You never stop learning, well I also never stop undertaking my own research or following that of others. This post is a very brief one and perhaps I should entitle it “The research continues”.
Below is a replicated screen grab of my 2400th uploaded Evernote note as uploaded into Trello. I simply thought I would share it with you.
Not much blogging of late as I’ve been otherwise engaged in my freelancing activities. However, I’m always on the search for more work so please get in touch if I can help your business out in any way. For instance, I’m currently engaged in a few bird surveying projects in Southern and Central parts of the UK but I’m always on the look out for more.
Speaking of which, let’s have some record shots of some of those young birds which might just be in your backyard at the current time.
A recently fledged Robin (Erithacus rubecula)A juvenile Blackbird (Turdus merula)A group of partially hidden juvenile Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)Juvenile Starlings in the Birdbath
As ever, I’d also be eternally grateful if you could kindly support my pages on Facebook, where I can be found under the name of naturestimeline and naturestimeline StandUp4Nature.
naturestimeline Education services – “A conservation professional sharing his personal perspective on breaking news stories from the world of nature alongside his own accounts from the field.”
Spring peak has arrived and Summer is just around the corner too, as the birds are singing, the bees are buzzing, the trees are leafing and this blog is…… well desperate for content if truth be told.
Fear not, anybody who knows me will realise that I am still active over on Facebook and I haven’t disappeared into the oblivion, take today’s Facebook Naturestimeline cover update below, for instance.
And then there is the original, unedited, uncropped version (beware, large upload) for all my fellow nature lovers to admire.
Song Thrush in the garden, sitting atop a wheelbarrow
Isn’t he or she a beauty eh! My advice to you is, should one need a boost for their wellbeing, just listen intently to birds such as the one shown above, singing lustily away at dawn or dusk amongst a cacophony of other birdsound. Of course, there are times when they’re not over vocal as when raising their own family, it is best to be quieter then as noisy adults make for noisy children, you know. As for my own voice, it can often be heard over on LinkedIn. I like to participate in various LinkedIn Group discussions over there or simply make worthwhile connections with fellow naturalists and conservation professionals as the more the merrier, the bigger the conservation movement. I am an occasional Google+ community user as is evidenced by the badges on this page as well, of course.
So finally, it is time for a request. Wherever you find yourself loitering about online, do please let us know. As you are my audience, therefore we should get connected and continue to fight our fight together, for the good of the Natural World.
More, next time.
naturestimeline Media/News/Publishing “A conservation professional sharing his personal perspective on breaking news stories from the world of nature alongside his own accounts from the field.”
Looking back at January 2013, were my local climatic conditions much different to that of 2012?
Firstly, in the United Kingdom, 2012 began as “the year of the drought” * with recorded precipitation totalling 32.8mm in my neck of the woods. By comparison, January this time around looked like this.
January 2013 rainfall
In total, we received 61.6mm, which is still below the revised 1981 to 2010 mean by approximately 25% or so. What about the Air Temperatures?
January 2012 was mild in comparison with some 11 double-digit Fahrenheit Maximums being achieved back then and unsurprisingly a mean of 0.8cabove the long-term average, mentioned previously. This time around, January2013 saw the following daily Air temperature trend.
January 2013 Air Temperature highs and lows
Due to almost two-thirds of January 2013 being in the cold to very cold category, it is unsurprising that the mean return of 4.0c was below the long-term average by 0.6c. As a result of the above, can you guess which phenological indicators were to show themselves amidst the cold of January?
The first Primroses (Primula vulgaris) were witnessed in bloom on 5th January. However, before we jump for joy at seeing them so early in the year, one should perhaps, read an excerpt from Richard Mabey‘s wonderful Flora Britannica. In there, Richard states that they are not the most reliable of indicators when it comes to tracking climate change. Oh well! They are however, beautiful to see and always brighten up a dull day.
An early songster is always nice to hear and one of the first to embrace the New Year was the Blackbird (Turdus Merula). I first heard the 2013 song of this particular species on 7th January, whereas last year it was 9th January. A personal sound recording of a Blackbird can be heard below. This link will take you to another website, which upon opening, you should click the orange icon on the Left Hand side of your screen to allow playback of the sound recording.
The next phenology indicator of interest came courtesy of First Hazel Flowering (Corylus avellana) on 11th January. This compares favourably with the 7th Januarysighting from the previous year. A record shot of which, I have attached below.
Hazel catkins flowering
The final phenologically related event of any consequence came about on the 21st January. This revealed itself in the form of a Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) first heard singing. The corresponding date last year was the 13th January. A personal sound recording of a Chaffinch singing is available via the link shown below.
A final way to view the ongoing trend in my datasets is to observe them in graphical format. Good news!
Represented below are the aforementioned sightings in such a manner. Please note each event recorded annually is represented as a day number and not in date format. The events have been logged, only during years, in which I managed to achieve a meaningful result. Please make what you will of the data.
Primrose First Flowering (locally) as of 2013Blackbird First Heard Singing (locally) as of 2013Hazel First Flowering (locally) as of 2013Chaffinch First Heard Singing (locally) as of 2013
Given the cold conditions of January and the fact that I have often been preoccupied in my personal life, things have been rather slow to unfold. February was to prove a different story.
* The year of ongoing drought quickly became the year it never stopped raining, officially 2nd wettest in Met Office recorded history.
naturestimeline Education services – “A conservation professional sharing his personal perspective on breaking news stories from the world of nature alongside his own accounts from the field.”
