Grass snake on the 6th green

A grass snake was spotted on the 6th green yesterday and adders are still being seen fairly regularly. The first Turtle doves of the summer have been heard and there are at least six singing male Nightingales present on the course.  The pair of Woodlark nesting right of the 11th fairway have successfully fledged young.  The warmer weather has brought out a few butterflies and Orange tip, Speckled  wood, Peacock, Small heath and Small copper were on the wing yesterday.

Weather summary for April

The dry spring continued with only 13.4mm of rain during April compared to the 36.4 average.  The temperature was slightly lower than average but as for March it felt even cooler because on most days there was significant wind chill.  The average temperature was 8.7°, more than 2° lower than last year, with a minimum of 1.8° on the 7th and a maximum of 23.9° on the 15th.  This is the highest maximum temperature we have recorded during April, the previous highest was 22.7° in 2011.  Over the last couple of weeks we have had several ground frosts including one this morning (1st May).  In terms of grass growth we're still about  five weeks behind 2014 but ahead of 2013.