Nature Spring Diary 11th April 2007
- 11 Apr 07, 01:38 PM
Photo taken by Stephen Moody in the New Forest last weekend.
The highlights of this blog will be broadcast on ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 at 9pm Monday 28th May and at 11am Tuesday 29th May, so tell us about the spring things happening near you.
The glorious weather spills over from Easter and the presence of Spring is captured by these wonderful observations in response to my last blog. Although there are no reports of cuckoos yet, many of you have heard that other onomatopoeic two-note wonder, the chiff-chaff. Julie heard the earliest one here on the 2nd April in Rotherham.
According to my friend, colleague on the Nature team and uber-naturalist, Brett Westwood, chiff-chaffs migrate to Britain from the Mediterranean but many over-winter in sewage farms in south west England then spread out through the country when the weather warms up to establish breeding territory and sing. So you canβt tell where the chiff-chaff you hear comes from.
Other spring migrants have arrived: there are sand martins at Cotswold Water Park and many of you have seen swallows - which Mark, also from the Cotswolds, calls βreturning friends.β According to the British Trust for Ornithology, spring migrant numbers are low this year and that makes me more anxious about the appearance of the cuckoo.
Many of you have seen signals of an early spring. Fergus the Forager found St Georgeβs mushrooms on 1st April, Sally in Caerphilly saw hawthorn in blossom on 22nd March, Paula in Perthshire found frogspawn there three weeks ago and Jean heard her first Lake District skylark on 1st April.
Many of the reports are tantalisingly brief and I for one would love to know more about many of them. For example: Alex from West Dorset has seen adders and lizards - tell us more, what else is happening on the heath? Since so few of us ever get to see red squirrels in the wild anymore, could Christine in Northumberland, Robin in East Fife or Elizabeth in Dumfriesshire please appoint themselves red squirrel correspondents and report back? The same goes for water voles, perhaps Kath from Staffs could let us know more about the ones she sees.
Iβve had a go at answering a few questions: Linda, Queen Anneβs Lace is wild carrot, Daucus carota; the flower Mica sees in Cornwall is stichwort I think; and as for violets losing their scent, Jane in Derbyshire, our only fragrant violet is Sweet Violet, Viola odorata, and I canβt smell it but some can.
But now I have some questions of my own. Will Debbie ever see the nightingale in Salisbury? Will we ever get a photograph of Adamβs jays in Hackney? Will rain come to replenish Megβs crops in the Vale of Evesham? Will Bettina ever feel guilty again about keeping an untidy garden now itβs full of wildlife? And when will I hear the cuckoo?
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I sent my photo as well.
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my first swallow of the year seen at Eldroth near Settle in North Yorkshire on 11th April
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We had adders in Southwest Scotland last week (thursday 5th) and I've seen bluebell flower spikes for the last few days. Blackthorn and other prunus spp in full bloom, hawthorn leafing, pheasants brooding, larch flowers and leaves well on, Gorse in full bloom for a while, no broom yet. Oak buds very swollen on some trees. Field maple leafing, Norway Maple flowers gorgeously out, wych elm showing flowers, bird cherry leafing for a fortnight, tadpoles developing legs, lizards sunning themselves,...
ed
13/04/2007 at 17:14:57 GMT
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A ?
Click on to see something I'll bet you've never noticed before.
xx
ed
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An adder making its way across the beach at Porthcurno in Cornwall to the surprise of all - not least the children playing nearby. This was early morning 10.30am on April
11th during a week of very warm weather.
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5th April 2007 - Went to see the wild daffodils at Gwen and Vera's fields nature reserve near Newent at the edge of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. The reserve is two small fields alongside a lane in the middle of the countryside. They are old orchards and some of the trees are still there. The flowers were just past their best but the grass was covered with daffodils with drifts extending through the hedges into the woods beyond. They are smaller than domesticated daffodils, about 15 - 20cm. a softer yellow and more delicate, very beautiful.
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Where is the leading edge of spring? I'd always imagined spring moving up the country like a wave from the south, but maybe it's more like ripples spreading out from spring hotspots in the cities. Round my home in the Gloucestershire countryside the Blackthorn in the hedges has only just gone over. The Hawthorn is in leaf, but no flowers yet. But visiting London yesterday I emerged from the Tube to be caught in the back of the throat by the heavy scent of May blossom. I looked around and saw the Hawthorn tree, thick with its creamy flowers. I know that our cities are supposed to be a degree or two warmer than the rest of the country, so maybe that's where to look for the leading edge of spring.
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Some more signs of Spring at :
Earliest .
ed
19/04/2007 at 15:48:22 GMT
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Three days later and the ripple has spread. The Gloucestershire hawthorns are coming into flower. I feel the same sense of relief as when the first leaf buds burst on the trees. Do you think the plants feel relief too? A sense of pent-up energy bursting out into new growth -- a climactic moment after months of rising sap. Or maybe they just brace themselves for the summer of hard growing ahead and look forward to the time when they can stop supporting these demanding leaves and simply rest again.
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I am 59 years old and have always been interested in and knowledgeable about wildlife in West Essex/Epping Forest. Yet for the last two years pairs of Mallards have started appearing and becoming very familiar, bold spring residents in small domestic gardens in this area. Also this year only pairs of mallards have started sitting in the middle of busy roads.I have(first time this year) seen two traffic squashed ducks. Have I really overlooked this behaviour all these years or has it (as I think ) just started happening?
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I don't know about Essex and Epping Forest, but in my village in Gloucestershire we have an entire gang of mallards that takes to the streets in the spring. Yesterday I saw my first flotilla of ducklings following their mother on the footpath behind the print works. Two years ago a lost duckling turned up on my pond and was so viciously pecked by the adults around that I built a pen for it and fed it until it was old enough to fly off. It turned out to be a she. Last year she brought her consort back to the garden, and he is now in almost permanent residence. This year I'm rather hoping for the patter of tiny webbed feet. Does anyone know at what age mallards start breeding?
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Here are some more comments that we've received to the Radio 4 website.........
Trevor Courtney, South Dorset 10th April
Warm relaxing sunshine, abundant bird song and the smell of cut grass. Lush banks of rivers and hedgerows are primed for the surge into summer. The odd swallow has arrived but no cuckoo yet. Usally an early cuckoo lives in the water meadows so any day now ! The best for me are skylarks singing out of a clear blue sky.
Liz Vale of Glamorgan
April 2nd Brimstone moth in the garden The first time I have identified one although they are quite common
Bob Calver, Lyde, Herefordshire
Saw swallows on the telegraph wires in the village on Monday afternoon (April 8th). Hedges and banks full of cowlsips, cuckoo flowers and primroses.
Brett Westwood, Worcs
I just celebrated 30 years of ouzelling! There's a tide in the affairs of ring ouzels, those splendid mountain blackbirds, that brings them each spring to the tops of the Clent Hills in north Worcestershire . In late March and early April, ouzel aficionados like me pant and puff their way to the summit and gaze expectantly down rabbit-cropped valleys , hoping for the first flash of a white bib and the clacking call as the bird dives for the nearest bush. Here , on the very edge of Birmingham,ring ouzels pause for breath beforelaunching themselves across the endless roofs en route for the moors and peaks of northern England and Scotland, and who knows, Scandinavia. For a fleeting moment each year , they're a bridge between the soft south and the hard northern landscapes. The first flock I ever saw here arrived in a howling flurry of April hail, and every year since , ring ouzels are an irresistible force, not just to me , but a growing band of people for whom a flash of pale wing feathers and a white gorget transforms the dullest spring day.
Jo Sinclair, Cambridgeshire
A mallard under the dogrose has hatched seven ducklings. But the fragile first clutches are all too quickly sacrificed - spring is a rehearsal for later broods. Crows swoop from bare branches and the mink's approach is blatant in broad daylight, unhidden by nettles or reeds. The moorhen chicks, like black bumblebees, will go the same way, but second families have a far higher survival rate, with juvenile moorhens playing at 'aunts and uncles', helping exhausted parents to raise the thriving third brood.
Ros Bowles, Brockenhurst
Fledgling blackbirds have flown the nest and are in our garden, March 31st. Bluebells are out in Ballard Woods April 5th. We spent Easter in North Wales where numerous tortoiseshells danced along the footpaths and in the hills in the Clwyd Valley. Daffodils are past it but there are still primroses galore and brilliant swathes of golden gorse; delicate cowslips are a delight to the eye in Wales.Less welcome are mosquitoes in the house at the end of March. The blackthorn has been magnificent this year and now the wild cherries are making an equally good show. I saw the first leaves on oak trees at Cadnam on 31st March and a young beech tree with leaves out all over on 3rd April.
Isobel Beeton
Heard a cuckoo this morning in the New Forest near Lyndhurst!
Lynda Johnson Narborough, Leicestershire
Today Friday 13th April as I drove home from work my eyes were drawn from the road towards a telegraph wire. There to my surprise was my first swallow of the season. It sat on its own,thin but victorious, basking in the afternoon sunshine. With this good fortune and the promise of fine weather for the weekend ahead I feel re-envigorated by the cycles of spring -natures own battery charger!
Marion, Coulsdon, 13 April 2007
Coltsfoots blooming at Cuckmere, Sussex; the first time in my life that I have seen Coltsfoots - they are exquisite.
Isobel Beeton Lyndhurst \new Forest
I heard a cuckooo at 6.15am on 13th April whilst listening to the dawn chorus from my caravan at Denny's Wood nr Lyndurst. I was so excited and had to write to let you know!
Isobel chelmsford, Esses
Its mid-april and blue tits are visiting our cherry tree regularly to,presumably, eat insects. We supply food for tits and other birds, so this is obviously another choice on the menu for them! Lovely to watch.
Ken East, Hertfordshire
14th april,I spotted a common buzzard sitting on the top of my bird feeder in my back garden.It sat there for a few minutes before flying off.My wife and I thought this was amazing to see a bird of prey so close to the house.then on sunday 15th in the morning we spotted two more Buzzards gliding on the warm thermals as they passed overhead.Is this normal for them at this time of the year or were we lucky ?
derick eggerton pickstock newport shropshire
so far we have spotted 5 swallows that have returned to the stable,a large ring of st georges mushrooms,the cuckoo (16/04/07)a fabulous greeny yellow butterfly and lots of small white butterflies with orange tips to wings
Elizabeth, London
My husband and I heard a cuckoo on Easter Sunday in the Moesel, Germany while on a walk through a forest
Adrian Richards, Gower, 19 April
Lovely spring walk this morning, through the fields to decoy wood over grass that continues to thrive on early morning dew in the complete abscence of rain. Followed a loggers' track in Park woods, then the main track up on to Cefn Bryn where we heard our first cuckoo of the year. Along the ridge with skylarks singing and a wonderful view of every shade of green down in Meadmoor wood, oak, larch and beech all well advanced and far ahead of the ash this year. The bracken is starting to unfurl on the hill - time to plant the runner beans.
Annie Alder, Buckingham, Bucks
I've heard my first cuckoo while out walking early on Saturday 21st April.It was a lovely warm sping morning
Stephanie, Leicestershire
It's been a joy to sit in my garden during the past 2 sunny weeks and watch and listen to the variety of birds who visit my garden, bird table and bath. The most popular item on the menu is the general seed mix, followed inorder by fatballs, mealworms and peanuts. The blackbird is the most frequent bather. The range of birds I'm lucky to see or hear are; blue tits, great tits, Chaffinches, Green finches, Robins, Tree Sparrows, Dunnock, nuthatch (first time this year), Blackbirds, Doves, Wood pigeons, Magpies, starlings, rooks, woodpecker and I've recently heard a cuckoo. Not forgetting the neighbouring hens and cockerel.
mike hadlow. york
I am the warden at Hollicarrs holiday park heard my first cookoo this year is spring gone mad we have bluebells and primroses and they have been out for about two weeks now and the birds wqe have too many to mention but my faves are the long tail tits or as I lke to think of them furry lollipops wow this is heaven now im going fishing to drink the ambiance in
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Today's (April 30th) broadcast on Radio 4 asked for contributions of sightings of a range of species. On April 8th, walking at 1pm in glorious sunshine on the cliffs near Gunwalloe, Cornwall, we came across a small black cat tackling a small, angry adder. They were right on the footpath and it was not at all clear who would win. What was certain was that they were going to continue interacting regardless of human attempts to separate them... Is this an early sighting for an adder? Could the relative coolness account for the snake's unwillingness (inability?) to move away?
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The moon is gone.
She fled as dawn approached.
Dawn as a slowly opening eye.
White sea birds skimming over the water,
looking for an early morning snack.
The mirror brightens.
From a blood moon at dawn to a mirror
reflecting waking life...
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I woke her to take the moon.
Her campaign was swift and terrible.
Metallic and fierce.
Glaring up in the twilight.
But the moon was both implacable and unreachable
and in the end the war against the moon failed.
As dawn rose slowly from her bed, the moon slipped away.
But in the end, all that was lost,
was a little sleep....
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1 June 2007
Burning Moon
Moon Fire
Blood Moon
smoked Moon
Smoky Moon
Smouldering Moon
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