February brings out the cherry plum Prunus cerasifera; and as its the first to blossom in the hedgerows on the North Downs it always gets a mention. But it’s not a native species but introduced from Central Asia and the Balkans and cultivated from the 16th century; hence its other more exotic name of myrobalan plum….
Category: British Wildlife
Rye Harbour Nature Reserve
The first day of February is bright sunshine and the Nature Reserve and its visitor centre draws a crowd after a permanently miserable January. The rapid flow of incoming seawater in one of the main channels from the Rother attracts a patient little egret surrounded by a handful of less patient herring gulls that are…
The Wash in Winter
At Snettisham Beach, the dark mudflats riven with water channels stretch into the mists to the west. The myriad worms, crustacea and molluscs that live in the fine sands support over 400,000 wintering waterbirds including around 80,000 red knot; the estuary is also the roost site for around 30,000 wintering pink-footed geese that commute at…
Winter faces
The weather at Elmley on the North Kent Marshes is grey and uninviting; we miss a short-eared owl and peregrine in the gloom, but an obliging female kestrel and passing male marsh harrier make the day.
Whitstable Seafront
Whitstable seafront lit by the afternoon sun on a high tide in October. This was taken from Shellness on the Isle of Sheppey.
Roosting Waders on a Spring Tide
On a big spring tide at Shellness in North Kent (5.71m on October 19th), the saltmarsh gets one of its few inundations and the curlews that roost at the top end of the saltmarsh eventually get moved on by the slowly rising waters. Grey plovers seek refuge on the groynes and the oystercatchers simply move…
Constable Country
Dedham Vale is a landscape of English oaks, pollarded willows and water meadows around the meandering River Stour. The villages are small but with imposing churches built on the profits of the wool trade. It is the landscape of John Constable and so, for many, of lowland England. Constable painted many scenes around the Mill,…
Sandwich Terns at Shellness
A big spring tide on a warm afternoon is a good time to watch the waders, gulls and terns gather on the shore. There is a regular post-breeding congregation of Sandwich terns and their raucous calls fill the blustery air. The terns fly up and down the shoreline and out into the bay sometimes returning…
August Insects
The weather in SE England is warm and dry through July and August; the mid-summer flowers are now late summer seeds and fruits. Coming after a wet spring, it is a great year for blackberries. The ivy flower is taking over from the bramble and will be the chief source of pollen and nectar for…
A Tale of Two Tresses
Cors Fochno or Borth Bog on the western edge of mid-Wales, holds a recently discovered population of Irish Lady’s Tresses Spiranthes romanzoffiana; it is a pretty orchid with small white flowers in three spiral rows. Spiranthes romanzoffiana occurs in sites with wet, acidic peaty soils, in western Britain and Ireland but also much more commonly…
Plovers and catchers
Shellness is a remote and remarkable spit of cockle shells at the east end of the Isle of Sheppey. It is the tip of a vast expanse of saltmarshes and dark brown mud that form a large part of the Swale National Nature Reserve. The shell spit is continually moulded by the tide and currently…
Stour Estuary, Suffolk
The Stour Estuary is divided down the middle between Essex and Suffolk; on the Essex side the road runs east from Manningtree and ‘The Walls’ at Mistley to Harwich past a coastline of woodland and wetland nature reserves and, near Wrabness, the House for Essex. On the Suffolk side, it is equally wild with nothing…