Following June’s drought, July weather returned to “normal” with rainfall sufficient to restore straw coloured lawns and verges to a verdant green, while encouraging a blaze of colourful wild flowers along the coast. Birkdale Green Beach, in particular, produced a wonderful display, Common, Seaside and Lesser Centauries being especially prominent, together with the first of...
A desperately dry month spelt disaster for the few sand-dune wetlands still holding enough surface water to support Natterjack tadpoles and contributed to several large fires in the dunes. On 9th, Patricia Lockwood and I netted and relocated about 2000 tadpoles on the southern section of Birkdale Green Beach to 12cm depth of water. However,...
A pattern of dry spring months has been evident for over a decade, March having only 65% of normal rainfall in England and Wales. An unexpected deluge came on 12th-13th but a small recovery in the height of the dune water-table in mid-month was subsequently lost. The ponds at Freshfield Dune Heath Nature Reserve remained...