May is ideal month to explore countryside

NATURE NOTES

May is a month to enjoy, an ideal time to explore the countryside. As primroses and bluebells fade and wild cherry blossom falls, a host of other beautiful flowers and shrubs come into their own.

Columbines, or granny bonnets as we used to call them, appear on some chalky woodland rides, generally blue but occasionally white or pink. In the Blean woodlands, parts of the London clay floor are carpeted with beautiful blue lesser periwinkles. On the sandier soils there and above Fordwich, lily of the valley is now in flower.

A variety of wild orchids may thrive in light woodland and on unimproved roadside verges, meadows and downs including the early purple, the lady, fly and man orchids. The early spider orchid flowers well at Samphire Hoe, on the cliffs above Dover and in varying numbers of Wye Downs.

The green-veined has a good site near Whitstable and is spectacular at Marden Meadow. Just occasionally one may see an early gentian flowering on the chalk.

May brought some welcome rain after the second driest April of the century with only 4.8mm (0.19ins) falling. The driest was 2006 with a scarcely measurable 2.6mm (0.10ins).

April is normally the driest month of the year in the southeast but we could usually expect about 51mm (2.1ins) of rain. One effect of that dry weather is that many wild flowers appeared rather stunted.

Despite the year so far being fairly mild, we have had several hard frosts, but butterflies have survived in good numbers.

Holly blues have been seen and the first brood of the chalkloving Adonis blues which normally appear in May were flying in late April, visiting early-flowering horseshoe vetch, the food plant of their caterpillars. Speckled woods, orange tips, very early meadow browns, peacocks, green hairstreaks, commas and small tortoiseshells are also flying.

The birds in my garden have been enjoying the mild weather, especially the hedge sparrows that flit from partner to partner. Many birders prefer to call them dunnocks, an unattractive name. They are in fact accentors, one of only two of that family found in Europe. The term sparrow originally meant a small brownish bird and was not exclusively applied to the house and tree sparrrows.

Cuckoos have been heard in the Stour valley and on the Romney Marshes and one was seen near Yockletts Bank drinking from a puddle.

I have only heard one myself, a few days ago, but they are not common on the chalky uplands. Turtle doves have been purring again in the county. Denge Woods and the edges of Lyminge Forest are among their favoured locations

Collared doves appear to be trying to avoid the resplendent male magpies now dominating the tree tops to give them a good view of their next prey.

A pair of garden robins are busily feeding their young, competing with house sparrows for peanuts dropped by the blue, great, coal, marsh and long-tailed tits.

For those who want to know how our county birds are faring there is no better site than that of the Kent Ornithological Society. They keep superb records and are well-worth supporting.

Finally, another warning about adders. They appear to have increased in numbers this year and their bite is very painful to humans and often fatal to dogs.

Wear sensible shoes. My wife almost stepped on one as it was basking on a footpath in Kings Wood. If they feel threatened they are most likely to bite at ankle level.

From left, an early Adonis blue butterfly, lily of the valley, columbines – also known as granny bonnets – and an early gentian