After the long very dry summer of 2025 the autumn rains have finally come and are slowly swelling the River Meon again. The river became just a trickle from late June until late October. The source of the River Meon dried up completely at South Farm, and was only supported through the main village by a small tributary from Fish Ponds. Now finally we have started monitoring the river for river flies, and luckily from Read more
The team have just finished recording butterflies for the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme on the Hyden Hill Butterfly Transect. This transect is walked once a week from the start of April until the end of September. See the main article on the butterfly monitoring, click on this link https://eastmeonnature.com/butterfly-monitoring/. The results this year have been much more encouaging compared to the very wet summer of 2024, numbers up by nearly 100%.
After a very dry summer, and a recent good amount of rain, all sorts of interesting fungi are appearing. I have had a few good pickings of field mushrooms. Interesting fungi like the fly agaric (pictured) are also appearing, so be careful what you harvest.
After a record breaking long hot dry summer, surprisingly sloes are everywhere in the parish in great numbers and super sized. Where did they get the moisture to grow and ripen? Blackberries are the same this year.
With the long dry and sunny period this spring there is a brilliant show of bluebells in Hen Wood this year.
Toad patrols started along Coombe Road on 20 February 2025 and finished on 28 March 2025. This was the latest start and finish to the season so far. The weather was very cold and dry for most of the season, interspersed with three short wet and mild periods. During one of these there was a record 221 toads on the move. A total of 699 toads were found (487 males, 162 females and 50 squashed Read more
Yesterday, 21/03/25, was a record breaking evening for the Coombe Road Toad Patrol. After a prolonged cold dry spell, which kept the toads from moving, we had a damp mild evening. A total of 221 toads were found and moved to the breeding pond: 143 males, 70 females, 8 dead. We also found 4 palmate and 3 smooth newts. This has greatly boosted the numbers compared with last year’s figures.
There is a good display of snowdrops on Frogmore Lane at the moment. Spring is coming!
Attached are the East Meon Rainfall Figures for 2024. They are included in the figures from 2010 to 2024 and include the yearly and monthly averages.
Pamela Peacock, who lives in East Meon, has some interesting visitors in her garden. There are two elephant hawk moth caterpillars that are particularly enjoying her late flowering fuchsias.