Weather

[mark smyth]

here are some rain stats kindly provided by Bob Gordon

21st March 2007 5mm
28th March 2007 5mm
and that's it so far. There was enough in my area last night to form beads on my recently waxed car but not enough for the garden

[mark smyth]

I DEMAND RAIN!!

[David Nicholson]

I DEMAND RAIN!!

Article taken from the Antrim Times:-

"A young!! Antrim gardener was brought before Antrim Magistrates today having been arrested last night. It appears that he was caught in a semi-naked state, with the visible parts of his body gaudily marked with many shades of emulsion paint, dacing around the clothes dryer in his garden and chanting at the top of his voice.

In his address to the Magistrates the gardener asked for clemency as he was only trying to end the current drought by pleading to the Rain Gods.

After considerstion the Magistrates bound him over to keep the Peace and served him with a Community Service Order requiring him to closely mow all grass verges between Antrim and Belfast berore breakfast time each Tuesday until 2014".

[mark smyth]

very good David. Really made me laugh out loud but I would like some rain. One of my beds is dry to over 4" 10cm

[Paul T]

Last night a kids sports club up in queensland had 12,000 litres of water stolen from their tank.  It was keeping their playing fields green, plus the toilets etc in the clubhouse.  They drained the tank.  Must have been done with a professional tanker and pump etc.  Yesterday stage 5 water restrictions were put in place in south east queensland which further restricts their watering times...... obviously someone decided they wanted some water for their tanks to help with the restrictions.  Just awful to have the club lose the whole contents of their tank.  So much of southern Australia is in severe drought now, so you're not alone Mark, even if we are across the other side of the world. LOL

[Anthony Darby]

I'll tell you where the rain is.......bloody Spain!!!!! Guess where I've been?

[Anthony Darby]

Well, having just spent a week listening to swifts screeming overhead [the rain was elsewhere in Spain, thankfully], I decided to check my swift boxes. I didn't even need to get close to see that the left-hand box had been tenanted by starlings. I horsed them out, along with half a hay stack (and a bit of my camomile 'lawn'!) and fitted sloping battens and that seemed to do the trick. Time will tell.

[mark smyth]

The entrance must be slightly too big. The swifts will be here in two weeks so get your CD player and attraction CD ready. Just buy a cheap speaker from a car shop and hang it below one of the boxes. I'm going one step further with mine. When my mum goes to Spain in May I'm drilling holes in the gable wall and putting nest boxes in the attic

[Maggi Young]

The swifts will be here in two weeks so get your CD player and attraction CD ready.

Okay, I'm missing something here... why would we be using a special CD to atttract swifts for? Isn't a ready made nest box a good enough incentive for them?

[Susan Band]

Yeh maggi, how will swifts ever be able to dance with their short legs, they can't even stand up

[mark smyth]

yes and no. The swifts dont know the boxes are there.

What happens is non breeding swifts literally harass breeding pairs by banging on the entrances to their nest sites with their bodies and wings to see/hear if anyone is at home. The resident pair will then duet to say this site is occupied. The attraction CD is a looped 10 second duet which when played will attract non breeders and pairs that have lost their nest sites usually down to modernisation of a building or PVC facias and soffits going up. They will buzz the boxes and hopefully take up residence. An interesting bit of info is swifts take 3 to 5 years to mature and during all this time they never land. It must be very frightening for such an aerial bird to enter a dark nest site for the first time. They spend only 96 days at their nest sites. They have been arriving all over Europe this week and arrived in Holland yesterday. This warm weather may push them in to the UK earlier than ever

[Maggi Young]

Yeh maggi, how will swifts ever be able to dance with their short legs, they can't even stand up

Now that's a problem I sympathise with!!

The attraction CD is a looped 10 second duet which when played will attract non breeders and pairs that have lost their nest sites

But I don't understand how a duet can attract the birds when, if they prospect an occupied box, they discover it is being used by being sung at ! Surely a tape of anything will tell them the box is in use?
Or is the tape of a lonely swift? But then it would need to be of a male and female to work with lonely hearts of both sexes... this is getting too muddled for me!

[Anthony Darby]

The CD just has swifts screaming, so it must draw them down to investigate? The hole size is as instructed and I would think any hole a swift can get through a determined starling will?  It was quite a sight watching several dozen wheeling about in the early evening, just as the tiny bats came out (~7.00 p.m. and still broad daylight).

[Hans J]

Here the wether from South West germany :

Yesterday we had 27° C ....and for the weekend is said : 30° !!!

and no rain ......

   Greetings Hans

[Joakim B]

It is hard to make a sun but what about watering plants?
Atleast in Ireland it should not be a problem with water so why not water them?
Joakim