Weather June 2010

[mark smyth]

Stephen are you playing your swift CD? Any swifts?

N Ireland is having it's hottest spring/early summer since .... sorry I cant remember what was said

Drove through many rain showers today on the way to the orchid walk. The sun soon came out and the temp hit 25.5 dry road on the way home. No rain fell on my garden.

[mark smyth]

This is a photo of todays rain

[Lesley Cox]

What a deluge Mark! That's a heck of a big puddle outside your door.

[Stephenb]

Stephen are you playing your swift CD? Any swifts?

Strange you should ask as I was about to post about this. I hadn't played it until yesterday because a) I hadn't seen any swifts at all where I live b) there are House Sparrows (another species on the decline) in my swift box (would swifts manage to turf out sparrows?)

Then yesterday I saw a couple of birds circling over the village about 750m away, so I decided to put the CD on. I just put it on my hifi and pointed the speaker out the window and cranked up the volume. First response was a Common Gull, sitting atop a spruce tree, started to alarm. Soon it seemed that all the birds in the garden (pied flycatchers, robins, chiffchaff etc) were also alarming. Not absolutely sure if this was in response to the swift noises as there may have been a cat out there that had started moving in response to the noise. Anyway, within a couple of minutes, the tape had done the trick and the swifts were divebombing the house! However, it was all over in a couple of minutes and the birds disappeared.

Does the speaker have to be placed close to the nest box to succeed?

I continued playing it for some time, but the birds had obviously flown and I was worried that the noise was disturbing my neighbours (the CD just repeats the same sound with short breaks so gets a bit monotonous). 

[Thomas Huber]

Sorry for the delay - just came about this thread by coincidence today and decided to disturb my
yearly summer sleep from the forum.

Many thanks to you all for thinking of me. As Lesley and Paul already mentioned me and the family
are OK. My basement was flooded twice, but has been cleaned soon, exept one room where I have
to use a drying machine for the next 4 weeks because the water is in the brickwork and groundfloor.

Here a link to the video from the local TV:
http://www.hr-online.de/website/fernsehen/sendungen/index.jsp?rubrik=57579&key=standard_document_39263223&mediakey=fs/hessenschau/20100611_1930_unwetter&type=v

The first two reports are from the Neustadt area (roadtanker and mud) and the burned down supermarket
is in the Town where Tanja works.

It was only in Neustadt where we had such a hard rain  (50ltr in 30 minutes) -  all the firebrigades from  
a radius of 30km have been here to help us because there were luckily no damages in their own towns
and so we soon got rid of that horrible water and mud.

How much luck the Hubi's had, has been seen when I made a ride with the bike (not possible with the car)
in the morning after the catastrophe - there have been so many friends and neighbours who had more and
much more damage than we had  

By the way: We had a wonderful weekend with sunshine and 28°C and a great party yesterday with my
band in my garden - life always goes on   No more rain since the horrible nights 10th and 11th of June.

[mark smyth]

That's the response I would expect from the swifts but not the other birds. Just because you dont see swifts doesnt mean they aren't in the area all the time. They are gone in seconds as they fly over. The speaker, a cheap car speaker will do, needs to be beside the nest box. I know it's repetitive but it works. If I had a parabolic microphone I would make my own with longet gaps

[Maggi Young]

Hey, Thomas! So pleased to hear that the Hubis are fine and that the damage can be fixed.
Happy Summer to you!

[Lesley Cox]

Great to have confirmed Thomas that you and the family are all OK. There's nothing like a good party with music to cheer everyone and keep the spirits up. And it won't be too long until autumn crocuses join in. Keep smiling.

[Stephenb]

That's the response I would expect from the swifts but not the other birds. Just because you dont see swifts doesnt mean they aren't in the area all the time. They are gone in seconds as they fly over. The speaker, a cheap car speaker will do, needs to be beside the nest box. I know it's repetitive but it works. If I had a parabolic microphone I would make my own with longet gaps

Put "the noise" on again tonight when I spotted 4 swifts circling high above. Again they rapidly descended and divebombed the house to get a closer look, but soon lost interest again (thinking, just another one of those CD  impostors ). However, soon after four swallows also seemed to be attracted by the sound (I occasionally see swallows, but this is the most this year) - are swallows attracted by the sound of swifts as it may mean a food source? I can't believe that this is just a coincidence...

[daveyp1970]

just a quick photo from this morning

[Maggi Young]

Very dramatic, Davey... what time was that?

[Martinr]

Davey, far too early

[daveyp1970]

4.15 this morning very very early

[Maggi Young]

4.15 this morning very very early

I thought as much.... I take it you were going gout to work, or perhaps you were just coming home from the night before......

[fredg]

It's far too dry.
All my barrels are down to the dregs.
It looks like Friday's forecast rain will miss us...... help!