If you go down to the woods today
Post categories: Springwatch
| 18:00 UK time, Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Guest bloggers Kimberley Tew and Beverley Gormley at the Woodland Trust have taken advantage of the recent warm weather.
The nature lovers here at the Woodland Trust have been enjoying regular strolls around the woods. While we have been basking in the sunshine, we couldn't help but notice the effects of the warm weather on the woods and the wildlife within so we thought we'd share what you can expect to see in the woods at the moment and how this compares to previous years.
Orange tip butterfly. Image © Lindsay Williams / Woodland Trust Picture Library
A recent has revealed that this spring has been one of the warmest and driest in around a decade. This means that many of spring's key nature events have happened earlier than in previous years.
This year came very close to being the earliest on record for with the mean recorded flowering date expected to be April 19th when spring recording finishes. The earliest ever recorded flowering date was April 18th in 1945.
seem to have finally caught up with oak and are now in leaf, while , and are flowering. Keep an eye out for early and tell us if you spot any.
Brimstone butterfly. Image © Fran Hitchinson / Woodland Trust Picture Library
2011 is likely to be a record-breaking year for butterflies with the earliest recorded sightings of , and one of the earliest for . and butterflies have also been spotted earlier than in the previous ten springs. We won't know whether this is because they are more abundant, or because people are out watching and recording them more until the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme results are out. We are particularly interested in the results of this survey following Richard Fox's report, Why the UK's butterflies are in trouble. You can help us find out how climate change is affecting butterflies by recording your sightings on .
Birds are currently filling the air , with and now back for the summer and many young birds starting to fledge. Keep a look out for young robins, , and long-tailed tits, great spotted woodpeckers and dunnocks taking to the air for the first time.
Badger. Image © Richard Becker / Woodland Trust Picture Library
Here at the Woodland Trust, we are also getting reports of many other species which we don't record as part of our nature's calendar survey. Ground ivy is fading while buttercups and clover are now flowering, giving the woods a carpet of colour. Signs of badger activity have been spotted, although we've yet to hear of any of these notoriously elusive animals being seen. Have you spotted any? We are still collecting records for this year's springwatch survey. and tell us what you have spotted on .
Remember too, the Woodland Trust is currently to help you create your own space for wildlife watching and new homes for the many species who call woods home.
Comment number 1.
At 8th Jun 2011, The Dorset Blogger wrote:Definitely more orange tips, brimstones and holly blues early this year.
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Comment number 2.
At 10th Jun 2011, birdboy wrote:there's a fox hole by my house and there has not been any foxes in there for 2 years can you tell me why
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