The year is already turning , at least as far as the bulk of the plants are concerned :
maximum growth has been reached , and everything is beginning to fruit and seed ,the early flowering species first.
I had a very nice bag of cherries picked ( very ripe ) from two trees on the cycletrack last week.
There are feral raspberries( escaped from the allotments ) on the track down to the river, and the blackberries in the hedgerows are already red and going black, if not yet anywhere near edibility.
Judging by my apples and pears , it will be a bumper fruit year.
The grasses are now seeding and browning, and the early fledglings are flown.The tadpoles are now froglets, and dispersed from their drains.
But there are still some species to come, so there will be plenty to write about in the coming months , I trust.
PLANTS NOW FLOWERING :~
Some of these have been out for some time , but I haven't had time to catch up with them before.
It's noticeable that most of them are regarded as weeds : and they certainly lack some of the beauty and sense of promise of the first spring flowers ; but that's mere human prejudice really .
They all have a place in the ecosystem ,and shouldn't be despised because some of them are rather commonplace.
All of them will have some insect or snail that eats them ; and without those there would be no birds... and so on.
Eyebright : a very small plant , once thought to have opthalmic properties. The "species" is actually a confusing agglomeration of about twenty subspecies , all furiously hybridising. Evolution in a state of flux. Cycle Track .
Ragwort : The bane of cattle , being poisonous.Some insects love it though...
Great Plantain: a lawn weed that is rarely allowed to grow to this size .
Hemp Agrimony : the Greeks thought it an antidote to poisons.Riverbank:
Pineappleweed : a native of N.E.Asia, introduced in the 19thC. Really does smell delightfully
of pineapples.Some small patches on the river track.
Valerian: A nerve tonic, still used.
Mugwort : Great silvery-green clumps of it now appearing . Much used in Chinese medicine ,
it is now being considered as a commercial crop in Britain , since it's very valuable as a
malaria treatment . This one on the riverbank .Smells wonderful when crushed :
Yarrow : everywhere in lawns , but when allowed to grow fully , a handsome plant.
Field bindweed : now flowering along the CT, alongside it's large white cousin , the Great or Common Bindweed. Here's the Greater :
And here's the Lesser ....It's actually more purple than this , but for some reason my camera has trouble with the white/purple colours.
Tansy : Riverbank.. I've mentioned it before as the foodplant of our rare beetle, but
it's now in full flower.Highly aromatic , used in cakes for the flavour.
Lady's Bedstraw : pretty plant, and once useful too .Stuffing mattresses , and cheese-making. So there.
There's something approaching a riot of Wildflowers to see , if you go about a mile down the cycletrack,with scenes like this : Scabious, Lady's Bedstraw , Knapweed etc :
I just wish that areas nearer home were like this : we have what amounts to a series of monocultures interspersed with rough bits, but not the richness of species that I would like.
And of course the Hateful Himalayan Balsam is flowering everywhere : where it takes over,
nothing can compete . Some of its plants are now over ten foot tall.
INSECTS :~
Comma : this beautiful butterfly is hatching now : I've only seen two. Larvae feed on nettles.
" The warm and mothy night " : if you leave your windows open after dark , as I do ,
the poor bewildered things will inevitably come in , mistaking your light for their navigation
system , the moon.
Most are the grey-brown patterned Noctuids , of which there are hundreds, and you have to be a bit of a specialist to identify them.
One which is obvious is the Yellow Underwing , a big powerful moth , and numerous here.
If you get one in the bedroom , it makes too much fuss to let you sleep ,and has to be caught and released outside.
The Caterpillars live on many plants:
Another that came in and tried to read my book was the Orange Swift. Caterpillar lives for two years in the roots of Bugloss and Docks :
And down along the riverbank near the campsite , the first Big Dragonfly of the season.
Probably Aeshna juncea ( there are three Aeshnas , and unless they sit on a plant ,
they are hard to tell apart on the wing ):
A massive insect ,and a tireless flier, patrolling a beat like a fighter ,
which indeed it is. If it fancies a snack , the speed with which it will pounce on almost any other flying insect is impressive.
BIRDS :~
Kingfisher : saw one briefly this week.
But unless they are somewhere out of view, they don't appear to have nested here.
In this seaside time of the year, it's worth mentioning that,despite being so far from the sea,
we do see a remarkable number of seabirds.
Herring gulls ( now amazingly enough in decline ) commute overhead morning and evening ,
presumably from the Humber to sites inland :
And we always have a small number of Black-headed gulls
around Naburn marina:
I have even seen a Common Tern there on occasion.
Of course , saltwater begins at Naburn Lock.
And it's not uncommon to see a Cormorant flying over in that rather stately way they have.
One migrant bird surprised me this week : a Wheatear, sitting on a fence-post along the river.
It stayed around for some time , so though I didn't have my binoculars , I had a very clear view for ten minutes.
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