They're back and breeding again. Do wood pigeons think of anything else? A third nest (strictly speaking a badly-constructed twiggy platform) has appeared in the wisteria arch. One last year and two, so far, this year. Wisteria seems to be a popular nest location for wood pigeons even after I had pruned it back. However, they don't seem at all bothered that I can see them as I pass underneath the arch.
Photo 1: Current Nesting Wood Pigeon (24th July 2025)
Photo 2: First Wood Pigeon Nest of 2025 (10th June 2025)
... though I'd heard the comings and goings at the end of May as the nest-building birds used the top of the greenhouse as their incoming runway (Photo 3). Wood pigeons weigh between 300 - 620 g and are not particularly graceful when they land so made lots of noise as they arrived and departed.
Photo 3: Entrance to the Wood Pigeons' Nest
Approximately one month later, I saw the single chick (Photo 4); no idea whether there were originally two as there had been last year.
Photo 4: Single Chick Growing Fast (July 7th 2025)
A week later, we saw this squab on the patio table ...
Photo 5: Squab Spotted on the Patio Table (15th July 2025)
... with one of its parents (my guess female from its neck markings) keeping a close eye on its progeny from a nearby perch ...
Photo 6: Parent Keeping Watch (15th July 2025)
Pigeons do grow quite fast but could this squab (Figure 5) be the same bird as the untidy collection of downy feathers (Figure 4) we saw just a week earlier?
Photo 7: Squab two weeks later (29th July 2025)
In any case, we now have a second brooding wood pigeon (Photo 1) which we will keep and eye on - difficult not to, really, as I'm constantly walking under the wisteria arch to the kitchen garden. It does mean I'll have to wait a little longer before I can finish pruning the wisteria!
Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much - Oscar Wilde
We enjoyed warm, sunny & dry weather in May 2025. There were no late frosts so a perfect month for planting out the vegetable plants albeit with some targeted irrigation during the two dry periods. This month's garden photo was taken towards the end of May as the trees are in full leaf and the roses are blooming.
Photo 1: View of the Garden (24th May 2025)
Daily garden photos for May 2025 are collated in Video 1.
Video 1: Daily Photos of the Rear Garden in May 2025
Summary weather statistics for May 2025 are listed in the table below. Particularly notable are the high average and daily maximum temperatures, the general lack of rain and high number of dry days along with plenty of sunshine.
April 2025 ended on a high temperature note and continued for a day or two into May before cooler conditions prevailed (Figure 1). After the first week daytime temperatures warmed again for a very pleasant month. Click on the figures to enlarge the images.
Figure 1: Min/Max Daily Temperatures for May 2025
Low level rainfall (showers) was confined to the end of the month apart from some moderately heavy rain (with thunderstorms) on the 11th/12th of the month (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Daily Rainfall & Sunshine Data for May 2025
Following our usual custom, we will compare how the weather for May 2025 in Hereford compared with the previous five Mays (2020 - 2025). On average, May 2025 was among the warmest of the past six years while also recording the highest daily maximum temperature over the same period (Figure 3). The 2021 - 2025 period has seen frost-free months for which we are eternally grateful.
Figure 3: May Temperature Data in Hereford from 2020 - 2025
May 2025 was the third sunniest May with the second lowest rainfall (Figure 4) in Hereford when considering the last six years (2020 - 2025). The former was a boon, the latter a pain for gardeners.
Figure 4: May Rain, Wind & Sunshine Data in Hereford from 2020 - 2025
The following three figures are taken from the UK Met Office's monthly report for May 2025. The position of Herefordshire is marked on each map. Mean temperature for Herefordshire was between 0.5 ℃ and 1.5 ℃ above the long-term average (1991 - 2020). Based on the nearby Credenhill weather station, the 1991 - 2020 mean temperature for Herefordshire in May is just over 12 ℃ compared to the 15 ℃ mean temperature recorded by my back garden Davis Weather Station. This is significantly higher than the 12.5 ℃ to 13.5 ℃ indicated in Figure 5. Some of this difference will be down to the inaccuracy/bias of the Davis Weather Station but it also suggests quite a strong Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect.
Figure 5: UK Mean Temperature Anomalies for May 2025
Figure 6 confirms the low precipitation for Hereford in May 2025 with only 20% to 75% of the expected rainfall. The average May rainfall at Credenhill is 53.4 mm so the 13.4 mm recorded in our back garden (see Table above) represents 25% of the expected May precipitation.
Figure 6: UK Rainfall (relative) for May 2025
Finally, Figure 7 shows that May 2025 sunshine hours for Herefordshire were 10% to 30% above the long-term average in agreement with my back garden results (Table and Figure 4).
Figure 7: UK Sunshine Hours (relative) for May 2025
We visited the Royal Welsh Show again this year thanks to a couple of free tickets courtesy of our former blacksmith lodger, Alex, who was stewarding the Ornamental Ironwork Show and Blacksmith competitions. We also visited the show in 2023 and 2024.
Photo 1: Prize Winning Dahlias, Royal Welsh Show (July 2025)
Mary usually likes to visit the pigs, sheep and cows but this year decided not to. This gave us a little more time in the flower and horticultural village and watching the displays in the main ring. Altogether, a more relaxed time.
Pitcher plants were popular this year especially for display ...
Photo 2: Carnivorous Plant Stall, Royal Welsh Show (July 2025)
They had Venus Fly Trap plants as well but no sundews otherwise I might have bought a plant. After a brief stop for an intake of calories (cheese and pickle sandwich with homegrown tomatoes), the next stop was the Welsh Sheeptacular (Photo 3). A 10-15 minute show where the stars are 20 different breeds of sheep and a shearing demonstration.
Photo 3: Welsh Sheeptacular, Royal Welsh Show (July 2025)
I found this old YouTube video from the 2014 Royal Welsh Show - not much has changed except the human participants are 10 years older. While rams can live 9-12 years (with 3-4 years as productive sires), I suspect the 2025 cast is very different from that of 2014.
Video 1: Sheeptacular, Royal Welsh Show 2014
On our way to visit Alex at the Blacksmith Demo and Exhibition area, we stopped off at the cattle ring where the FitzHugh Championship was being judged. Individual breed champions (bull) paired with a cow (and in couple of instances with a calf) were being judged. There were 20 or so different breeds, lower than usual due to an outbreak of bluetongue in England.
Photo 4: FitzHugh Championship, Royal Welsh Show (July 2025)
The judge checked over all 20 entries ...
Photo 4: Starting Twenty Competitors
... then selected her 8 best candidates ...
Photo 5: Top Eight Competitors
... before whittling this down to the best four, and then choosing the champion, a British Blue Bull (Photo 6) ...
Photo 6: FitzHugh Champion, British Blue Bull, Royal Welsh Show (July 2025)
It was but a short walk to the main arena where Bolddog FMX were performing their acrobatics on motorbikes ...
Video 2: Bolddog FMX, Royal Welsh Show (July 2025)
Video 3: Bolddog FMX, Royal Welsh Show (July 2025)
Video 4: Bolddog FMX, Royal Welsh Show (July 2025)
Video 5: Bolddog FMX, Royal Welsh Show (July 2025)
Video 6: Bolddog FMX, Royal Welsh Show (July 2025)
We had come to the main ring to watch the Ukrainian Cossacks - so much better than those nasty Russian Cossacks! There was a huge amount of sympathy and support for the Ukrainian riders from the, predominantly, Welsh crowd. Here are a few photos and videos of the action.
Photo 7: Ukrainian Cossack, Royal Welsh (July 2025)
Photo 8: Ukrainian Cossack, Royal Welsh (July 2025)
Video 7: Ukrainian Cossack Horseriding Display, Royal Welsh, July 2025
Video 8: Ukrainian Cossack Horseriding Display, Royal Welsh, July 2025
Video 9: Ukrainian Cossack Horseriding Display, Royal Welsh, July 2025
Photo 9: Ukrainian Cossack, Royal Welsh (July 2025)
Another enjoyable day out at the Royal Welsh Show. We bought a birthday present for a friend, a couple of leek & potato pasties (which would have benefited from less potato and more leek) and two cups of tea. A cheap day out when you don't have to buy the £35 pp tickets! As usual the free park & ride system worked efficiently and flawlessly. Will we be there in 2026? Who knows?
Photo 10: Gladioli Flowers, Royal Welsh Show (July 2025)
We are a small group of citizen scientists (Ian, Mary, Maggie & Alan) testing the Newton Brook in Hereford under the auspices of the Friends of the River Wye. Newton Brook is a small tributary of the River Wye; our three test sites are shown as purple squares in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Newton Brook Watercourse with Location of Supermarket New Build Indicated
Just to the south of our test sites, a supermarket is under construction (black outline) which will involve drainage of the large pond shown to create a car park. Planning permission requires the pond is only drained between September and March for environmental and ecological reasons.
On Wednesday 16th July 2025, a member of the public contacted Maggie to say she thought they had started to drain the pond, so Maggie & I went to investigate. As we followed the footpath alongside the Newton Brook, we could clearly hear what sounded like a small waterfall. On closer inspection this turned out to be a pipe carrying pumped water into the brook (Video 1). The approximate location of the pipe is indicated by the red line in Figure 1.
Video 1: Locating Pollution Source of Newton Brook (16th July 2025)
A close-up view of the pipe effluent (Video 2) showed it to be heavily polluted water (high turbidity). The coffee-coloured water was similar to that often seen polluting the River Wye catchment when the red soil, for which Herefordshire is famous, is washed off bare agricultural fields into the rivers and brooks.
Video 2: Close-up of Dirty Water Being Pumped into Newton Brook
Using my trusty three metre pole sampler (Photo 1) ...
Photo 1: Extendable Pole Sampler and my Brompton Bike
... I collected a sample from the brook directly below the pipe exit for later testing at home.
Photo 2: Brook Water at Pollution Source
Maggie & I then went round to speak to the site manager to request they stop pumping the dirty water into the brook. At this point, we thought they had started emptying the pond which would have been in violation of their planning permits. The site manager did agree to meet us at the gate after Maggie reminded him that we would be informing the Environment Agency of the pollution incident.
We were told that the pumped water did not originate from the pond but from a separate area where they were excavating a pit for a large underground tank. The pit was continuously flooding as they were digging below the water table, hence the need to pump out the water. The site manager was polite and courteous and even allowed us on site to view the digging/pumping operation from a safe distance. He provided us with the contact name and phone number of the person at the supermarket who was project managing the whole scheme.
Maggie & I thanked the site manager and returned to our normal testing downstream of the pollution incident (see Figure 1, purple squares). On the way back, we stopped briefly to collect a sample where Newton Brook goes under the road (Glastonbury Close, see Figure 1) as the brook was both fuller and more turbid than when we passed it on the way to investigate the pollution incident (Photo 3 & Photo 4)
Photo 3: Turbid Newton Brook at Glastonbury Close
Photo 4: Filling a Sample Bottle with Turbid Brook Water
After completing the routine tests at our three designated sites, we agreed to split the followup tasks. I would ring the Environment Agency's pollution hot line and Maggie would contact the project manager at the supermarket. Before hopping onto my trusty steed (Brompton Bike, see Photo 1), I noticed that one of our test sites had become decidedly more turbid (Photo 5) since I had tested it not half an hour ago.
Photo 5: Site U034 after Pollution
Whereas the turbidity of this part of the Newton Brook had been less than 12 NTU when tested earlier that morning, it was now recording a turbidity of 200 NTU. The pollution was making its way down the brook and would soon be entering the River Wye.
On returning home, I decided to ring the Environment Agency (EA) straight away rather than do some further tests that would better describe the nature of the pollution; they could wait till later. The EA hotline was answered quickly by Dan and he took down the details: type of pollution, potential impact of the pollution, location, my contact information. Note to myself: the EA use what3words for pinpointing locations. I made a note of my incident number and Dan said they would get their local team on to it.
A couple of hours later, Maggie let me know that she had rung the supermarket's project manager who had informed her that someone from the EA's Shrewsbury Office was onsite and had shut down the pumping operation. All dirty water was now to be transported offsite and not dumped in the brook. The supermarket claimed they had been misinformed by their ecology consultants.
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