Spring is a remarkable time of year. As I write this there have been stunning
displays of spring bulbs throughout the village and there are buds swelling
everywhere. On a day that was the
second sunny day in a row, I saw my first small tortoiseshell butterfly of the year, three
species of bumblebee, a large green caterpillar and heard two woodpeckers. And just for a bit of extra excitement, a
sparrowhawk swooped through the garden.
I saw, or heard all of this in just half an hour pottering round the
garden, which just shows what a lively season spring is.
The small tortoiseshell butterfly hibernates as an adult
which is why they can be seen flying so early in the spring. When they emerge from hibernation, they will
feed up on the nectar from willow catkins or dandelions, before mating and
laying their eggs on young nettles.
Other butterflies that overwinter as adults are Red Admirals, Peacocks,
and Brimstones, all of which will soon be on the wing as the weather warms and
more nectar sources become available.
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| Small Tortoiseshell |
I haven’t managed to identify the caterpillar, but I suspect
that it is probably the larva of one of the Yellow Underwing moths, most of
which overwinter as caterpillars. They
will then spin themselves a cocoon underground in which they will perform one
of nature’s most amazing tricks as they rearrange their body plan from fat grub
to elegant flying thing. (Isn’t DNA
brilliant!)
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| Unidentified caterpillar |
Hearing two woodpeckers may, in fact, be an
exaggeration. I heard a woodpecker
drumming, and I heard the yaffle of a green woodpecker. More expert birders would have been able to
tell from the frequency of the drumming whether it was a great-spotted
woodpecker or a green woodpecker. If it
was a green woodpecker then I only heard one bird as the call and the drumming
came at different times.
The three species of bumblebee are much more certain as I
got a good look at all of them. The
first on parade was an Early bumblebee queen (Bombus pratorum). This is one of our smallest bumblebees and is identified by having a red tail and yellow stripes, which distinguish her from the red-tailed bumblebee which, apart from the red tail, is all black. This particular queen was searching round our flowerbeds and the various rodent holes on our lawn looking for a suitable nest site. The buff-tailed bumblebee queen (Bombus terrestris) was also looking for
a nest site, only this time in the crevices of a large pile of stones. The buff-tailed bumblebee is our largest
common bumblebee and if the winter is mild may be active for most of the
year. The common carder bumblebee queen (Bombus pascuorum) was not looking for
nest sites, but feeding on the red dead-nettle that seems to be springing up
all over the garden. The carder
bumblebees don’t nest underground or in crevices, but rather in hollows under
tussocky grass where they scrape or ‘card’ plant material together on which to
found their colony.
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| Early Bumblebee |
I know that spring happens every year, but there’s something
so magical about it, that it always seems to come as a surprise.
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| Buff-tailed Bumblebee |
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| Common Carder Bumblebee |
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