Another tornado

To mark the beginning of COP26 a powerful squall (a small tornado) ripped through the Old Vic today and took down four trees. This is now the second time in two years we've had this kind of incident HERE   which has resulted now in the loss of 4 trees (an Ash, Elm and Field Maple today) and damage to the Willows. Trees can't be replaced this quickly, luckily we've let a swarm of Elder go wild and Sycamores are growing up so we should have replaced the 'carbon' in the garden but seems like a bit of a negative feed back loop going on with storms taking down trees, removing carbon which creates more storms (and elsewhere wildfires doing the same thing).

Started winter work recently including updating my bird and moth life lists, Luckily IOC have been splitting away so got quite a few bird ticks this year (only got two real ticks this year- Great Snipe and Long-toed Stint). Better on the moths with over 50 lifers. Shouldn't really be bedding in for winter and writing reports, lists and papers quite yet- still a good two weeks left of autumn migration. Will try and get out birding over next few days.   

The storm did bring in a couple of Rusty-dot Pearls. Otherwise pretty quiet in the moth trap over last few days; Feathered Thorn, Red-green Carpet, Green-brindled Crescent, Sprawler, Yellow-line and Red-line Quaker, November moth agg, Chestnut and the odd Rush Veneer. 

Siskins have been feeding in the Silver Birch recently, otherwise not much else of note on the garden bird front. 

Got the garden ready over last few days for the winter with extended beds for next year and also garlic and onions in. Also broad beans in the greenhouse and still got some potatoes, kale and cabbages to harvest. For COP26 the best policy for us and most mortals will be to increase our efforts in sustainability and become as self sufficient as possible and maybe put razor wire round the garden for security while fighting off the capitalists (campaigning against them), staying out their systems and supporting other people in our network and scaling up as much as possible.  

Finally re-constructing the office after dismantling the Beddington Obs- we've refurbished some loft space in the house and started moving things in. Getting all this ready for winter working too. Need to move more books out of storage too to fill out the library.