Your wildlife month
March can be tough for garden wildlife. Few berries and seeds remain, while the ground may still be too cold for worms and other invertebrates to be available to eat. Yet everyone needs to be in good shape for breeding. You can help by leaving fruit and seeds at the back of borders for small birds such as wrens and robins, and keep topping up bird baths with fresh water.
As the new growing season begins, see what you can improve for wildlife in your garden: do you have enough spring flowers for early pollinators? Are there sufficient seedheads from last autumn to keep providing shelter when it’s cold? Could you add native shrubs like hawthorn for moths to lay their eggs on, so birds can feed the caterpillars to their young?After all, the more we can do to help wildlife, the more wildlife there will be.
You may spot...
Great diving beetle,
Dytiscus marginalis
Found in garden ponds and other bodies of water, this is one of Britain’s largest beetles, with an olive-brown, oval body up to 3cm long. They are easy to spot when they rise to the surface to replenish their air supply, which they store beneath their wings. The larvae are yellow-brown, up to 5cm long and resemble rove beetles swimming through the water. Both the adults and larvae are voracious predators, eating other aquatic insects, tadpoles and small fish.
Mating happens in early spring, with eggs laid singly in pond plants. The larvae grow fast and leave the pond by late summer, burrowing into damp soil nearby to pupate. Adult beetles emerge from their pupae in mid-autumn but stay in the soil until spring, then return to the water to mate. They can live for up to three years.
Also look out for…
◾ Robins pairing up, ready to nest. The female splays her wings at the male and the male feeds her – known as ‘courtship feeding’.
◾ Hairy-footed flower bees visiting primroses and grape hyacinths. They look like bumblebees but are actually solitary bees. The females are black with orange legs and the males are smaller and gingery.
◾ Toads migrating to their spawning ponds, especially when it’s rainy and above 5°C. The larger females carry males on their back.
Great diving beetles are voracious predators, eating other aquatic insects, tadpoles and small fish