Nature Spring Diary 23 April 07
- 24 Apr 07, 05:11 PM
The highlights of this blog will be broadcast on 大象传媒 Radio 4 at 9pm Monday 28th May and at 11am Tuesday 29th May, so tell us about the spring things happening near you - post a comment below.
You can also e-mail us your spring photos to add to our Flickr site: nhuradio@bbc.co.uk
It鈥檚 St George鈥檚 Day, and as if to celebrate some essential Englishness, it鈥檚 raining. And about time too. In a spring which has sustained itself through weeks of hot dry weather on nothing more than dew and exuberance, this coy and gentle rain is a relief.
The weather freshened over the weekend with a southwesterly breeze here and it was great to share the return of the swallows many of you now observe, slicing through the sky and clipping hedges. Skylarks are singing above fields as if their ascent is powered by the tremendous energy of their song alone.
In the woods, bursting with birdsong, bluebells are blooming and their narcotic fragrance swirls under the trees whose canopies are exploding into leaf. Lawns of wild garlic on the clayey banks are about to erupt in starry whiteness. Amidst all this wild freedom of sensory noise, one sound is still missing for me.
As I sat on a grassy bank, surrounded by primrose, cowslip, dog violet and lady鈥檚 smock, I was listening. Another name for lady鈥檚 smock is cuckooflower and it鈥檚 the cuckoo I was listening for. I know many of you have heard it already and I鈥檓 sure I will too, somewhere. But it鈥檚 here, in this place on the high slopes of Wenlock Edge above the ford at Wigwig that the cuckoo鈥檚 presence brings spring home for me. It would be a great sadness if the cuckoo鈥檚 flower bloomed for the return but the bird was lost somewhere in the long miles between here and Africa.
Spring is not just a seasonal tide, it鈥檚 an emotional one too. It鈥檚 a tide which is not confined to gardens and countryside. It flows, as the poet Adrian Henri said, 鈥渢hrough the sand beneath the houses鈥eneath the plane trees, the sea, beneath my body, your body.鈥
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Here in South Norfolk - sadly no rain yet. The usual spring drought for the "Dry East"!
First saw the swallows on the 19th April.
I did not hear a cuckoo last year. Not good.
You've reminded me of my favourite quote from Adrian Bell: "Under every office-block lies the good earth, with a seed in it, whose April will one day dawn." I get great comfort from his optimistic suggestion that Gaia will prevail over our destruction.
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Lovely quote from Adrian Bell, Cath.
The tide of spring is what we hitch are hopes to after the grimness and grey introspection of winter. Do you feel immanent destruction? Do the dire predictions of the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report make the simple experience of wildlife in April even more poignant?
I too have seen my first swallow but not heard the cuckoo and these two things have become a see-saw of emotion against a backdrop of spring beauty and environmental anxiety. Do you feel this? Who else does?
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Great Blog.
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My anxiety is more immediate.Driving past a small beech wood bursting into leaf, I've just hit a blackbird with the car. She flew out in front of me at head height and then dipped down under the bonnet. I saw her tattered body roll to the side of the road behind me. What a stupid waste. Is there a nest of chicks somewhere now with one less parent to feed them? Were there unlaid eggs forming inside her? These things happen in no time. No avoiding. No decision to be made. No blackbird.
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Afternoon sun. Wednesday April 25
ed
25/04/2007 at 19:39:21 GMT
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Grant (4),
, by Lewis Thomas is germane.
xx
ed
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Yes, Ed, constant renewal. When you see the catkins begin to grow on the Hazel in November, you see the source of Spring in the dying days of autumn. I wonder what mother is feeding her youngsters from the body of the blackbird that died under my car.
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Grant,
Probably a Magpie. They haunt the roadsides looking for carrion. I shot them and they stayed away for several years, but now my permits expired without renewal, they're back and all I have is a slingshot. I need a larsen trap and an imitation magpie, but the RSPB don't make a magpie soft toy - lots of others...
keep up the good work and my best wishes to all the 'nature/environment' crews.
xx
ed
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I planted some bamboo in my garden (in Amsterdam) 20 days ago. Now the new shoots are storming out of the earth, and are growing with an astonishing speed of about 4 cm a day. It is magic to see how fast it grows!
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Ahhh ... the Magpies! Last year they were forever taking eggs from my chicken run. They have such an attitude - even sitting at the door of the coop, or inside, waiting for the hen to lay. I tried an old method, some would say barbaric, and hung a few dead Magpies round the run. The Magpies stayed away!
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hi it is now the 27th i aslo have not heard the cuckoo.. .yet I am getting worried, it was the 20th last yesr also the swallows/martins/ are just about on time, only a few mind you! swifts no sign!!
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We got swallows 3 or four days ago.
xx
ed
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David (10),
I found that hanging up dead ones brought others in first thing in the morning to challenge its territory. Appropriately placed, this made shooting them easier. After a dozen or so fatalities, they mostly stayed away for a few years, warded off by the occasional shot.
When my permits expired, I didn't bother renewing, and within a few days of expiry I was called upon by two constables in full jackets who asked for the guns. I was informed I was liable to charge for being in possession without a valid permit and cautioned. The fiscal decided not to prosecute, as it would serve no purpose.
Nice to know they're so well on the job. The Magpies are creeping back, and now I have a catapault and may get an larsen trap or just climb up and destroy their beautiful nest, an architectural marvel, if you've never seen one, and worth the climb, even in my seventh decade.
;-)
ed
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If anyone's interested, there's a rambling set of notes from 1994 to 1999, following the progress of the seasons and a number of planted trees, complete with the politics of the Millennium Forest for Scotland.....
The dates of tree budburst, frogspawn, snow and frost may be interesting to compare with the most recent five years... I feel a bit of an Ent.
xx
ed
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A beautiful day in Todmorden West Yorkshire.Centre Vale Park is a mass of colour with fantastic array of trees coming into full leaf opposite the house.
Better still..there are Bluetits nesting in the garden for the first time in five years!! A hive of action building their nest in the nesting box.
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A few of the notable things we have seen before the close of April in Devon & Cornwall where spring comes early (but earlier than ever this year!!):
PLANTS
Early puple orchids (too many to mention
INSECTS
Dragonflies (Libellula Depressa, Small Red Damselflies
Stilt legged flies (in swarms at the coast!)
FISH
Brook Lampreys spawning.
Juvenile trout (parr).
SEASHORE
Juvenile edible and velvet swimming crabs, juvenile garfish.
...and yes we've heard the cuckoo.
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This is the first year that I have had to water the garden every single day so-far in this month. Any plant missed for longer than 48hrs immediately wilts. However, according to the level of the pond and flow rate of the R. Thame, the water table looks higher than last year - I guess this level follows the odd deluge we had a couple of months back.
The frog, newt and toad annual migration across our garden to the pond this year was disappointing in comparison to the plague of biblical proportions normally witnessed. Although we have seen a few great crested newts - they keep managing to find their way into the house. Almost as soon as they get to the pond, the toads normally clump into large rotating green balls. We're not sure what the collective is for toads, but we know what it should be - an 'orgy'.
Like everyone else reports - the swallows, martins and even those massive wasps have turned up, but still no sound of cuckoos or sight of swifts, the screaming Thame chapter havn't turned up yet either.
The weather is fantastic, maybe I should learn from Jeffrey Sachs (This years Reith Lecture), and be optimistic that we will all work together and find the technical solution to overpopulation and to the anthropocene. His suggestion is to provide all who need it with mosquito netting. His logic is not totally clear, but he still has a few lectures to go. However,I should also report that the usual swarming populations of pond fleas (Daphnia)and dragonfly nymphs are now almost entirely replaced by wriggling masses (again the collective might be useful) of mosquito larvae. So, Jezzer could well have a point have a point - with that need now extending to most of Europe. Or, maybe I should stick with the original instinct that says he is being a self-delusional twit.
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Cheers from Michigan, USA. I was out on Sunday and saw few migrants, last week was cold and raining. The weekends was in the 70's F (20's) but they still hadn't moved into the area. Today's birds were good. Black and white warblers, Black-throated green warblers, blue-winged warblers and yellow warblers...What a difference a day can make.
The Beech-Maple forests here now have leaves about 1-2inches wide. I still can find the birds among the trees.
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Windswept garden in Yorkshire Dales,seen for the very first time, common blue butterfly 24/04/07, also orange tip butterflys 30/04/07.
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We caught three newts in our tiny pond this afternoon with great excitement.
Can we now be designated as a nature reserve or something? It would save me having to tidy the garden.
George,
Wellington under The Wrekin.
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Stop being so depressing about the state of the planet and enjoy the beauty that is England in May. My husband dragged me away from my Wisteria and Tree Peonies for a luxurios holiday in Barbados (Cricket World Cup just a happy coincidence) and whilst Barbados is very beautiful in its own way there is no where and nothing as wonderful and England in the Spring. Can't wait to get home.
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Ditchling Common Sunday 29 April was a sea of bluebells and we heard nightingales singing. Yesterday (3 May) I heard a cuckoo on the way between Burgess Hill and Hassocks. One thing I haven't seen is any house martins. We used to get them nesting under eaves on the estate where I live. Now there are none.
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Spring's marching on in the Brecon Beacons National Park too. We're a club of 8-12 yr old wildlife enthusiasts, who have spent this afternoon on a "springwatch" themed special event. We've been scouring the countryside for the signs of spring. It seems most of them have already happened- today we've seen plenty of hawthorn in full bloom, and lots of 7 spot ladybirds, as well as a nest crammed full of baby skylarks that our leader showed us (very carefully, from a distance!). The farm down the road from us is full of swallows too, so plenty for us to watch out for! We'll be sure to add our findings to this year's "Springwatch" survey!
BBWWC
(c/o Natalie-WW leader)
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5/5/07
Even up here in the Peak District spring hurtles prematurely into summer. The cherry tree blossom is fallen already and laburnums are just about out. The bird cherry is gorgeous and the hawthorn is bursting out in almond scented glory everywhere. As in most other parts of the country, it is abnormally dry. It hasn't rained with any gusto since the beginning of April. Things aren't so bad for insect eating birds, but very difficult for worm and snail eaters. My local blackbirds have become bold as robins, appearing at my elbow while I am repotting plants, to see if I'm turning up anything edible for their nestlings. I threw them some worms, which they swooped upon. Unusually blackbirds have returned to the surviving pyracantha berries, which they eschewed in the winter, and have almost finished them off in the last few days. (I think these are to feed themselves, not their young.) Yesterday I witnessed a drama between a thrush and a blackbird. The thrush had just finished bashing a snail when a male blackbird swooped down and drove the thrush off, then stole the snail and flew away with it. Another unusual bird observation was seeing a rook come to take stale bread I had put on a high wall for blackbirds, robins, jackdaws and maybe crows.
I first heard a cuckoo on 22 April, having gone a walk to a suitable location in the hope that I would. What a gift it was to hear that ringing cry again! I remember when I was a child in Devon in the 50s people saying 'I wish that damned cuckoo would shut up, cuckooing non-stop all day'. Now we're lucky, and ecstatic if we hear one at all. My first swallows were seen on 18 April and swifts - just two - on 3 May. All these are at least a week earlier than last year but less numerous.
On the Derwent today I saw two male goosanders and some quite well grown mallard ducklings.
Last week, on a visit to Oxfordshire, I saw a hornet. It had flown into the porch and I was able to observe it at close quarters before it flew off. Magnificent insect and not at all threatening.
It's all happening so quickly I feel that if I blink I shall miss something! I wish I could go and live in the woods and drink in every second of this wonderful, burgeoning season. But a dark thought creeps into my mind from time to time. Mankind's activities may soon have destroyed all this beauty and joy; and I am guilty of hoping that mankind destroys himself before that happens.
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Come all to see our celebration of spring - the bronze statue at Banbury Cross of the Fine Lady of nursery rhyme fame:
'Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
to see a Fine Lady upon a white horse.
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
she shall have music wherever she goes.'
In this romantic and traditional sculpure she is portrayed as a May Queen with a floral garland on her head of 13 wild roses and daffodils into which were imbedded real daffodil leaves that will last for hundreds of years. Horseshoes and lucky symbols were placed in the plinth.
There are lots of spring and fertility meanings - she sprinkles petals to bring prosperity. The rings on her fingers are for power, bluebells on her toes (constancy) butterfly (metamorphosis) and a frog (first communication on land). Her powerful horse is an indiginous Welsh cob who seems to pause on their journey swishing his tail.
The statue is by Artcyle of Stoke-on-Trent and Denise J. Dutton and was unveiled in 2005 by HRH the Princess Royal.
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