point for the band reference. In something which I think must be weather related I have just found 3 small birds, young finches I think, in my garden, one dead two in a bad way, with what I suspect is heat exhaustion. Birds falling from the sky! It’s like something from One Hundred Years of Solitude. I gave the knackered ones a drink and carefully deposited them in next doors garden, because my dog wanted to play with them (in fact it was him jumping around which alerted me to their presence) which would not have ended well. There are lots of these little critters flying around chirping, so I think they know some of their number are in distress. A cat or fox will have them soon I fear. Shame. Any other weird stuff going on? Pavements melting? We really aren’t built for this heat are we, yet when I’m in more heat in places where I expect it to be hot, no problem.
It's been raining on and off here in West Sussex for more than an hour. And cool. Never thought I'd appreciate an hour of the traditional English summer as much
It's been horrible. I've gone from running 7 minute miles to, at times, struggling to walk as my toes and knees seem permanently swollen (I assume they have been recovering overnight but just cannot do it in this heat). The pavements all stink and look disgusting (weird dark splodges mainly) due to the lack of rain (must be about 6 or 7 weeks since we've had any). Storms due at 7 here and I must confess to being overexcited by the prospect.
Once it has rained stay safe driving as the roads will be extra slippy and greasy, with weeks of build up.
Been 30 degrees, give or take, here in South Oxfordshire for weeks now. No meaningful rain for around 2 months. All wildlife struggling. People saying "It's just summer" are wrong. This has been extreme. Grass not growing and trees shedding leaves. Farmers and gardeners are desperate for some sustained rain. Had a very brief downpour earlier and it's muggy as hell now. Looks stormy. Hopefully we'll have had a fair amount of rain by the end of the weekend. Nice for sitting in the garden mind, now we're over the worst of the house move (again in 30 degree heat!!).
Night of the blood red moon eclipse ..Will not see it in Oxon/Bucks... overcast storm clouds. But only a splattering of rain...make your mind up weather...this isn't clever Sent from my STF-L09 using Tapatalk
I saw some comparative temperature maps in the Times the other day, which are unfortunately a bastard to cut and paste. All across the northern hemisphere, and in most of the south, average temperatures are way above normal. It was quite scary, they compared with 1976, where there was a hotspot over Western Europe but the rest of the world was normal. This is a global weather event, and not a good one. The adult finches (I think) are still hanging around chirping plaintively, in search of the little ones. It’s quite melancholy.
One died, the other two I gave a bit of water to and put them in next doors garden, as my dog would have played with them until death (though he had no intention of eating them). I think they were both pretty close to expiry, neither could do anything other than flutter, definitely not fly, and were panting madly. The two adults have been flying around all afternoon.
I'm riding the London Surrey 100 on Sunday so the forecast lower temperatures will be very welcome Hoping that it won't be p!ssing down instead
It puts some of the other **** we are dealing with into perspective. These little birds were fully feathered but seemed to have shorter tails than their parents (I’m guessing the two bigger ones are the parents). Might have been their first flight and they just got so hot they couldn’t cope. Having had a look at the excellent RSPB website I think they are ChiffChaffs or female chaffinches. Likely?
Heavy rain here - the first for 50 days apparently. It feels really humid still (that goes with the mad thunderstorms we've got) but already cooler. A relief for my sanity (might be able to sleep properly) and nice to see the garden looking greener already. For wildlife, we have some newts and hedgehogs who I haven't seen this Summer but seen some evidence of. I hope this has come soon enough for them.
I know more about the birds that kill them, but I reckon Chaffinches more likely. Rained a lot overnight here. Much needed! Cooler now, but beautiful clear blue skies.
Much cooler and rather windy but no rain that I am aware of, unless it showered overnight and has already been absorbed by the parched earth. Birds gave up looking for the little ones at dusk last night.
We had a fair amount of rain overnight here in Ooh-Argh-Ampshire, puddles now steaming their way to the sky again and sun already hot. Walked the mutt at 8AM and he wasn’t gonna play with any of the other canines we encountered along the way, thank you very much.
