Nature Notes: August 2023

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED!

(Please excuse the brevity of my Nature Notes this month - a constantly crashing computer and conflicting demands on my time have led me to write a much shorter and less fluffy Nature 'Roundup'. Hopefully all will be back to normal for September! )

August is more traditionally a month of still, long, heat-filled days, swooping birds and a golden harvest in the fields but as I write in July, the weather and thus our wildlife, are out of kilter, with record breaking temperatures in Europe and rain and storm force winds here flinging unripened fruit and branches from the trees.

Highlights of July: Birds still busy nesting (a blackbird pinching chunks of compost before the rains and a collared dove trying to fly with a metre long branch of clematis snapped off by the wind); a second robin's nest in my porch with parents still feeding; larger families of happy sparrows chattering; a house martin fledgling on the back of its mother high on a rafter at the stables; an unexpected clutch of four owlets, now weighed and tagged and about to fledge, in a box claimed earlier in the year, by a pair of exotic ducks; stepping over a busy bumble bee nest in a hole on a track near the furnace lakes; finding an active, exotic looking female glow-worm in a bucket amongst some late gathered elderflower blooms; alerted by lots of barking and a pitiful cry, finding and managing to free a beautiful young dappled fawn dangling upside down by its leg, caught in fence.

Lowlights: the highest ever land and sea temperatures recorded not only in the UK but for the whole of planet Earth (the hottest June in 115,000-120,000 years); unsettled unseasonable weather in the village (mists and chill in the mornings like Autumn and April showers by day); a noticeable lack of hedgehogs, bats and insects including bees and butterflies (although it seems to be a bumper year for ticks, soldier beetles and our meadow butterflies on bramble flowers and ants and ladybirds on thistles); a different dead fawn on a footpath, its hollowed backend inhabited by green bottle flies.

Key messages: Be mindful of how your actions can make a difference to wildlife, such as keeping dogs under control to protect fawns, ground-nesting birds, water voles and delicate plants.

What to look for or listen to in August: Traditionally - birds moulting, swifts departing, female grass snakes hatching (eggs laid in June or July - so check under your corrugated iron if you haven't had a peek lately); blue butterflies; crab apples; young stoats, separating from their mums to hunt for themselves.

More likely to see: Blackberries and elderberries, haws, rosehips and hazelnuts ripening in our hedgerows and mushrooms and toadstools starting to emerge in the fields and woods. Unusual birds and butterflies that are arriving on our shores to skip the heat of Europe and possibly migratory birds staying longer here. The large flocks of house martins and swallows that usually begin to gather on our telephone wires may delay their departure ...

Ways to get involved: 1) Prepare our wildlife for 'whatever the weather' and help them avoid dehydration and over-heating by providing cool shaded areas in our gardens with food and water topped up with long areas of grass. Also start thinking about creating warmer protective areas such as log piles or bug hotels. 2) Help our pollinators by taking part in World Honeybee day to spread awareness of the benefits and environmental needs of honey bees, which like all bees are in decline. 3) Avoid the urge to tidy and keep seed heads on your plants and vegetables as a source of food. 4) Solitary leafcutter bees may also still be nesting - you could put up a bee box or create your own homes for them by gathering broken bamboo and other hollow stemmed plants with differing circumferences, tying them together and securing the bundle somewhere safe.

Wishing you all times of rest and refreshment in nature this summer and happy surprises!