Spring nature emerges | | •
The three cornered leek. |  | | •
The speckled wood butterfly. |  | | •
Honesty plants now show on roadsides. |  | | •
An orange tip on a budding bramble. |  | | •
Wild garlic decks the woodland. |
NATURE
NOTES BY STEWART BEER Email: stewart.naturalist@btinternet.com FROM
tree-lined hedgerows and woodland edges comes the "hoo-eet hoo-eet"
calls from one of our latest arrivals from Africa, the willow warbler. Being well
into Spring time the firsts of the year list is burgeoning by the day, if not
the hour! On April 2 I saw the first orange tip butterfly in the parish
and cuckoo flowers in bloom. Although the odd swallow or two have been around
the county since late March, it was nice to see, early morning on April 9, half
a dozen and more on the telegraph wires at Newton Tracey. Early morning on the
following Saturday, April 16, around 50 swallows flew northwards over Ashford.
Alexanders, scurvy grass, wood spurge, dogs mercury and greater stitchwort
currently feature along both highway and byway and the mistletoe and laurel have
flowered. The blackthorn is still showy with blossom and, now, the wild cherry
is also blossoming. Pink purslane covers areas of usually dampish ground and honesty,
a naturalised garden escapee, shows in all the hedgebank sites. Pungent
wild garlic or ramsons has begun its annual sheeting of the woodland floor and
cow parsley will soon froth the hedgerows. The golden gorse blooms are at their
best during April and May. Ground ivy flowers draw in the interesting little
bee-fly and spring cinquefoil is now also flowering, always ahead of the similar
and widespread tormentil. Blackbirds and song thrushes are busy ferrying
food to their nestlings. Recently I found a robin's nest well hidden in the ivy-clad
churchyard wall. Just a few yards further on, a dislodged stone near the
top of the outer facing wall has provided both a sanctuary and a feeding station
for wood mice. The ivy shoots surrounding the hole are devoid of leaves, for these
have been cropped by the little rodents. I have watched one fellow on the lime
mortar ledge nibbling with gusto on an ivy leaf. To climb out along the ivy shoots
to retrieve the leaves is indeed a very dangerous exercise for them, but one worth
taking it seems!
On April 13 I noted a solitary early purple orchid spire
on a grassy bank near Muddiford, another first for the year. And, on April 14,
leaving my home at 5.15am, I heard a skylark's stream of notes as it rose into
the pre-dawn sky. There was no bird, only a singing, imploring the morn to rise.
The fresh-faced countryside is now an irresistible lure.
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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