Nature Blog by Jenny Bourne

Several years ago three owl boxes were situated in park trees alongside the west perimeter wall adjoining the lane to the Cricket Club. No owls so far, but a pair of kestrels took up residence in one of them and now four chicks have fledged!

What impact might the changing seasonal weather patterns be having on our wildlife, now that spring seems to arrive at least two weeks earlier than in past decades? An interesting article by Mike Toms in this month’s BTO magazine * discusses this issue:

It’s always a thrill to see the first butterflies emerging: orange-tips and brimstones have been flittering around our plot over the past couple of weeks or so, along with the early peacocks and the ubiquitous, non-too popular large whites. Brimstones are usually a sign that spring is well and truly here,

Plantlife’s ‘No Mow May’ is an initiative to benefit pollinating insects by allowing wild plants to flower in grassy areas. It doesn’t have to be as radical a step as totally ditching the lawnmowers and strimmers for a month or more; a balance can be attained between leaving some areas of grass uncut and cutting back areas for access and around veg and flower bed edges.

One of the hot topics raised at last week’s Open Forum was how to deter slugs and snails from laying waste to our emerging crops, particularly now that metaldehyde slug pellets have been banned for both domestic and commercial use. Added to this the RHS’s recent decision to de-categorise slugs and snails as ‘pests’….