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,...
Persistent cold winds from the west and northwest were an unwelcome feature of May this year. Although these reduced the variety of migrant birds and slowed the appearance of wild flowers and insects, our coastline still produced plenty of interest. Fortunately, occasional rain meant that what little surface water remained from the April drought was...
An almost constant refrain in my April notes since 2007 has been drought conditions in the dunes. Persistent high pressure meant no measureable rain fell between 4th and 25th April. This pattern is now well established, analysis of spring rainfall data from the Ainsdale National Nature Reserve weather station revealing a statistically significant decline since...