You used to know it was Summer when..................................

At the wetlands the other day (Sunday 6th April) I saw my first sand martins of the year. On one of the smaller hides, a log is kept of visiting species that are seen and I noticed someone had seen a pair of swallows, and 10 plus house martins. As the bitter wind cut through me, it struck me that these hardy little birds seem to be on the decline.........something to do with the droughts in Africa amongst other things. The only reason the swallows, swifts and martins migrate is because of the lack of insects here in winter, and that got me thinking too. I remember not a million years ago that if one walked through a field or meadow, grasshoppers would be jumping out in all directions, and if you were sat still you could hear them chirping to each other with the rubbing together of their legs. In the almost twelve years I have lived in Yorkshire, I haven't heard any and I have seen only ONE. I have a picture of it on this very site, a little grasshopper on its' own. What has happened to all our wildlife I wonder? Or am I not as observant as I once was, or maybe I'm going deaf? Lizards and slow worms were a common sight too, but not any more it seems, so, as the weather doesn't seem to give us a clue anymore about what season we're in....how do we know when it's Summer?

It is heartbreaking isn't it Andy. 

I come home every year and find things changing before my very eyes.

Where I use to see the Cuckoo, I find it hard to even hear one. Little frogletts hopping around near the ponds up Shotover, it's been years since I have seen any. I could go on.

It's getting to the stage where I long to see nature programs, because that is the only place to see some of the familiar wildlife of my youth.

Oh but I love the English countryside still.

You talk  extremes, you should try it over here in desert Nevada. In the morning it is below freezing and then we get up into the 80's during the day. It is why so many campers lose their lives here.

We are forecast to hit the 80's this weekend. It can get up to 115º F in the summer.

I'm enjoying the springtime here (Louisiana, deep south USA) before summer hits. There's a reason we're called a "humid subtropical climate"... Although we're not as hot during the summer as you, Sue, I think we make up for with humidity. Temps in the upper 90s F with humidity often at 70% and above can be somewhat uncomfortable. While out humidity probably doesn't quite reach that of England and our temps don't quite reach that of the desert southwest USA, we can end up with a rather potent combination of the two at times.

I just realized my comments are starting to sound like the "Four Yorkshire Gentlemen" Monty Python sketch...

'Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."' 

I would die the death if we had humidity like you, Len. We have a dry heat here, much more bearable. Still, it took me a few years to get used to the heat here.

By the way, 115 was the highest I remember it getting to here. It's usually in the high 90's low 100's, which I can pretty much tolerate now, especially after our long, cold winters..

Fortunately the humidity doesn't always stay that high, but a typical summertime day starts out literally about 95% in the early morning (dawn) and drops to around 55% during the afternoon, maybe a tad lower. Then it pops back up again after sunset quite often. I find it far easier to do work (i.e., mowing) in the warmer afternoons rather than the cooler but much wetter mornings.

Ohhh.... to live some where that is hilly and has low humidity!