NATURE NOTES: MAY 2024

THE JOY AND SOUNDS OF LIFE

April highlights: the landscape full of verdant, luminous greens dotted with pure white studs of stitchwort; dashes of Herb Robert and early purple orchid pink; smiles of birdsong nesting and feeding; fields of violets; woodlands bursting with intoxicating bluebells; pungent wild garlic; the bronze/copper sheen of a common sun beetle, bathing in a rare ray of warm sunshine; small holly blue butterflies flitting up high in the air; forget-me-nots; bees supping from pink cheeked apple blossom and the fat white lower lips of dead nettles beneath; sturdy oaks shaking out long tails of flowerets at the end of their fingertips and unfurling their leaves before the ash; some snoozy happy looking toads, cosying up under a sheet of corrugated iron.

x

Lowlights: The 'rain call' of a chaffinch at dawn (that sounded like an escaped guinea-pig) signalling yet more rain; bee flies in the garden, hovering around the sodden entrances of Tawny mining bee chambers, ready to pounce on their grubs; a terrifying shriek signalling the end of a gosling as a heron was chased off by two anguished sounding geese; clouds of tiny biting insects even at sunrise; nesting skylarks frightened off by a neighbours golf balls; the depleted numbers of returning swallows and house martins.

Key messages: Spare a thought for our common earthworm, recent winner of the inaugural 'UK invertebrate of the year competition'. Despite being so vital in our soil and plant health and easing the impacts of flooding, they are under threat from pesticides, invasive species, and intensive land use and have declined by a third over the past 25 years.

What to see/hear in May: Newly born roe deer, in newly unfurled bracken or long grass; nightingales singing at dawn and dusk; cockchafers bumbling through night skies; 'eye-spot' emperor moths (males fly by day, empresses at night); red soldier beetles waving their large antennae on the froth of cow parsley and elderflower blooms; the huffing and grunting of hedgehogs mating.

More likely to see/hear: The flutter of feathers amongst sunlit foliage; cowslips and buttercups; yellow meadow ants on the 'hills' over their nests as wildflower meadows spring to life; Cuckoo pint; the nodding white bells of Lily of the Valley; scattered egg shells; Large White butterflies; yellow iris, blue damselflies and demoiselles by our streams.

What you can do this month:

1) Rise early to enjoy the dawn chorus.

2) Join the 'No Mow May' campaign and at least leave one area of uncut lawn so bees can enjoy a nectar-packed feast of red and white clover.