This month’s spotlight has been written by our incredibly knowledgeable Park Ranger, Sean Garvey, revealing revelations about native shrub species, Alder Buckthorn. Let me introduce you to one of St Nicks’ scarcest shrubs: Alder Buckthorn , Frangula alnus. It’s an unassuming plant that is easily overlooked; but it has a fascinating, and literally explosive, back-story. […]
Highlights The flowers that bloom in the spring (tra-la!).. the year’s first butterflies appear, and the Harlequinade begins.. mewing in the air and creeping in the garden! Weather Temperatures started to creep up during the month, starting with a cool 4C on the 1st and reaching 11C later on subsequent Wildwatch Wednesdays. There were some […]
Highlights Evidence of Water Voles breeding.. Sightings of Garden Warbler and Whitethroat.. Nine species of butterflies seen in the month.. First damselflies of the year seen. Weather Dry for the first three Wildwatch Wednesdays, with some sunshine, and temperatures rising to 23C on the 14th. The final Wednesday was very wet, which depressed sightings of birds and […]
Weather: A warmer patch mid-month was sandwiched between a cooler start and end to the month. Fortunately, we managed to stay dry on all four of the Wildwatch walks! A fairly dry month, so the water level in both becks started to drop, exposing muddy banks. Observers: Once again, numbers on the walks were in […]
Brimstone Butterfly Gonepteryx rhamni This lovely butterfly, sometimes the earliest of the year to be seen, brings a splash of yellow to match our spring daffodils, and while Yorkshire is at the northern edge of the Brimstone’s British range it still puts up a good show in most […]