Nature Notes: June 2025

GATEWAY TO SUMMER

Highlights of May: the sun shining down on our Village Day celebrations; the distinctive purr of a turtle dove hidden in the trees; the last of the bluebells nodding their heads as if in prayer; scores of small heath butterflies and dancing pairs of of holly blues encircling the holly tree; caterpillars on silky threads; a Hare, resting in its 'form' next to the back hedge; cobwebs strung with fluff-balls of Salix willow, like snags of sheeps wool; spindle ermine moth caterpillars in hedge webs up Clapgate Lane; the mini full moon on 12th - at the furthest point from the earth; four-spotted chaser dragonflies; a grasshopper nymph emerging from an instar; a jackdaw hovering in the 'white smoke' emerging from St Peter's boiler, the morning after the new Pope was elected!

Lowlights: the driest start to spring in 69 years, with hard ground leaving young animals and birds still struggling to find food and drink; a neighbour trimming hedges right in the peak of the bird nesting season; news that our blackbird numbers are still in decline with links to the mosquito borne Usutu virus, detected in wild birds across much of southern England (it can also infect horses and humans).

Key messages: When you're not purposefully rainwater harvesting, minimise unnecessary standing water where mosquitoes could breed and wash out and disinfect bird baths and feeders regularly. If you see any blackbirds struggling or dead, report them to 'Garden Wildlife Health'.

What to look for in June: Al Bernstein wrote "Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June." A month of flowers and 'flying flowers' (butterflies and moths); the smell of roses and elderflower; golden sunsets; more fluffed up fledgelings venturing from their nests; young voles, shrews, mice, rabbits and hedgehogs; hummingbird hawkmoths in buddleia and honeysuckle; whirling stag beetles!

What you're more likely to see/hear: the orchestral hum of insects and the rattling of grasshoppers in our wildflower meadows (buttercups, red clover, bird's foot trefoil, common knapweed); thick-legged flower beetles and red soldier beetles on umbellifers and ox-eye daisies; the shimmering wings of damselflies and dragonflies dancing around our river banks; pipistrelle bats swooping through the evening air catching insects for their pups.

How you can help:

- Count the blackbirds in your garden over the summer months and report your sightings for the BTO 'Blackbirds in Gardens' project.

- Take part in the Great Stag Beetle Hunt for the People's Trust for Endangered Species.

- Build a rockery to create homes for a number of different plants and wildlife. And create shade by planting native shrubs and trees.