Poor year for elderberries?

[PenhowBrewer]

I’ve been picking blackberries for a few weeks now, popping them in the freezer ready for a blackberry wine. I have seen a few recommendations for adding a few handfuls of elderberries to a blackberry wine as it adds a bit of depth, apparently.
I'm out walking the dogs every day, so cover quite a few miles of country lanes etc.


Has anyone else found that - in this bumper year for blackberries, plums, damsons, apples etc. - the elderberry crop seems very, very sparse Indeed?

I made elderflower wine earlier in the year, and so I know there was plenty of elderflower about, and I was careful to leave plenty as well, just taking two or three heads per tree.
The few bunches of elderberries I have managed to find are not very well populated, and many trees don't seem to have any fruit at all. Quite a few elders also appear to have yellowy leaves.

is this just local to me, or has anyone else experienced this?

 

[Wynott]

Probably not as fulsome as some years round here (North Yorks) - but difficult to tell locally as the farmers have all trimmed the hedges this year. Having tasted a few, they're not quite ready yet anyway