We have all seen the terrible images of flooding over Christmas and our hearts go out to all those who have been affected and lost so much.
Wildlife also suffers in rising waters. Many animals are forced to move from territories, dens and setts. They lose hunting grounds and territories. Others sadly drown. The Yew View site backs onto the River Severn and this river does break its banks on an almost yearly basis yet this is the first time, since I have been working there, that I have seen this kind of flooding. Just about half the site is under water and the images I took yesterday are actually after the levels had dropped somewhat.
Luckily, the site is sloped, with the house at a considerably higher level. The wildlife pond is protected by high banks. The cameras we placed down at the river end of the garden were all placed high enough to avoid the floods…. but sadly, the power supply was affected and these cameras are not working at present. We are hoping when the extremely high levels recede, we will be able to repair the power supply and these cameras will be restored. Our niger feeders and crate feeder have been left empty as we could not reach them to fill them. The water levels rose to the base of the crate! I have to stand on a log segment to reach into this crate and, at one point, David (the owner) was concerned that the crate camera was going to be flooded. The water must be 2-3m above grass level at the bottom of the garden! Luckily the water now seems to be receding.
This image, taken from the terrace, shows the extent of the flooding. You can just see my Barn Owl box in the middle of the picture and a slight line of vegetation indicating the top of the bank above the river….
Here, you can see the wildlife pond, protected from the river water, but the high banks that have just about protected it. The kingfisher is still coming to this pond to hunt every day.
A couple of years ago, the water levels reached the steps at the base of the terrace! This year, it stopped several metres short of the steps…
These other images show the extent of the flooding…
I am hoping that the worst of the rainfall is now over and that the next few weeks will see the river drop back to more normal levels…..
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