Highlights of......

...... summer

The first of the reserve’s special flowers are now fading, but it is still obvious that it has been an excellent year for cowslips and early purple orchids. Lets hope that this sets the trend for the rest of the summer. The week of warm weather in May has helped the season to catch up, but the  May blossom - the hawthorn flowers - didn’t come out until about the 20th of the month - much later than normal. It has put on a spectacular show which the return to cooler weather will prolong.

The high temperatures coincided with the first broods of several butterfly species such as common and holly blue, brown argus, brimstone, peacock and comma. With luck they should have laid plenty of eggs and we should see good numbers of all these species later in the summer as their second broods emerge.

This year is when we carry out our 5-yearly survey of breeding birds. We are about half way though the season, and have noted some pluses and some minuses compared to past years. Grey wagtails have bred for the first time, and nuthatches have made a welcome return. There are good numbers of lesser whitethroat and green woodpeckers this time too. However there are no cuckoos and we are worried about the turtle doves, and corn buntings seemed to disappear at the last moment. The full results will be available in the autumn.

The next weeks will see the main sequence of flowers get well and truly under way. Cow parsley, dog daisies, scabious and rock rose will dominate different parts of the reserve, with dozens of minor players adding to the tapestry of colour.