How many of these 3 wildlife spots can you see in April?
With Easter round the corner we are all ready for Spring! It has been very stop-start this year, and everywhere the land seems wet. The odd nice day (which hopefully is on a weekend!) but still lots of rain (which makes it feel cold!) Still, us hardy northerners are not going to complain.
Clover begins to flower. Clover is an excellent flower for bees and other pollinators. Partly because it is many flowers in one. It also is able to fix nitrogen from the air, so is sometimes used in farming as a fallow crop, to improve soil fertility, without needing fertilisers. (Farmers might use Italian clover in their mix, rather than our native red or white clover). Fertilisers make nitrogen using the “Haber-Bosch” process. This was developed over 100 years ago. Nitrogen from the air is heated at pressure over hydrogen. This forces it to make ammonia. It is a very energy-intensive process, typically using fossil fuels. Amazing then that clover does this for free for us! Or for itself really, and its part in a natural cycle.
Dawn chorus. Now is a good month to start listening out, if you are up early, for birds singing. The app “Merlin Bird ID” can help you here learn the sounds and memorise them. Remember some of Gill’s guided walks around the fields! You have to find your own way of remembering them and know that birds have alarm calls that are different to their song. Wrens have one of the loudest songs for such a small bird. Great tit sounds like the squeaky wheel of a wheelbarrow. Song thrush often repeats a phrase two or three times, but with a lot of phrases. Coal tit seems to go up and down the scale but in a slidey, tuneful way. Chiffchaffs are already back, and many people see them as the harbinger of spring – we are awaiting the sand martins any day now. And of course there is nothing like the beautiful voice of the crow! What is your favourite and how would you describe it!
Queen bumblebees may already be about. Slightly bigger and fatter than what you might expect a bumblebee to look like, and of course acting very purposeful! Buff tailed are normally one of the first out, perhaps on a sunny bank. If you can one, and it stays still long enough, please take a photo – we can help you identify it! Willow is also a good early source of pollen for them. They will be interested in any holes perhaps in a wall or a log as a potential nest site.
