Met Office maps show that, while England had average or above average April rainfall, Merseyside was much drier than usual; it was also on the cool side. Formby had a mere nine days with measurable precipitation and only one properly wet day (10th). As a result, the sand-dune water-table fell by about 12 cm (5 inches). Nevertheless, conditions were nothing like as bad as the spring droughts of recent years.
Avian Influenza is killing large numbers of Black-headed Gulls at inland and coastal breeding colonies across central and northern England, prompting fears among scientists that a new wave of the disease could be building.
The first Cuckoo from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Cuckoo Tracking Project to arrive back in the UK reached his breeding grounds in Wales over the weekend, researchers revealed today. The bird, named JAC, arrived near the Welsh town of Llangollen, marking the end of an extraordinary 12,000 km round trip between the UK and the rainforests of central Africa, where JAC and the other BTO Cuckoos spent the winter.
After a largely insect-free winter, I always look forward to March when things really begin to kick off. On 7th I was pleased to find a Greater Spring Blacklet basking on Ivy in woodland at Freshfield. This was a fairly early record of a widespread spring-flying hoverfly that mimics solitary bees.