NATURE NOTES: SEPTEMBER 2025

LITTLE LEGS!

Highlights of August: Finding three Violet ground beetles, all in different locations; common blues, gatekeepers and small heath butterflies; the angular custard yellow wings of a Brimstone Moth resting on a cool blade of grass; a weasel in pursuit across the main road through the village; a young willow warbler preening itself after it rained; fledgling robins gaining their red plumage feathers; finding the sweetest looking acorn weevil (with dark eyes and enlarged rostrum) on my trousers after a walk, the fifth instar of a green shield bug, on a juicy blackberry I'd just picked and a crab spider on the mint outside my front door; the visible Sturgeon full moon; a little owl calling over the fields just after the licensing of Reverend Caroline, our new priest-in-charge.

Lowlights: Flying face downwards over a bunker on my quest to photograph a wood white butterfly; finding the still warm intact body of a beautiful dead fawn whilst her mother looked on; a squished slow worm; the fourth heatwave of the summer with extensive fires in Europe and Canada significantly impacting wildlife and their migration patterns worldwide; the arrival of Autumn a month early (e.g. trees shedding browning leaves under heat and drought stress, fungi, blackberries, sloes, elderberries, and spiders already inside 'looking for love'). A UK study showing that human connection to nature has declined 60% in 200 years.

Key Messages: Nature connectedness is not only vital for our own mental and physical health but also key to solving the environmental crisis. So why not contemplate this September's 'Creationtide' theme of 'Peace with Creation' and re-engage? Explore different footpaths around the village, or find ways to incorporate nature daily by combining with other activities, such as exercise, mindfullness or art.

What to look for in September: the offspring of various butterflies and Silver Y Moths that arrived in the spring heading back south on autumnal breezes; possibly still some swallows, Housemartins and other migrants, waiting for Europe's wildfires to die down; resident birds also gathering in loose flocks; a total lunar eclipse on 7th/8th; emerging crane flies, mating and laying eggs in meadows.

What you're more likely to see/hear: the ripening of horse and sweet chestnuts; squadrons of migrant and southern hawker dragonflies, patrolling in search of insects; sculptural seedheads; acorns - the amount currently on our village oaks/footpaths suggest it could be a mast year.

What you can do to help:

- Replenish old bug hotels or create new ones using old pallets, hollow stems, dried twigs and pinecones.

- Create safe hibernating spots for hedgehogs and small mammals and clean out/ put up bird boxes for refuge from autumn frosts and inclement weather.

- Leave the fallen leaves - remember God's tiny creatures!