CLIMATE CHANGE - LOCAL EFFECTS

Being long in the tooth and the outdoor type, means hindsight reaches farther back when judging Climate change on a personal level.

                          In recent years I have observed the rapid decline in insect life especially in late spring, early summer. 

This in turn effects the insect eating birds dramatically.

 My daily observations over the last 16 years on the riverside gives me a historical perspective on our local waterbirds behaviour. 

This is the first year we have had five local hatchings of ducklings after mid August, which is late. 

Traditionally nesting season would be all but over by the end of June. Having the odd late hatching is not unusual, but having five is. 

Over the past few years I had noticed that some ducks had delayed nesting until mid summer, this got me thinking on the reasons. 

My conclusions were lack of natural food in the spring months as well as lack of vegetation cover. Even in the house and garden the lack of insect life has been very obvious. Ask any long standing car owner, how many insects they have stuck to their windscreens and headlights, compared to a generation ago?

 Lack of insects might be a boon to some, but these are a vital part of the food chain, for us as much as other species. Currently we have a large high pressure over the country. It will be interesting to see how the jet stream effects the migration times this autumn. Climate change is here and now.