which way was the wind blowing?

That must have been a whirlwind .. blowing in all directions !

lol probably. Or bounceback from obstructions - this is one reason I want a fence, and one reason why I hesitate: I might block the wind in one direction, but it's got to go somehwere, and the deflection might be worse than the wind direct

Yes. In my garden there are 'wind channels' which have no logic ... some items get blown over while others which seem more vulnerable stay standing !

my wind tunnel is the path beside the house, broken by the sheds - the wind seems to wrap round and meet up at the back, eddying all over the place. the bird feeder station, which I put there when it had been blown over twice in its old location, has been over twice here too. hard to find a level bit of ground to put it on.

i'd like to cover the entire path, make it roofed, but it would have to come down to the gate, or the wind would get under it and just lift it right off. and even if the wind were deflected over it, where would it go next?

What a shame Fran. I know it was gusty while I was reading in bed this morning first thing. The blackbirds trying to be king of the castle in the hawthorn were hanging on grimly. Nothing in the garden got blown about though. It has gone calmer now. It has just dawned on me that your garden has quite a slope on it. So that is perhaps why things tip over.

It was fair gusty here last winter/spring; as my first year, I don't know if that's usual, but the wind tunnel effect certainly doesn't help.

The "cave" wasn't anchored, apart from those posts, which obviously wasn't enough; next time I'll use tent pegs to anchor the frame a lot mroe securely! having the panels loose also helped; the wind blew through, rather than against a complete surface. i'll have that next time, so it'll need more anchoring.

the bird feeder station also got blown over, even though it's anchored with a small parasol base, water-filled. I had to reclocate that near the house, the only fairly flat bit I can find. The slope doesn't help with stability in general!

Not seen any birds close up, or at least close enough to be able to see - since the "feeding frenzy" of months ago, hardly seen any at all. So I'd not bothered much with filling the feeders, so I'd not seen many birds, so I'd not bothered ... and so on.