With high pressure dominant for most of the month, March was excessively dry – measureable rain fell here on only four days. The Met. Office confirmed that we had less than half of our normal rainfall in what is already one of our driest months. It was also the sunniest March since 1929. There were cold snaps with icy winds early and late in the month, with a milder slot in between. Reflecting the dry autumn and winter, the highest water level at the Devil’s Hole slack was 46 cm lower than last year’s record high. One result is that the spawning sites used by Natterjacks at this site may be too shallow this spring, unless we get a lot of rain.

Another month of record breaking weather started with the warmest New Year’s Day ever. It was also the sunniest January recorded for England, though we experienced many days of continuous cloud cover. Finally, in contrast to December, it was particularly dry, rainfall in England being less than 40% of average. Here, only eight days had...

January was remarkably mild with early-morning frost on only three days. It rained on 14 days but most of it was light and patchy, being concentrated in the first half of the month. Accordingly, the water-table rose by 6.5 cm in the first two weeks but fell by 1 cm in the next fortnight. The...

Could I find any insects, other than Winter-gnats, in December? A visit to the Holden Road, Crosby Ivy patches on 1st provided the answer. Sure enough, I spotted two each of the two common Drone-flies and a Green Shieldbug of the brown pre-hibernation colour-form. This bonanza couldn’t last; the following day I had to break...