The month started off with some dry cooler weather and duller days; the river level was steady in the first week, but then started to drop away after that, where it got down to about the one-foot mark by mid-month.
Early in the month there were new arrivals up at the fishery pond where the resident swans finally saw their eggs hatching out and five cygnets took to the water, that number is now down to four but that sadly is nature.
We were beginning to see a lot more swallows about and the swifts were soon to follow, giving us our first sighting on the 11th. There are certainly enough flowers about just now for the bees to forage on, the bluebells
and the wild primrose have been strong again this year, the leopard’s bane has done well
and there are, amongst the many other wildflowers coming through, plenty of marsh orchids appearing in all the usual spots that we see them.
The oilseed rape has been in flower for a while now too, and it was good to see the hive very busy on some of the warmer days that we have had.
A lot of our time this month has been spent cutting grass and strimming, along with a bit more of the usual hedge cutting. The second half of the month saw the weather and the river level fluctuate a bit with some of the quite intense heavy down pours
we got some days, which also lead to the old boats getting pumped out on a regular basis for a while!
The month came to an end on a dry warm day with the river level sitting steady around the two-foot mark.
Dago