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Rippingale nature columnist writes about the wildlife you can see this spring




You will be aware that this spring is infinitely better than last year’s wet and miserable affair, writes Rippingale nature columnist Ian Misselbrook.

Insects are far more abundant; especially bees and butterflies. A friend of mine patiently showed me five species of solitary bee on the blossom of one sun lit blackthorn bush. Butterflies are doing much better too. In fact I have seen more brimstones this spring than any year that I can remember on the wing from early March right up to mid April as I write. Holly blue butterflies emerged in my garden on April 6 and just a few days later I found a pristine newly emerged speckled wood in a sunlit woodland ride.

Speckled Wood. Photo: Ian Misselbrook
Speckled Wood. Photo: Ian Misselbrook

Hares are very much in evidence too, easily spotted as the crops are still low and I find them irresistibly photogenic.

Brown hare. Photo: Ian Misselbrook
Brown hare. Photo: Ian Misselbrook

Whilst we had the northerly winds in early April only a trickle of migrant birds arrived but as the winds eased and hanged direction the trickle became a torrent. Sand martins arrived during March but by the end of the first week in April they were joined by swallows and I noted my first house martins on the ninth.

More excitingly, for me anyway, is that for the third year running marsh harriers are nesting within a few miles of my home. In fact, it looks like the cock bird has two wives, so when the young are born he will have his work cut out! I look forward to seeing him bring in prey, when the female rather than letting him come to the nest, will rise up and turn upside down to catch the prey as the male drops it into her talons. This is known as the food pass and all the harrier species adopt this practice.

Marsh harrier. Photo: Ian Misselbrook
Marsh harrier. Photo: Ian Misselbrook
Marsh harrier. Photo: Ian Misselbrook
Marsh harrier. Photo: Ian Misselbrook
Crane. Photo: Ian Misselbrook
Crane. Photo: Ian Misselbrook

Lastly, I have an update on the cranes at Willow Tree Fen nature reserve. At least two pairs are nesting there and almost every day further flocks of cranes visit this magical reserve. On my last stint of duty there, there were at least 27 cranes on site including two gorgeous two-week-old chicks, running around at the feet of their parents.



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