EARLY BUTTER

Some butterflies are out already when weather permits.

Probably the earliest butterfly you will see is the Brimstone.  The males are an unmistakeable bright yellow while the females are a pale greenish white.  They look very conspicuous flying about but in dull weather they hang up side down on plants and look just like a withered leaf.

Photo: Norfolk Wildlife Trust

On sunny, spring days bright blue Holly Blues skitter around the holly bushes and trees where they lay their eggs on the flowers.    If you see one perched on a leaf you can see the litttle black dots on the pale blue underside of the wings.

  

Male Orange Tips are easily recognised but the females don't have any orange and look like small white butterflies.  Their caterpillar foodplants include Lady's Smock and Jack-by-the-Hedge.

And I have even seen some Peacock butterflies catching a few rays.  Insects need the sun to warm up their cold-blooded bodies.

 

HARTS TONGUE FERN

Harts Tongue fern is replacing the old fronds with new young ones unfurling.

The curly bit at the tip of the frond is called a crozier, 

named after the staff that bishops traditionally carry.

 

ENGLISH BLUEBELL

 Like pools of water, drifts of bluebells float in the woods. Here blooming at Damery on the slopes above the road while on the lower, damper ground near the river it's Ramsons or Wild Garlic that proliferates. 

 

The mass of flowers is still to reach its white climax but the leaves are ready for picking if you want to make a nice wild garlic pesto.

Meanwhile, back to the bluebells.  

These are English bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scriptus) as opposed to Spanish Bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica), an introduced species.  Spanish blubells are a cause for concern in British woodlands because they hybridise with the English bluebells.  This could result in the disappearance of the English species.  The hybrid bluebell (Hyancinthoides x massartiana) is the one commonly found in gardens.

How to tell the difference?  There are two easy ways and two a bit harder:

• English bluebells usually droop over to one side at the top while Spanish stand erect with flowers all round the stem
• The petals on the tubular English curl right back while on bell-shaped Spanish and hybrid they flare out but don't curl right back
• If you look inside, the English bluebells have creamy white anthers and the Spanish and hybrid have blue or greenish anthers (Except they all produce white flowering forms sometimes which have white anthers).
• Spanish and hybrid have broader leaves (1-3.5cm) than English (0.7-1.5cm) - but this is only easy if you get your eye in.

 

                                              English                                                 Hybrid/Spanish

 

OUT AND ABOUT ALREADY

Cow Parsley is just coming into flower.  You can tell it by its smell and the ferny leaves.

I was just looking at the emerging flowers when I noticed somebody sun-bathing on a leaf.

Seven-spot ladybirds hibernate in hollow stems and other crevices

and warmer weather brings them out.

 

BLACKTHORN STILL IN FLOWER

Some of the blackthorn is over but some is still prettily in bloom.

They will soon be shedding their petals, so if you find a tall one, give the tree a shake (look out for the thorns) and you will get a snowstorm.

 

COWSLIPS

We have quite a good number of Cowslips at Filnore.  

Like the bluebells they benefit from bramble removal.

 (Note the pignut basal leaves in the bottom lefthand corner of the picture)

These are at the viewpoint near post 8.

There are also a lot in the cowshed field where the brambles have been cut back 

and on the path up to the pylon.

    

 

PIGNUT

Pignut is a small relative of Cow Parsley.  It flowers in May and June but it builds up its strength with these decorative, ferny leaves.  I often used to wonder what they were.

They soon wither once the flower stalks shoot up.

 

ST MARK'S FLY

 Today, 25th May, is St Mark's Day, and because this particular insect appears on or around this day and only lives for about a week, having spent a year as an underground larva, it is named after the saint.

You usually notice the males flying about in a blundery sort of way with their long, hind legs dangling.  Their big eyes are divided so that the top half keeps a lookout for females perched on vegetation and the lower half helps them gauge their height above the ground.

  

When the females have been mated they lay their eggs and then die.

The larvae feed on grass roots and any decaying vegetable material during autumn and winter and then the following year they emerge, just like their parents on St Mark's Day.  As they only live for such a short time it's a wonder that they time their emergence together.

Although these St Mark's Flies are big, black and hairy they are quite harmless and rather unruffled by human presence.  You can pick them up quite easily.

DAWN CHORUS

Now is the best time of year for birdsong.  They, mostly the males, sing to attract mates, to stake out territory against rivals.  The best time to hear them is just before sunrise.  Once the sun is up they have to get busy foraging for food for themselves and their nestlings, so no time for singing.

They start more or less in this order.  I hope my clues about their voices may be helpful

       

Carrion Crow                                                   Rook         

Three or four craas in a row                              More gossippy cawing

  

Blackbird                                                       Songthrush

Tuneful fluty song                                          Repeats each phrase 

                                                                      about three times

  

Wood pigeon                                           Collared dove

'My big toe's bleeding'  x 3 or 4                       United united united

  

Pheasant                                                      Tawny owl

Eek! Eek !                                                          Hoo hoo

  

Robin                                                 Wren
Very tuneful but wistful                         Lots of chirrups including 

                                                     a machine gun churr

        

Chiffchaff                                                         Blackcap

        Chiff chaff chiff chaff                            Like a blackbird but more random

Dunnock

A hurried jingling like a rusty wheel

                        Goldfinch                               Chaffinch                                 Greenfinch

                   Tinkling like glass                   Fall downstairs                    Lots of trills at different 

                                                                   and get up again                     speeds and a wheeze

                    

Blue tit                                                             Great tit

Ping ping ping prrrr                                           Tee-cha tee-cha

Or grumpy chatter                                                                    

THE HAIRY-FOOTED FLOWER BEE

As well as the bee-fly there is another insect with a very long tongue noisily hovering round the lungwort flowers.  This one, the hairy-footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes) has a different appearance.  The females are black but the males are coloured more like a honey bee but not so spherical as the bee-flies. Males seem to have a whitish kind of face and you can see in the photo on the right why this bee is called 'hairy-footed'. Also the long tongue of Anthophora is a bit more curved than the needle-like proboscis of the bee-fly.

  

I tried to follow a female with a video but she was too speedy so I'll have to include a link to youtube.  

A female is trying to feed but several sex-crazed males are eager to mate with her.  One eventually makes it and seems to be waving to  his rivals.  But actually what he is doing is wafting pheromone perfumes towards the female to keep her engaged.  Brilliant piece of filming by jwentomologist.