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A leaf emerges from its protective bud case. |  | | •
Green alkanet. |  | | •
Goosegrass is again ramping hedgebanks. |  | | •
Wood anemones also favour rivebanks |
Signs of SpringtimeNATURE
NOTES BY STEWART BEER Email: stewart.naturalist@btinternet.com THE
leavening sun stirs the insect legions and bursts open the leaf buds of elder
and sycamore, chestnut and ash. Old man's beard and honeysuckle are leafy, goosegrass
again ramping the hedgerows and increasing numbers of plants arise and flower.
Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage, round-leaved water crowfoot, sweet violet,
wild strawberry, white dead-nettle, greater stitchwort, common fumitory, dandelion,
wood anemone, scurvy grass, Spanish bluebell are also plentiful. An untended flower-bed
running for many yards under a high stone wall has been colonised by three-cornered
leek and is a sea of white from drooping flowerheads. On March 20 I found
a common carder bee lying in the quiet country road. This spring has been a noteworthy
one in respect of the healthy number of buff-tailed bumblebees abroad. On Easter
Saturday I watched a splendid red-tailed bumblebee search beneath a tuft of grass
for a burrow in which to establish her queendom. The first two days of
this Easter-time brought fine weather and fine observations, including sand martins
on Good Friday and, on Saturday, my first adder of the year found sun bathing
in a tight coil on Torrington Commons. A stunning insect is the brimstone butterfly
and these are sweeping back and forth along the sunny hedgerows just now. Speckled
wood butterflies have been flying for a fortnight and more and longer still the
peacock, small tortoiseshell and comma. Following the lead given by collared
dove, raven, heron, rook, wood pigeon and, lately, blackbird, more and more of
our resident birds are pairing-up and nest building. Birdsong builds in volume
as mates are sought and territories established. Throughout the day song thrush,
blackbird, wren, blackcap, chiffchaff, robin, dunnock, chaffinch, greenfinch,
great tit and blue tit burst into spirit-lifting song. The green woodpecker "yaffles"
and the great spotted woodpecker "drums" and skylarks soar a-singing.
In the right location it is possible to hear most, if not all, of these birds
from the same spot!
Contact Stewart Beer at: stewart.naturalist@btinternet.com
•
Stewart’s anthology An Exaltation of Skylarks, now with four
colour plates added, is published by SMH Books ISBN 0 9512619 7 5. It can be ordered
from all good bookshops. | 
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