mr.sim
Honourable founding member of the "day late" gang
Everyone has been going on about how few migratory birds have returned this year, especially Swifts and hurindines. It isn't too late for a large influx to occur and bring the British numbers back up to normal, but it seems unlikely that it will ever happen.
I remembered that there was an unusual amount of rainfall in the Sahara Desert this Spring, and apparently a lot of plants grew as a result. This is one of the reasons for why we had such a huge number of Painted Lady butterflies entering the UK, as they had a midway staging post where the adults could breed (in the Sahara) and the offspring then came through Europe in abnormally large numbers.
Could this rainfall also be the reason why our birds have not arrived? I am thinking that this green area in the desert would have a lot of insects so lots of birds would be atrracted to feed. This could mean that many Swifts, House Martins, Swallows etc. are delayed on their migration or even halted altogether!
What does everyone think? Does anyone agree or am I just being stupid and refusing to accept that these species have taken a very bad hit in numbers...
I remembered that there was an unusual amount of rainfall in the Sahara Desert this Spring, and apparently a lot of plants grew as a result. This is one of the reasons for why we had such a huge number of Painted Lady butterflies entering the UK, as they had a midway staging post where the adults could breed (in the Sahara) and the offspring then came through Europe in abnormally large numbers.
Could this rainfall also be the reason why our birds have not arrived? I am thinking that this green area in the desert would have a lot of insects so lots of birds would be atrracted to feed. This could mean that many Swifts, House Martins, Swallows etc. are delayed on their migration or even halted altogether!
What does everyone think? Does anyone agree or am I just being stupid and refusing to accept that these species have taken a very bad hit in numbers...