May Nature Notes 2011

by David Tidmarsh - 16:29 on 08 June 2011

                                       Ken’s Nature notes.

Is this late Spring or early summer? I am getting a little confused with the wonderful weather we are having. The usual reply is that this must be our summer enjoy it while you can,  for sure hose pipe bans will be in force in many areas before long. I hope I have not put a curse on the weather, I am not taking the blame for any change.

Scents abound as you walk around the area, Hawthorn blossom almost knocks you over with its “May” flower, the seasonal weather is about two weeks in advance thus giving the Hawthorn blossom the correct name with the month.

The mountain ash or Rowan blossom has given over to producing its berry fruits which are always very popular with the Starlings in late summer.

Horse chestnuts, conkers trees to you and me, have had lovely blossoms this year, they remind me of large ice cream cones waiting to be licked.

I passed a mature Hazel tree yesterday and when you get a close look it is going to be a good year for the hazel nuts, providing the frost is not serevere.

Most of the nesting seems to have finished now with a couple of broods from the Blackbirds, sparrows can be seen teaching their young how to feed for themselves, it certainly is a fast learning curve for these young ones if they are to survive. A couple of weeks ago I came home to discover a Blackbird had been hit by a car and was lying in the middle of the road, I told June and she collected it up, just in the nick of time before another car nearly ran it over again. We thought that the shock, never mind  being hit by a car would have eventually killed it, so June put it under the Rhubarb leaves in the garden to see out its last few minutes. Next day we couldn’t believe our eyes as the same Blackbird was on the fence chirpy as anything, plus about three feathers sticking up in the air, we still see it feeding around the area, so if you see an unusual blackbird with feathers sticking up you know where he is from.

We were on a bird watch last week as we could hear the dreaded call of a pair of Magpies in the garden, we did have a pigeon nesting in a Cedar tree but sadly the Magpies had been in and got the egg, the pigeon has not been seen since, birds in general have a fight for survival from the word go! Especially in the urban environment it seems tougher what with the usual predators plus cats and cars.

Some late frosts have still caught out some tender plants and it can be very destructive to tender new growth, trouble is you never can be quite sure when the frosts have past; I remember my Dad would be up early in the morning hosing down  early potatoes that had been frosted the night before, he was sure that any frost washed off the plants before the sun hit them would be helped by this action; I am convinced my Dad would not have done this unless he had seen the results as being positive.

I am really enjoying the spring salads at the moment, fresh and tender, not from the garden but Sainsbury’s. Enjoy your shopping

Ken.

Add your comment

Your Name


Your Email (only if you are happy to have it on the site)


Your Comment - no HTML or weblinks


Enter this number in the box below and click Send - why?Unfortunately we have to do this to prevent the system being swamped by automated spam