We've had rain!

This is only a brief posting, to firstly apologise to the few people who have commented recently on my blog and secondly to celebrate the fact that we have finally had proper rain.
For some reason, I'm both unable to post comments on other people's blogs but also not even post relies on my own blog, I haven't a clue why.

Earlier this morning we had 3-4 hours of good and steady rain and so I was a tad later visiting the reserve today and then only for a short walk. The first thing that I saw on parking at the reserve barn was a large flock of c. 150 Golden Plover and 80 Lapwing further out in the middle of one of the grazing fields. The rain had obviously fooled them into thinking that they would find the soggy conditions that they need in order to probe the soil for invertebrates. Having found that this was not indeed the case, they departed shortly after for the tidal mudflats over the seawall. Mind you, if nothing else, the rainfall has soaked the roots of the grass and should hopefully see it stirred into re-growth and green-ness, something the cattle will enjoy.

The photo below is perhaps a tad childish but celebrates the first minor puddles that I have seen on the reserve track, probably since the early Spring!- almost a miracle.


Mind you, the only difference to the "S Bend Ditch" is the fact that the colour of the dry mud has darkened. This is how its looks for the whole of its several hundred yard length and it will need an awful lot of rain before it once again becomes the favourite site for wildfowl on the reserve.


That said, we do still have a few ditches on the reserve that retain some water, here is one of them!


Lastly, walking across one rain-soaked meadow, I came across this young Edible Frog hopping through the grass, no doubt happy at feeling wet again. He's only about a third of his adult size, double click on the photo and enlarge him.