It was minus 2 deg C in Thorney this morning and there was some thick ice on the car. In Peterborough it was plus 0.5 Deg C - a full two-and-a-half degrees warmer.
It has been quite a cold and wet week. Saturday and Sunday were extremes of sunshine and showers, with a number of really wet squalls of heavy rain or hailstones.
I didn't do a great deal outside, apart from a few small jobs, including cleaning my new motorcycle (more of which later). I have planted some gourd seeds which I saved from the crop we grew last year and which Margaret had dried, varnished and stuck glitter to them (and they looked really nice and a centrepiece at Christmas).
We hadn't seen any new seed in the shops, so I decided to take some out of the fruits and see how they did. We collected and dried them a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure how true they will grow, but it will be interesting to see. Anyway, I've planted three test pots inside to check the seed will germinate. That will give us time to order some from Thompson & Morgan if they don't.
On Sunday, Margaret and I walked across the fen to Knarr Fen Road and both dogs had a good run. Gravel seems a bit fitter and Holly was well behaved this week (perhaps because Margaret was with me) - she did run a long way, but she didn't disappear for 15 minutes like she did last week.
On the way back, this chap approached me from the direction of the farm and asked if I could keep the dogs on the lead as we walked past the field just south of the barns. There's a field that's been left unplanted between a massive field of oilseed rape and the farm track. The chap said there was a pair of lapwings that looked as if they might nest there and that was very rare - like hens' teeth, he said. I've seen lapwings the last few weeks. There was about six swooping and crying in what looked like a mating display a couple of weeks ago and when Gravel ran across the field on Sunday, he put two birds up (probably the pair that were nesting).
The chap looked more like a conservation worker than a farmer (I didn't recognise him) and he knew what he was talking about. They are lovely birds to see and it's wonderful that they've chosen Thorney for their nest site, but a bother that they've chosen a field next to a public footpath where I walk the dogs. I'll have to keep the pair on the lead until we're past there, which curtails their exercise. Oddly enough, as I'm writing this, I've just looked out of the train window and there were two lapwings flying in the field over the Great Ouse water meadows just south of Huntingdon. They are magnificent birds, with deep black wings and white bodies. Their wings seem to have too many feathers, but they are very good fliers and can change direction mid-flight very sharply.
According to the RSPB website, lapwings will lay eggs in March to May and the eggs take three weeks to hatch and the young five weeks before they can fly. Parents lead the young away from the nest when the birds hatch and into better cover. I'd have thought they'd be really vulnerable to foxes on the fen, but I guess they know what they're doing. Anyway, I'll keep the dogs on the lead until the end of July and give the lapwings the best chance I can.
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