ossettweather.com
Thursday 15 March 2012
Last of the Settled Weather
The settled weather of the last week is due to come to an end just in time for the weekend. On Thursday we had to wait until lunchtime once again for the sun to make an appearance after some early morning mist took its time to clear.
I made some more progress sorting out our new bird box camera. The advantage of wireless is that as no cable is required it’s not necessary to drill through the house wall. As our new camera is wired I wasn’t particularly relishing drilling the small hole required. As it turned out it wasn’t too much of a problem. I’ve just got to try and sort out the software to capture the action and we’re ready for our new family.
In the afternoon I turned my attention back to preparing the base for our new summerhouse. I’m concentrating on laying the whole paving slabs first before starting to fill in the tricky bits around the pond. I’ll need to take some of the old rubble to the tip before I can finish paving the remaining summerhouse base.
Friday 16 March 2012
Teething Problems
Friday was another fine day with plenty of sunshine and mild.
It was a day for connecting up all the bits and bobs of our bird box cam and seeing if we could manage an image to check on the comings and goings of our anticipated nest box family. Sure enough without too much of a fuss an image appeared of the inside of our new nest box. Now our software only captures images when movement takes place. This is fantastic as it avoids having hours of blank video to look through to check for visitors. An old garden cane pushed through the entrance hole to the next box confirmed that any movement would be captured. All we had to do now was hope for some visitors.
This morning I planned to post a picture of our empty pristine new nest box. Fortunately and much to my surprise as I started trying to locate a suitable image on my computer this blue tit popped into the nest box just in time. So instead of an empty nest box I’ve posted a picture of the first blue tit checking out a new detached property for its family.
Saturday 17 March 2012
Measuring Up
The heavy rain forecast for Saturday didn’t arrive which isn’t that unusual and I shouldn’t be surprised. It amounted to 1.2mm from a short spell of rain mid morning and one late evening. More showers before dawn on Sunday morning amounted to another 1.8mm. This month’s total is up to 12.8mm (0.5”)
The poor weather didn’t stop the blue tits from making several more visits to investigate whether the nest box meets their exacting standards for setting up home.
Who needs a tape measure to check out the dimensions of your new property when a wing span will do the job nicely. Of course we don’t know if the same bird that visited several times or that different blue tits were checking out the box.
The video below gives an idea of just how thoroughly the birds check out the box before deciding to nest.
Just to note that what looks like the entrance at the top of the picture is a window to allow in extra light and the entrance to the nest box is to the top left of the picture just out of sight.
Sunday 18 March 2012
Germination Times
After early morning rain Sunday turned out to be a pleasant day with plenty of sunny spells and just a light breeze.
At this time of year it’s a daily treat looking around the garden to see which bulbs and shrubs are coming into flower and checking for new buds and shoots on trees and perennials. A daily check is required on all our seeds to see if any need watering and to check which ones have germinated. Out of interest I’ve started making a note of the germination times for our seeds and added the details to one of our web pages here.
Monday 19 March 2012
Springwatch in Ossett
Monday wasn’t a bad day again with the weather almost a repeat of Sunday except that we didn’t get any early morning rain.
Our new wired bird box camera is now up and running and whilst a few tweaks are still required to improve video production I’m pleased with the way it’s working. I thought it was a bit of a shame not to make use of our old nest box. It might be provide a perfect residence for a pair of our many blue tit visitors to the garden. I gave a little thought to where it could be placed so that I could still make use of the wireless camera. The end result is two bird boxes both fitted with cameras.
The software for this camera doesn’t have any sophisticated motion detection software but we will still be able to grab pictures and video if any birds take up residence. I do know that a blue tit had a very quick inspection immediately after the box was erected. I have no idea if it’s been back or any other prospective residents have made a visited since.
I might have to turn my attention back to getting some gardening done now.
Tuesday 20 March 2012
To Water or Not?
As high pressure dominates and controls our weather at the moment Tuesday was another fine day with long sunny spells, mild and dry.
Our garlic and shallot in the greenhouse were ready to plant out down on the plot and I thought it was about time I got my green manure trial started by sowing a bed of Phacelia.
I’d already prepared this bed for sowing so all I had to do was scatter the seed followed by a gentle rake just to settle the seed in. As you can see from this picture the soil looks fairly dry so I thought about watering the seed in. The problem is watering the ground just tends to form a thin crust on the top of the soil as it dries out. I decided not to water as there is some moisture below and I’m hoping this is enough to germinate the seed.
Last year the plot needed plenty of watering to produce some reasonable crops. Fortunately we’re not in one of the areas where a hosepipe ban is starting at the beginning of April. However we do seem to be rather short of rain over the last couple of years. The table below shows the rainfall figures for the last couple of years and to March this year.
|
Year |
Expected Rainfall (mm) |
Actual Rainfall (mm) |
%age |
|
2010 |
651.5 |
556.4 |
85% |
|
2011 |
651.5 |
431.0 |
66% |
|
2012 |
133.5 |
83.3 |
62% |
|
|
Total Expected 1436.5 |
Actual Total 1070.7 |
75% |
This year has started off even drier than than the previous two years so it looks like plenty of watering will be required again.