May is a wonderful month for young ecologists, with spring is in full swing everywhere you look. willow is one of the plants catching my eye at the moment, its soft, silvery catkins glowing in hedgerows and along riverbanks. These fluffy buds aren’t just pretty, they’re also an important early food source for insects waking up after the winter. Nearby, daffodils brighten verges and gardens with their cheerful yellow trumpets. There’s an old bit of folklore that says giving someone a single daffodil brings bad luck, but a bunch brings good fortune, so it’s always worth picking more than one if you want to share some spring cheer.
Magnolia trees are also bursting into bloom now, their big pink or white flowers opening like delicate cups. Some people even use magnolia petals to flavour biscuits ‘magnolia snap cookies’ because the petals can taste a little like ginger. And if you head into the woods, bluebells are filling the floor with a magical display, you might still notice the scent of wild garlic drifting through the air. As they come to the end of their season be careful when gathering. Do so responsibly with an adult, wild garlic leaves can be used to make all sorts of tasty spring dishes such as pesto, quiche, or soup, and they fill the kitchen with a fresh woodland smell.
If you look carefully around early flowers you may spot hoverflies hanging perfectly still in mid‑air, darting forward and back like tiny helicopters. They often look like bees or wasps, but they can’t sting. Another favourite early spring visitor is the bee‑fly, a fuzzy little insect with a long proboscis for sipping nectar. They zip quickly between flowers like miniature furry darts, adding to the lively buzz of the season.
Speaking of flowers, this is your annual NO MOW MAY reminder! Whether it’s your lawn, small plot in the corner or encouraging your neighbour to hang back on getting their strimmer out, now is the time to let flowers near you bloom into all their glory for the sake of our beloved pollinators and other wildlife who rely on them, directly or indirectly.
With all this activity, it’s also an important time for anyone out walking dogs to be extra thoughtful. Nesting birds hide in long grass and hedges, insects are still fragile, and new shoots of plants can be easily damaged. Keeping dogs to the paths, avoiding wildlife‑rich areas, and picking up after them helps protect everything that’s emerging at this time of year. April is full of life, colour, and discovery, perfect for exploring gently and noticing all the small wonders returning to the world.
Eco-warriors ready for spring
Spring is nearly here and I have been thinking a lot lately about our role within nature. Across the world many cultures and communities have had a long standing and deep understanding of how crucial humans relationship with nature is.
There are so many examples in the human-nature dynamic that highlight how we all thrive better when we work together. Further across the world it has been shown that plants such as sweetgrass in America grows back fuller and more abundant when sympathetically harvested by humans. Meanwhile, a countryside favourite - barn owls have been brought back off the Red-list for Species of Conservation Concern, largely due to human efforts to support their populations through barn owl boxes and landscape management.
Speaking of farmland birds…The big farmland bird count has been extended by a week due to the wet weather! So if you haven’t already get out and squeeze in a count - and if you have already completed your count, don’t forget to submit your results!
Beneficial relationships you might not know about
It has been a good season for many fungi species and I recently learnt that Jelly Ear mushrooms might be the cure to radiation poisoning! A bit random and definitely late to the game here as it was in 2012 that New York scientists started looking into these funky little mushrooms. They seemed to grow really well in areas of high radiation. When investigated further scientists have found that sort-of like the melanin in our skin protects us from UV, the melanin in these mushrooms protected them from radiation. When fed to mice, the mice could survive radiation too!
I am not recommending testing this at home but a pretty awesome example of the potential beneficial relationships between nature and humans. I’m sure there’s so many more that we aren’t even aware of yet!
Another species still clinging on through this mild winter is the rose hip. Usually most abundant in autumn, these bright red fruits are packed with goodness for both wildlife and people. They’re naturally rich in vitamin C, and while you can use them in jellies, syrups or teas, they must be prepared properly. Inside each hip are tiny seeds with fine hairs that can irritate your mouth and throat, so they should never be eaten raw. Instead, grown-ups can cook the hips and strain them through a fine sieve or cloth to remove the seeds, leaving a smooth, tasty pulp.
Rose hips are also an important winter food for many UK birds, including blackbirds, thrushes, redwings, fieldfares and waxwings. Unlike us, birds can swallow the hips whole without any trouble, the seeds pass safely through their digestive system and are dropped in new places. It’s a brilliant bit of teamwork in nature: the birds get a nutritious meal, and the wild roses get help spreading their seeds far and wide.