Storm Barra

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 It was only in 2014 that the Met Office started to name storms in alphabetical order through the season. In the last 48 hrs we have had the second named storm of the winter Storm Barra (apparently named by the Irish Met office this time). We are quite used to Atlantic low pressure systems battering us at this time of the year but this is the second storm in just over a week.


We were fortunate this time that temps were just above freezing and we were spared the snow - but there was a lot of rain and there were trees down in the lane. Wind direction was mostly SE this time rather than from the North. Looking at this table of the frequency of storms its hard to argue against the fact that storms are becoming more frequent.

Most scientist put this down to man made climate change. I don't disagree!

Diary
Most sensible animals were hunkered down out of the way. The rooks that roost in a tree about a mile away are noisy at dusk and for the first hour of darkness. Camera traps showed one domestic cat and a polecat / ferret. Every time I claim to have seen a polecat there is a kerfuffle as people insist it is an escaped ferret. Given that ferrets were bred from polecats and that escaped animals interbreed with polecats there is not a lot of genetic difference. I am told that genuine polecats have more of a black facial mask than this one but these things are hard to discern in the rather washed out lighting of infra red. Anyway - this animal was clearly checking out the rabbit burrows.

The red squirrels have been visiting the feeders in the garden - two at a time most days - and were in a stand off with a hen pheasant over some nuts.






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