Drought is official !

 This week, the UK was officially in Drought, having sustained 4 heatwaves and a number of open forest fires.  We now have water hosepipe bans in our area. For our part, we always collect roof rain water into 3 large water butts, which are now almost dry.

The birds are coming in droves to feed, as there is a shortage of natural food for most species. These Long Tailed Tits are usually insect feeders, but with wetland issues, there are fewer insects around for them to feed on.

Our front lawn is in a bit of a state and half or our plants are partially dying off due to low water content in the soil.  This will all recover with the next heavy rain and a bit of post rain tidying up.

Nearby, at Westport Lakes, the water level is very low.  These posts are normally submerged in the water for most of the year.  Levels are probably 60cm low in the larger lakes.  The water birds that inhabit or visit the lakes are dwindling in numbers. A few weeks ago there were lots of Canada Geese grazing the grass, but now the grass has dried out and died back, most of them have moved on.  The Coots are also absent at present and Cormorants are flying in to see if they can find fish to eat.

The smaller lakes are all but dried out and the birds are standing around on pathways to avoid the thick green algal layers that are covering the remaining water.

Not all gloom and doom.  The local council have managed to replace our broken recycling bin, less than 2 months after the reported split in the main body of the bin.  Life goes on.........