Beverley Lass

Just had a fab storm here near Beverley, lasted about 15 mins. Really gave us a rattle. Lots of lightening, loud thunder and super hail storm. Lost the power three times, but just for a few secs. I'll try and post a couple of pics .. Cheers, BL.

A short lived storm just finishing here now. Interrupted the power for a few secs. We've had 12mm of rainfall so far today. BL.

Torrential downpour here now with a thunderstorm. Best get off my laptop ! (This evening at 5.45pm in Hull the hail was so fierce and large I feared for my car bodywork, lol) BL.

Aww, thank you I had to be quick with this shot, one handed out of the bedroom window ! lol. Cheers, BL.

Yikes ! That's a size. Would be painful ! BL.

Hi all, I'll lob one of my storm ones in .. taken 27th April. It was exciting to see and experience . :lol: Cheers, BL.

Morning Brian, all Started here without a cloud in the sky, but just had to rush my dog walk a few mins ago, as the sky is blackening ominously. (My dog is not troubled, but next doors' I care for, is terrified of thunder) :lol: Wonder if I'll see such cloud formations again. BL.

(I'll post this here too, hope that's ok .. as I've never seen such an exciting sky for myself) Hi all, had the most amazing storm here around 7.30 - 7.45 pm. The cloud formations just ahead of it were awesome, great swirling, rolling masses, full of menace. The lightening soon after was huge, mostly horizontal from one horizon to the other ! The atmosphere was, well .. electric I suppose ! lol Difficult to get it on camera, but quite pleased with these .. Cheers, BL.

Nope, favoured the birds I'm afraid BL.

Here's m'voting for March as promised. I could have picked twice over, especially in the Weather section. Well done everyone. Weather : WB 1 WB 2 WS 1 OON 2 MC 1 Non-Weather DS N1 DS N2 GB N1 HT N1 WS N1 Cheers, BL.

Oh cheers, hope no-one notices ! BL

No luck for me again there then *sulks I'll have a vote at the w/e. BL

Hi all, A frost overnight, pleasant sunny morning and now it's 6º C and fair pelting down with small- pea-sized hail. White all over. Two cracks of thunder too. Pressure 1021mb. Cheers, BL.

Yes, same here in my village 7m east of Beverley, snowing heavily this last hour and at least a cm. covering. I'm staying cosy and watching it come down in the nearest lampost light. Very pretty. BL.

They're super shots, well done Kar999 Thanks for sharing and I'll look for anymore later. Cheers, BL.

Many Congrats, two super winners in a very good final selection BL.

Thanks Dr Rains, good photos of an interesting and scenic location. I'll see if I can visit the ruins myself come June. Cheers, BL.

I thought you should enter that lovely stone circle one in particular OON, it does look a contender to me BL

About 50% cloud cover, Dry with sunny spells and 13º C Pressure 1011 mb Very windy with gusts up to 47 mph so far (at nearby Leconfield) Cheers, BL

Oh I see, sorry, lol. Quite understand, I recently failed to photo some unusual birds in my garden. I thought they looked very like Cirl Buntings, but most folks suspect they were Siskins or Chaffinches. I hadn't even heard of Marsh Tits before tho', so glad to see a pic Cheers, BL.

Hi, I've just found out that the red kite females have a wing span of 5' 7" ! wow. I've seen plenty in the skies, but I didn't realize they were so big. Here's another v. gd photo' of one . Cheers, BL

Ooo what a little poppet. Well done with the photo, good to see him. Cheers, BL.

Thanks for all those Sonia, looks super. I particularly like the close-up 'rose' ? window shot. Lincoln is not so far from me, a drive over the Humber, but that's one cathedral that I've only seen in passing. Must make a proper visit soon. Cheers, BL.

Hi, here's a couple of small pics of the lovely Red Kites. (Not my own) I haven't seen any near me here, but there's lots back in Northants. B.

Hi all, along with about 400,000 other folks I took part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch thingie again this year (Jan. 26th/27th) where everyone counts and logs their bird numbers / sightings over 1 hour. The RSPB have just e-mailed me the 2008 results .. http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/results/index.asp 1. House Sparrow 2. Starling 3. Blackbird 4. Blue Tit 5. Chaffinch 6. Woodpigeon 7.Collard Dove 8. Robin 9. Great Tit 10. Goldfinch Finches Flock To Gardens With an average of 3.60 seen per garden, the house sparrow retained its top spot with starlings coming in second and blackbirds completing the top three. Overall, the average number of birds seen in each garden has declined by a fifth since 2004, and house sparrows have decreased by almost two thirds since 1979, and starlings by three quarters over the same period. Despite this, however, four species of finch, which spend the winter in the UK, were seen in increased numbers. Good winter for finches Numbers of colourful finches visiting UK gardens over winter are at their highest levels for five years. For the first time in the survey's 29-year history, the striking siskin made it into the top 20, and the scarcer brambling moved from 57 to 36 in the rankings. This increase in bramblings and siskins (up by two thirds in the last five years), suggest that tree seed supplies have been poor this year and they've been forced into gardens to find food. Along with siskin and brambling increases, redpoll numbers skyrocketed, being seen in twice as many gardens this year as last. Again this is probably due to poor supply of food. Goldfinches on the up With a third more birds recorded than in 2004, the colourful goldfinch made it in to the top 10 for the first time. Goldfinch numbers swell because our milder winters encourage them to stay here instead of going to southern Europe. Our gardens can be very welcoming to finches, especially those with nyjer seed provided and thistles and teasels left to grow which also provide food. A big thanks to all who took part Over the weekend of 26 and 27 January 2008, almost 400,000 people counted more than six million birds across 228,000 gardens. And One letter of particular note ... The cruellest cut Every spring I despair because all around me I can hear the hedge cutters. I have tried a gentle hint that this is not a good time to cut hedges, but it all falls on deaf ears. I wouldn't mind if some effort to check the hedge for nesting birds was made, but no! I only cut my hedge once a year in autumn, but some folk do not have the sense to see that by cutting in the spring they will have to do it again in the autumn. Ho hum! Barbara Hunt. Editor's note: Barbara's quite right. It's an offence to intentionally (and in Scotland, intentionally or recklessly) damage or destroy an active birds' nest. Hedge-trimming is best left until after the breeding season. Find out more in our Advice pages. Cheers, BL.