1 Common Redshank 2 Common Snipe 2 Black-headed Gull 50 Feral Pigeon 10 Stock Dove 15 Common Wood-Pigeon 100 Eurasian Collared-Dove 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 Green Woodpecker (Eurasian) 1 Common Magpie 30 Rook 1 Carrion Crow 30 Willow Tit 1 Great Tit 7 Blue Tit 3 Long-tailed Tit 3 Eurasian Wren 2 European Robin 3 Eurasian Blackbird 4 Fieldfare 30 Redwing 2 Song Thrush 2 European Starling 56 Dunnock 2 Pied Wagtail 2 Yellowhammer 5 Reed Bunting 20 Common Chaffinch 10 European Greenfinch 20 Lesser Redpoll 1 European Goldfinch 9 Eurasian Bullfinch 7 Tree Sparrow 12
27th. A tricky journey home tonight as very large snow flakes started to fall...it seemed from nowhere as it was just plain old rain all day. I had not noticed the temps had dropped and sure enough at 16:00 it was down to zero. It was filling in very quickly and a slow drive home was the order. As it stands at 19:00 it has scraped to 0.3C and has stopped snowing. It could well make for bad driving tomorrow as clear skies are now being forecast. The birds no doubt will appreciate the food if the temps drop below zero and it does make the garden look very atmospheric. I shall try to take a picture of the snow in the lit pergola as i thought it looked rather nice in the dark.
19th. Another
visitor which is becoming reasonably regular now considering it has
been a real rarity around the area in the past. It seems to favour next
doors Sycamore with the odd dash to the same neighbours Silver Birch
tree. It takes it's time climbing the main trunk of the Sycamore before
flying back to a low point and starting again...yes a Treecreeper. I
managed a poor pic (again) as it is quite a distance and looking through
double glazing does not help. It's still a welcome visitor but I just
have nothing to get the beauty into the garden to have it as a new
garden bird. Mature large trees are the thing but as I planted all of
the garden only about 7 years ago I have nothing with anything with
girth.
15th. The fine weather continues with the lowest temps for the year being recorded as it got down to -4.7ºC on Saturday morning. It dipped down to -4ºC last night but has recovered a little today as at 12:00 it is almost 3ºC !
As I looked out of the window this morning I noted a Skein of Pink footed Goose flying over the house. More or less 74 of them flew East to West. Quite a welcome sight as although they are recorded passing through Rossendale it's not something that I regularly note myself.
I tried again to get a shot of the Snowdrop in the garden but it still is proving difficult
I
recorded the first flower last year on the 1st Feb so we shall see if
the warmer temps this year can shave a little time off that.
12th. Wow....some sun finally made it through! It started off pretty gloomy today with drizzle until about 11:00. I had the afternoon to myself and was hoping that the weather forecast would be correct...and it was. I managed to do a few tasks in the garden and whilst I got on with cleaning some feeders I noticed a welcome sight. There has been much talk of early flowering in the countryside due to the mild weather and the unopened flower of the Snowdrops were present in the garden. I took a few photos but they are out of focus quite badly so i will have to try again come the weekend. they are in an awkward spot so I could not check what the camera was focused on.
The
other great thing, to me anyway, is that the temps are supposed to dip
down to below zero for the next 3-4 days. I hope this means clearer
skies as seeing the sun today reminded me how much I like it.
8th. A belated Happy New Year to all.
To start I thought I would mention a few figures for last years weather. I tracked down the averages for several data sets of weather for the North West and having inputted this into my weather station data it was no surprise to see the rain was very high to the region averages but the interesting thing was that having noted the Met Office stating the warm year of 2011 was duly noted in my weather stats also. The average data sets are taken from 1970-2000.
Temperature
November was 2.3ºC warmer. December was 0.3ºC warmer and the year in total was 1.0ºC warmer than the regional average.
Rainfall
February
had 167mm more than the average. Sept had 116mm over the
average.December had 183mm over the average. Notable other rain data was
the lack of rain in March with 24mm below the average and April 16mm
below the regional average. It is no surprise that over the year the
total amount of rainfall was a huge 851mm over the regional average.
The garden finished last year on a high with the visit of a Brambling and despite still having plenty of Chaffich visiting the Brambling is so far failed to show again. I was, however, please to note the reappearance of a female Great Spotted Woodpecker that had been missing for quite sometime. She made the now customary dart to the sunflower feeder before heading to the more traditional feeding place of a suet block. It is always strange to see a shift in behaviour and the woodpecker feeding from the tube feeder is most certainly a modern (in real terms) feeding habit. I took a quick snap of her early this morning with the P&S.
Whilst it is a little premature to think spring is here I have noted that a few changes in behaviour of the birds. Granted this could be more to do with the warm temps we have had so far in January but I have always thought that breeding takes hold once the light levels change and with the shortest day over with the birds are acting ever so slightly different. A very dominant male Great Tit is now shadowing his female and will not tolerate other Great Tits in the feeding area. The Robins are now showing signs of sexual tension and the Mistle Thrush has already well and truly claimed his territory with his singing daily from local Poplar trees.
The pointed tips of snowdrops are now showing well in the hedgerow of the garden and the lovely Oregon Grape has plenty of flower buds in preparation of the early and very important flowers.