Hannah’s high winds could blow birds from nests
CONSERVATIONISTS have warned that high winds from Storm Hannah will blow the nests of young birds from their trees across the southern half of England this weekend.
Nesting season began last month and the first of the spring chicks are hatching. But for birds who build their nests at the top of trees, the 80mph winds pose a serious problem, according to the RSPB and the British Trust for Ornithology.
“With Storm Hannah on its way this weekend nests may be more at risks,” said a spokesman for the RSPB. “Young birds may be blown from nests and the nests themselves are sometimes dislodged too.”
The warnings come amid the busiest time for nesting birds and focus on birds such as rooks and crows, which nest in tall trees. The RSPB recommends not cutting hedges and trees between March and August.
The Met Office issued a yellow warning for hurricane-force winds up to 80mph and extended the warning zone northwards and eastwards. It now covers areas from the South West across to the East Midlands and includes Wales.
Frank Saunders, a Met Office chief forecaster, said: “We have issued a yellow wind warning for parts of the UK where we’re likely to see inland gusts of 45-55mph and ... around 65-75mph in exposed coastal locations.”
Paul Stancliffe, of the British Trust for Ornithology, added: “The best course of action if anyone finds a young bird is to leave it alone.”
In recent days I have seen some stupendously beautiful photographs of storm clouds building around Britain’s coastline. One taken in the Yorkshire seaside resort of Filey on Thursday evening depicted a bank of cloud the colour of Tolkien’s volcano in Mordor.
Moments later, the photographer who captured the image reported, lightning bolts started striking the sea and golf ball-sized hailstones threatened to smash his car windscreen.
This is a storm as J M W Turner painted; possessing an intensity that melts the typical waymarks of our daily existence into a seething blur. For one such depiction, Snowstorm: Steam-boat off a Harbour’s Mouth, which was first exhibited in 1842, Turner reputedly lashed himself to the mast of a ship during an actual storm at sea in order to fully comprehend the awesome force of nature.
Dedicated as Weather Watch is to recording the elements, this sort of storm chasing seems beyond the pale.
That said I did once stand on a hillside in the Upper Calder Valley watching a towering cumulonimbus the size of a space ark cruise across from Lancashire painting the landscape black before dumping rain so heavy it appeared to explode out of the cobblestones.
Today Storm Hannah sweeps in from the Atlantic. Expect gusts of up to 75mph in south western parts of the country and a decent amount of rainfall, too. Hannah will be the seventh named storm to hit Britain over the winter compared with 10 last year, although Hector arrived in the middle of June 2018, so there is still time yet for more to come our way.
This is also marathon weekend and the good news for those running around London tomorrow is that no sooner does Hannah arrive than she beats a hasty retreat.
Sunday also brings a transient ridge of high pressure similar to that which secured such wonderful weather for all and sundry over the Easter weekend.
Consider it the calm after the storm.