Looking forward to
May

Wildlife in
May

Settled weather (?) - so much to see!

• Swifts swooping
• Dotterel on Ilkley Moor
• Blue butterflies - Holly Blue first, Common if early
• Green hairstreaks on Otley Chevin
• Dragonflies! Large Red Damselflies, Four-spotted Chasers
• Leopard's-bane at Denton

More here

Feather forecast



If you were to be very lucky, you might see Dotterel on Ilkley Moor in early May. These are birds of the high tops, breeding very irregularly in England, and difficult to see. They are delightful little grey-brown plovers, the male with a bright red-brown front. They pass through on passage and the Moor is a traditional stopover for small groups.

For a slightly easier quest, take a walk through woodland and see you can find Spotted Flycatcher. Strid Wood and the Washburn are likely, and upper Wharfedale and Littondale have been most productive in recent years. Last year, though, even mid-Wharfedale did better than it had for a long time. Even if you don't see the bird, you'll see lots of other breeders - Pied Flycatcher, for instance. They are found in just a few breeding sites - Strid Wood, Grass Wood and Dob Park are some.

This month we see Swifts, back from South Africa for the summer. The earliest record for return is April 21st, and they mostly stay only until late August. Their noisy swooping after insects on their sickle-shaped wings, often with groups of Swallows or House-martins, is an icon of English summer. It nests mostly in urban areas.

Plants now



There are so many plants to enjoy at this time but it is the May blossom which defines the month.

Hawthorn is found almost everywhere in Britain. It spreads quickly, helped by its juicy fruits which are food for birds. It is of course often planted as hedging and was very popular during the Enclosure Act period.

It was just one plant of many which in the past made up 'the May'. The whitethorn was a protector against the evil waiting at the turning of the season. Yet as a powerful plant it could be dangerous - it should not be brought indoors. Lone hawthorns could be fairy places and should never be interfered-with. Hawthorn wood burns hotter than any, and the bush can live to a great age.

Nature Notes
by Society members
featured in Wharfedale Newspapers

Who needs sunshine anyway?

My hunt for floral signs of Spring continues, and, about ten days ago, I found one of my 'specials'. In the dim light beneath some hazel bushes on the edge of Strid Woods - three ghostly white spikes of common toothwort. The tightly closed flower buds that cluster on these spikes will later open and flush to a rather dirty-looking pinky-mauve, but at present their waxy colour suits their alternative name of corpse flower! These spikes are the only indication we shall have that this plant is present. The main body of the plant exists below ground - a number of thick off-white stems covered in curled flesh-coloured leaves: it completely lacks chlorophyll so is unable to photosynthesise. It steals all the nutrients it needs to grow and reproduce by means of pad-like suckers attached to the roots of, in this case, a hazel bush. It is a parasite. It doesn’t seriously damage the hazel: after all, it wouldn’t do for a parasite to kill its host, so I can find it in this spot year after year.

I remember learning about photosynthesis, the process by which plants form sugars from carbon dioxide and sunlight, in Biology lessons at school. The ability to photosynthesise seemed to be a prerequisite of being a plant. But, of course, nature is much cleverer than that. Later I learned to look out for yellow rattle. This pretty flower, common in the hay meadows of my childhood, is easy to identify. The bright yellow flower is backed by a bladder-shaped calyx that dries out and contains the seeds. It has other names - cockscomb and the very descriptive rattle-basket. Yellow rattle can live independently but, since it tends to grow in rather dry and competitive circumstances, it’s evolved as a hemi-parasite, taking extra nourishment from the roots of neighbouring grasses. Farmers used to dislike it as it weakened the grass-growth, but nowadays it is valued by conservationists in their efforts to develop species-rich hay meadows. Rattle holds back grass growth and thus encourages biodiversity. It’s been successfully used at the Otley Wetlands Reserve creating space for a rich display of, among others, wild orchids.

Thinking admiringly of all the clever ways plants have evolved in order to survive, I enter Strid Wood and am immediately surrounded by trees covered in lichen. A happy collaboration between fungi and algae, lichens are examples of symbiosis, an equally beneficial - and highly successful - partnership.

More Nature Notes articles here .