Tag: weather

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Starting from number six there are five new photographs on…

Starting from number six there are five new photographs on the Photo Page.

Betty save the day by sending in over 60 photographs.

Chicken at our picnic table in Beamish Betty Canada.

Hay Rick at Beamish, is that a weather vane on top? Betty Canada.

Shark Hull Aquarium Betty Canada.

Emu eggs that I found.

Emu egg incubator warming up.

Teach me to keep my eyes open. At least every other day I have been walking all over the Emu Field looking for any eggs that they have laid since I found one a few weeks back. yesterday afternoon I walked the Field again and came across a nest tucked away in the far right hand corner of the Field partly covered with grass. How I missed the nest I will never know as there were 20 eggs in the nest. Trouble is that I don’t know how old the eggs are. You can keep the eggs for about 14 days before incubating them but some that I found may be a lot older. By the look of the eggs I would think that the eggs were laid by 3 or 4 different Emu.

Today we have been getting the incubator ready for the eggs. I was waiting for a couple more eggs before cleaning the incubator ready to set the eggs. It will need to be running for a couple of day to make sure that it is working properly as we have only just got the incubator and I am not to sure how they work yet. I cant complain as I was starting to think that we may not get many eggs this year after the moving the bird only six weeks ago.

Asbo has been doing his job. We started to incubate some of the eggs he has fertilised earlier this week. On checking them last night a lot of the eggs are fertile so in just over two weeks we will start hatching the eggs on the webcam. Just a bit shorter than the time that the Emu eggs will take to incubate of 56 days.

Thornton has been coming in a lot more. I think it may be something to do with the weather. The only time he doesn’t come in is when it is raining at the time he normally knocks on the door to come in, then he will spend the night in the barn with some of the other Sheep. Believe me Thorbton really does knock on the door. Normally three times. At times when I need to knocked on the Cottages doors they are not answered as people think that it is Thornton who is knocking.

Dennis has got very big. If it wasn’t that he is a pet he would be just about be the size of a Turkey that we would buy for Christmas, saving a lot of money. We have never eaten any of the animals that we have kept at Denbury. Ostrich meat is very tasty and low in cholesterol but after working with them we couldn’t eat any. The same with Wild Boar. I use to give the Piglets away once they were weaned. We just may just have one of our Lambs next year. We usually send them to Market but the last time that I put any in to be sold they only fetched a small amount and after the commissions I was sent an invoice. This year we have sent three to the abattoir, partly because of the little we got but also because we do not like to see the stress that the animals go through when sent to Market, we also never know just how far they will travel before getting to their final destination. Two that we had slaughtered were sold to two of our Holiday Guests,and one to friends. Although the Lambs didn’t look that big the Butcher said that they were very well finished and the meat did look very good. All three people who had them said the the meat tasted very good. Two said it was the best that they had ever eaten.

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Starting from number one there are five new photographs on…

Starting from number one there are five new photographs on the Photo Page.

A tree I came across in Cornwall.

Some coastal rock formations in North Cornwall.

Looks like Arthur is arising from the waves to save us – might be a bit late!

Lions at Cotswold Park.

Raglan Castle.

We have cut 5 acres of grass today in the hope that we may have 5 days of dry weather to make some hay. I am not holding my breath that the Met Office forecast for the next 4 to 5 days is going to be right, they haven’t managed it in July other than 2 or 3 days. The other were from one day to the next with them changing their guesses in the hope that we may not notice that they have been changed.

It is not any persons fault for the rain we have had over the past month, but someone should have to answer for the wrong forecasting. We could have made hay in June but we held it off because of the barbeque weather we were promised. This is the latest that we have tried to make hay in all the time we have been at Denbury. It is not going to be that good even if the weather stays fine. All of the seed has dropped and a lot of the grass went over its best weeks back. New grass is even growing through the old. It is also the first time that we have not cut all of our grass to make hay. We have only cut 5 acres knowing that there is a good chance the weather forecast is going to be wrong. Not a good way to have to work to bring in our crop.

Most of the cereal farmers have not been able to combine their barley because of the weather. The barley should have been harvested at least two weeks ago. Some of the seed would have dropped meaning less barley and higher prices. Lets hope we get a good spell of dry and warm weather.

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Starting from number one there are five new photographs on…

Starting from number one there are five new photographs on the Photo Page.

As promised Louise has downloaded her photos off her lap top onto my pc. Jacqui

A lovely white pigeon or dove that regularly visits the garden

Close up of a hornet which landed on her car windscreen wiper

Another shot of the hornet. I wouldn

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting from number one, sent in by Judy. There is only one day of photographs left.

Close up of a Moth I saw in our shed
Head of the moth
Passion flower in my garden
White Dahlia in my garden
A Red Squirrel taken on SWT2 cam. Judy

I thought that you maybe interested in the reply that we got from the Met Office about a complaint we made two weeks or so back, and our reply.

Thank you for your recent feedback about Met Office weather forecasts for Watchet in Somerset .

We are sorry if you have seen a Met Office forecast that you felt was misleading. We understand that it can be frustrating for people trying to plan activities around the weather, which is why we do always try to get the forecast right.

Met Office forecasts are produced from our computer models. These use data fed in from many thousands of observations as a starting point and run programmes which take various mathematical equations of motion, thermodynamics and state to predict the behaviour of the atmosphere. There is then a process by which forecasters quality check the model’s output before forecasts are issued.

Our forecast model data then feeds into a site specific forecast model which is then run to produce the site specific forecasts for our web site, the BBC weather web pages and others. Our forecast model data, once checked, also forms the basis of the guidance issued by the Chief Forecaster in our Operations Centre and products to all our various customers, including information supplied to the BBC for radio and television forecasts.

Please be assured that our forecasters do work hard to ensure our forecasts are as accurate and consistent as possible. The British Isles experiences some of the most complex weather systems anywhere in the world and any forecast issued will always the best possible from the information available. We strive for 100% accuracy but there will be times when we do not get the local detail absolutely correct.

Although the computer models are vastly improved compared with even a few years ago, there may be small errors which are magnified over time, for example the timing or position of any low pressure area or weather front passing which can make quite a difference to the forecast for a particular locality.

Over recent years we believe we have made great strides in improving the accuracy of our forecasts and I can assure you we are constantly working to improve this. A number of initiatives are being worked on such as recent improvements in the computerised forecast models. Feedback from customers such as yourself is invaluable in bringing potential problems to our attention. Planned upgrades to our supercomputing capacity, due to become operational in the next few years, will allow higher resolution models to be run which will provide even greater improvements in local detail and guidance. Clearly we will be expected to provide more accurate, targeted and localised forecasts in the ye! ars to come and this is where our efforts should and will be directed.

Regarding your query about more detaiIed forecasts for the specialist farmer, I wonder if our Talk To A Forecaster service might potentially be of benefit to you? This is a consultancy service where you can talk directly to a forecaster in our Operations Centre to request weather information for any land area in the UK the next few hours or for up to five days ahead. There are more details of this service on our web site at http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/services/talkfc/. However, we recognise that a paid consultancy service may not be appropriate for all c! ustomers. We do also offer a telephone service called Weathercall where you can obtain a five day forecast for locations within the UK via telephone, fax, web download or SMS. There is more information about this service at http://www.weathercall.co.uk/ .

In summary, we are sorry if you have been disappointed with forecasts on some occasions. I hope the above at least reassures you that we aim to address concerns about forecast accuracy. Thank you once again for your valuable feedback, which will help us improve our services in the future, and for taking the time to contact the Met Office.

Yours sincerely, Martin Kidds Customer Feedback Manager

Dear Martin,

Our location is Taunton not Watchet, fourteen miles difference, quite obviously the correct information was not passed on, unless of course you have emailed the wrong complainant.

I did not feel that the forecast was misleading, it was. Bad weather forecasting is not frustrating, it is annoying and causes unnecessary problems. I can not for the life of me understand that you always try to get the forecast right. Surely the equipment at your disposal try does not come in to it. My complaint was of a forecast given at 10.pm that was completely opposite ten hours later.

I have found your forecasting to be in the region of 25% wrong. Since my initial complaint some two to three weeks back it would be more than 30%. So it is not unreasonable to suggest that forecasts produced from your computer models. data fed in from many thousands of observations various mathematical equations of motion, thermodynamics and state to predict the behavior of the atmosphere are clearly not working.

Frankly I do not care where your model data is fed, finishes at, and to whom, to go out where. I only asked for an explanation why the forecast I received was wrong just twelve hours later.

I would not suggest for one moment that you do not try to get your forecasting right, unfortunately for all who use it you do not. If the British Isles weather forecasting is so complex and challenging for the Met Office, stop forecasting.

I have not seen any improvement in your forecasting over recent years. Three or four years ago I complained as I had 15 acres of hay ruined because of your forecasting, it most defiantly it has not improved since then.

As for your Talk to a Forecaster service. If they are that good why is it not being used for all forecasting, especially as the Met Office is taxpayer funded.

Your email has not answered my complaint of why you got a forecast completely wrong twelve hours after it was given. I am going to try this service www.weather.weatherbug.co.uk unless you tell me that the Met office supply their information.

Regards

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting from number one.

SWAN AT WELSH WILDLIFE CENTRE LYNNE.

MALLARD, LYNNE.

DUCKS RUSHING FOR SOME BREAD, LYNNE.

ROSE AFTER A RAINSHOWER, LYNNE.

I WANT …..THAT NUT THERE !!! LYNNE.

We took a bit of a fly-er on making our hay last month. There was only a four to five day gap in between forecasted rain. It turned out to be the correct decision for since then we have not had any four to five day rainless periods. I would now be worrying that we would not have made any hay at all this year. After being made hay takes around six weeks to show how good it is, and our is looking very good, with a nice smell. We only made just over a hundred large round bales, a good third less than we made last year in large bales. We also made over a hundred small bales last year, so this years crop has been small. With the rain and warmth that we have had over the past month the grass is still growing very well and if we have an Indian summer we may well take another cut. I could have made more hay in the first field that we cut but I promised our Contractor that he could have it for haylage. Haylage is made by baling and wrapping the hay just before it is completely dry. If made well haylage has a very sweet smell and is a favorite for livestock, including Horses, If we get the Indian summer I may just try to make a little haylage in one of our other fields. The trouble is that if it is made badly it goes mouldy and feisty and can be bad for Horses.

This year is the worse Summer that we have had for making hay since we moved to Denbury fifteen years ago. Unfortunately the weather has been like it for most of the Country. I cant imagine what it must be like for the people that have taken their Children to seaside resorts, the Children must be so disappointed. We don’t get any moaning about the weather from our Holiday Guests. Of course the weather is important but there are other things that can be done on a Farm. Mind you I make up for every one else when the Forecasters get it wrong. We never did get a call from the Met Office, as they said they would, I suppose there wasn’t a lot that they could say. Our Contractor didn’t make haylage in the field that we let him use. He used it for grazing his Cattle, but it hasn’t lasted very long as with this rain the cattle have poached the land and I have had to ask him to move his Cattle to a different part of the field that is higher. I only realised at the weekend that another field that we have allowed him to used is quite badly poached. I don’t like poached fields as they are uncomfortable to walk as well as being very muddy. This year is the first since I had Cattle, that we have had Cattle at Denbury nearly ten years ago. We wont be having them here again.

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Starting from number eleven there are five new photographs on…

Starting from number eleven there are five new photographs on the Photo page. I do have a few photographs from various people. They will all go on the Photo page.

A few days ago we had another visit from a rather large flying bug – a Maybug, I think. It landed on my sweater and remained there even when I removed the sweater in an effort to get a few photos!! Julia.

I thought I would share this story about our local Canada Geese. We live close to the Water District

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number one.

Morning all, just to let you see what we woke up to this morning, I know its not a lot, but, the weatherman said last night that it would miss us !! Jan (herts)

Otters at a Sanctuary near St Ives in Cornwall.Lindsay.

Sparrow which was taken in my garden. Vicky from Derby

“Badger Watch”, Molly enjoys wildlife programs.Carol

Here is another picture of Beryl, this was taken through the kitchen window. Val.

I didn’t get time to get the new Lake webcam going today. I will try to find time tomorrow. I want to see it going, as it would be interesting to see the Pond beyond the Lake. I will also be able to see when any Herons land on the Pond. When we stocked the Lake with Fish we didn’t put any in the Pond, but over the years the Fry must have gone through the pipe that connects the Lake and Pond, now there are some good sized Fish in it. The Herons that land on the Lake must have got wise to me chasing them off, as we rarely see them on the Lake. We do see them on the Pond when we drive down our driveway. They wouldn’t be my favorite birds especially when I see them fishing on the water.

Other than a few snow flurries today, it really is looking Spingyfied on the Farm. Lots of yellow with the Daffodils, Primroses and around the Lake the Marsh Marigold. The Blackthorn has started to flower. We have a lot of Blackthorn around the Farm, when in flower it is one of my favorite scrubs, maybe because when it flowers you know that the warmer days are nearly here. It has been one of the best Autumn and Winters for the weather that we have had since we have been at Denbury. It hasn’t been to cold or over wet. With the weather being so good we managed to be able to keep the Horses out in the field, up to a few days before Christmas, a big bonus for us. We still have to muck the stables out every day, but we are not clearing up after the Horses all day long. We would have if we had needed to keep them in around the yard. For nearly a month we have also been able to let Breeze and Arnie out in the small paddock, that is in view when we put the Sheep pen webcam on. The ground of the paddock is a little poached, but not as much as other years. As long as we get a bit of rain and a lot of warm sun we will be able to turn all of the Horses out on the 1st of May for the Summer.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number eleven.

Taken from the rope bridge at Lands End. Quite a scary place to stop and take a photo, especially when you don’t like heights but I had to prove to Elaine that I had been on it. Sue.

WE WENT TO THE YORKSHIRE DALES FOR A FEW DAYS LAST WEEK IT WAS NICE BUT COLD!!! DAVE TOOK THESE PHOTOS PLUS A FEW MORE !! MALHAM COVE. LYNNE.

Photo sent to me from my Australian friend. NOOSAH HEADS. Australia. Elsie.

A white heron in a tree right by my house.. Anjela.

This weather has reminded me of last years Womad Music Festival, which was held at Malmesbury Wiltshire, these photos were taken on 27th July. Rose. Wincanton.

Unfortunately unlike me Peter at The Lock of the Lowe’s relies on others to do most of the work that is needed for the webcams and the CCTV security that protects the Osprey Nest from being robbed. There is a problem with the infra red lamps on the site, where the Red Squirrel and Pine Martin can be seen. A volunteer was to install new cameras, If the weather at the Lock had been better this week and they had not had Gales the work would have been done by now. It is now hopefully going to be done as from the coming Monday. Peter hopes before the Osprey arrive.

Our Sponsor CJ Wild Bird Feeds may well be ending their support to Denbury Farm. CJ have supplied for a number of years all of our Bird and Badger Feed. It represents quite substantial sum of money that we would have to find. CJ need to see that they are benefiting from any sponsorship to who ever they give it to. If you are considering purchasing any type of the products that they sell, check their site out. They also has a lot of interesting tips, advice and much more of interest on the CJ Web Site.

I have got to try to find some good wild life photographs on the web tonight, for a makeover of the WBC home page. The flash at the top of the site is showing a number of sites that we were talking to about webcams, that never came to anything. They will be going when the face lift is complete.

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The Father Christmas Webcams are now working We had to…

The Father Christmas Webcams are now working.

We had to get the Sheep in this afternoon. The weather has been awful for the past few days and although Sheep do stay out, bad weather will bring them down. A couple of them looked a bit low, especially the Portland Ram. He is no spring chicken, and wouldn’t have long to go. I really should have kept one of the other Rams that I sent to Market, but I felt sorry for the old chap. If I had kept two Rams there would have been fights, with the young Ram trying his luck, for sure he would have taken over.

All the Sheep are now in the Barn. Unfortunately I sent the only reel of the coax wire that sends the signal for the camera, to a new location that we should be doing in the new year. If I had the wire I would have put a camera up in the Barn so that you can see the Sheep in the barn. The wire should be back with me on Monday, and I should be able to have the camera working by Tuesday at the latest.

I had hoped that the Sheep would have followed a feed bag when we moved them. The Barn is only fifteen yards from where they were fenced in around the lake. Of course being Sheep they didn’t follow the bag. As soon as they got out of the fenced area they got their heads down and starting munching away on the grass. Mind you the grass was definitely greener on the other side, so you couldn’t blame them. At least they didn’t have it on their toes, much to all of our relief. We couldn’t leave them out without being fenced in so we had to move them manually. I hope any of you who manage to see the sorrowful episode, could not lip read. If you did and could, I apologise. I am not very patient when it comes to Sheep. Some of them are very friendly, that being the case, and those that are not, you would have thought that they would have been by now, with me feeding them every day. There are three or four that keep away from me every time that I go in with them with hay. Being Sheep when they run away most of the other run with them. Dolly, Minty and Ramsden are normally are the exceptions.

We easily caught Dolly and Minty, and they were carried over to the barn. The others had us running about a bit, it could have been worse. In the end we managed to pen in a few at a time and carried those over to. The weather forecast is not good for a few days, at least, so they will be kept in the Barn until it looks as if it is going to be more settled, for a while. I will make up my mind about it. But it would be good for you to be able to see the Sheep lamb.

I had hoped to have been able to show you the Remote Duck working over the weekend. To be honest I wished that I had never started it in the first place. Believe me I hate the duck. If it was real I would have eaten it by now. The engine is in, and working, but I am having problems with the steering. The propeller and rudder are a special one piece unit. To posh really for what I am doing, but it seemed the easiest way of getting the Duck working. I have had to make various additions to the steering, but every time I go to move it a part comes undone. I think that I have found the solution, well I hope I have. I phoned a shop this morning, and were they helpful. They sell Remote Controlled Helicopters www.buzzflyer.co.uk they really were the most helpful people I have spoken to about the Duck. If get the Duck working I may get a Helicopter to look around the farm with a camera. Buzzflyers are sending me the parts that they think will solve the problem that I am having with the steering. They are no going to charge me either. If you know any one who is looking to buy a Remote Controlled Helicopter, let them know about Buzzflyers. Once I know that the Duck will float and swim around the lake, I will fit the camera. I hope that will be a bit easier.

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We need a longish spell of warm and dry weather…

We need a longish spell of warm and dry weather. As I was unsure of the weather when I made the hay, I left a small paddock at the end of the valley uncut. It is only just over an acre, completely surrounded by woods except for the paths that lead in and out. Because the woods surround it, it doesn’t get a lot of sun, the grass is always later than the rest of the farm. There is still a good bit of seed on it, even at this time of year it will make very good hay. I would normally not have bothered to try to make hay from it this late, because of being unsure with the weather, but the price hay is fetching at the moment, it would be daft not to make hay from it. We sold fifty bales of the hay that we made a week or so back, that paid for nearly the whole cost of all the hay that we made. The advert we placed to sell it, introduced people who needed hay in small bales. As long as the weather stays good it will be sold as soon as it is made.

The paddock is one of my favorite spots on the farm. Unless the owner of the farm next door is trespassing whilst out shooting, it is an extremely quite spot. I will tell you about him soon. The only thing that you can hear is the Birds singing and occasionally the Steam Trains whistles when the wind is blowing from the direction of the steam railway, that is about a mile away. There is a very old large Ash tree in the middle of the paddock, that probably makes it as attractive to me as it does. Since I have lived at Denbury the tree has lost a couple of large limbs in the wind. It is a shame, although you wouldn’t notice it if you saw the tree for the first time as it is, I can see that it has lost a fair amount of shape. I remember the first limb that it lost whilst I was here. To get to the paddock that the tree is in, you walk through the field where the valley camera is located. In the very far left hand side the path narrows, that then leads into the paddock. Not until you nearly reach the paddock can you see the Ash tree.

On one particular morning after an extremely windy night I just noticed a wall of green in front of me as I entered the paddock, so much that it looked as if the whole tree had been blown over. My heart dropped into my stomach. It took me a good ten minutes to make my way through a wall of leaves to find that a very large limb that faced towards the front of the tree, had been blown off. I wasn’t that much relieved, I was still pretty devastated that so much damage had been done to the tree on my watch at Denbury, especially as it looked as if the tree had never had such major damage in its many decades or even hundreds of years of its life. As the limb broke of from the front of the tree as you faced it from the path, we soon got use to it. Unfortunately a couple of years later another very large limb on the left hand side of the tree was blown off in a storm.

Another nice part of the paddock is that the stream runs through it by the side of the wood, There is a very small flat area by the side of the stream that is obviously used by animals to drink at. I call it the beach, it is a great place for children to play, paddle and catch the odd tiddler. Now that I have written about it, it is not one of my favorite places, it is my favorite.