Dunfarmin Blog

Another year has flown by and it has not been a good one overall. From October 2024 to present rainfall has been well below average.2025 came in with a soil moisture deficit and this did not improve over the summer. Being warm and dry many species benefitted from this but in general plants and trees struggled with the drought. About 100 mixed broadleaf trees were planted last November and around 15% were lost due to drought in spite of watering (When we had sufficient water).

Our private water supply was dangerously low but never completely dried up, but unfortunately two neighbours whose water failed in late May, still do not have any water. Digging last week, it was noticeable how dry the soil remained below about 300mm, with worms still curled up in 'dry soil mode'. Moles are primarily working in the top 100mm of soil as I presume it is to difficult to dig deeper.

Having said all that, most animals and birds seem to have had a successful breeding year. Frogs and toads are very numerous this Autumn and earlier in late summer miniature frogs were almost everywhere, care had to be taken when cutting the grass. Most birds nested and hatched good broods, too many species to mention but the Swallows had two broods of five and were sensible enough not to attempt a third, so left in September with ten well grown chicks. A pair of Mallard nested nearby (unseen) and appeared on the pond one morning with around 10 ducklings.

Mushrooms,randomly, had a great year! As the grass showed signs of stress and virtually died back, 'Fairy Rings' became obvious and started to produce mushrooms in July. A little earlier than normal, but given the dry conditions, not surprising. However a daily pick of mushrooms continued until early November when the soil temperature finally dropped into single figures.

The pond held up fairly well but by August was about 200mm lower than it's normal height. All the drains running down the hill had become dry but somehow the water level held on until some rain fell in mid-October. Frogs, Damselflies and other pond life did not seem to be affected. However some of the 'deep' pondplants were able to cover a large part of the water surface and obviously thrived on extra sunlight. Perhaps removal of some next spring may be necessary.

The insects that appeared to benefit from the weather seem to be wasps. Several bird nest boxes were taken over and large nests built. The wasps were not bothersome and stayed mainly around trees like Willow and Alder which were loaded with aphids producing honeydew.

Finally just a graphical representation of the rainfall this year (to end of October).