Monthly Diary 2026
Monthly Diary 2026
May 2026
Well, its that time of year again … orchid time! They are now starting to flower and are looking absolutely wonderful, so do go and have a look at them and admire their wonderful display. There seem to be more than ever (I say this every year!) and I'm delighted at how they are spreading. We will be putting the fence up around them later on this week, as the cattle will soon be coming onto the Green.
As I was walking around the Green last week, I caught a glimpse of something bright blue on a green stem and my immediate thought was, what flower is that? I then realised it was a beautiful male common blue butterfly sitting on a stem of grass imitating a blue flower! What a stunning butterfly, with its vibrant blue wing surrounded by a delicate white fringe. They lay their eggs on birds foot trefoil and as we have quite a lot of this plant growing on the Green, we should hopefully be seeing some more of them over the coming months.
I know this isn't the most spectacular photo, but I find it very exciting and rewarding. These small brown birds are linnets (part of the finch family), which over the last 50 years have suffered a huge decline in numbers and are now red listed i.e. of high conservation concern. So the great news is they are breeding on the Green! I have been monitoring them over the winter and spring and I suspected linnets were nesting in a patch of bramble on a scrubby part of the Green. In the photo you can see a male linnet (with the grey head), with two juveniles behind. Its just great to know that the Green can support these birds and we are doing our little bit to help improve their numbers.
April 2026
Last month I showed you a male orange tip butterfly, with a hint of what the underwing looked like. Well, this month I give you the glorious underwing in full detail! Just look at those dark mossy green splodges contrasting with the white of the wing. On a more practical note, this underwing patterning helps camouflage the butterfly whilst it is resting - something you need to worry about when there are lots of predators about! It is resting on ladies smock (or cuckoo flower) … but maybe more about that next month!
There has been a marked increase in bird song this month and one species that has been quite noisy over the last few weeks is the lovely whitethroat. It has quite a distinctive scratchy song and I have seen at least 5 males on the Green singing away and establishing their territories. They are a summer migrant and arrive in April in order to breed. When the light is right you can clearly see the white throat contrasting against a light grey head and brown wings. They like scrubby vegetation, so the bramble patches are a big favourite for them. Hopefully we will have lots of baby whitethroats in a few weeks time!
April sees the start of the buttercup season and soon, in May, the Green will be awash with their yellow flowers. Whilst they look spectacular en masse, have you ever stopped to look at one closely? The flower consists of five very reflective yellow petals, which makes them quite difficult to photograph, especially in full sun! A closer examination of the flower reveals numerous yellow male stamens, which in turn surround a female ovary. If you look closely, you can even see the pollen dusting the petals. It maybe quite a simple flower, but sometimes that is where the beauty lies.
March 2026
Despite some colder snaps in March, there is now a welcome feel of Spring. Not only are the trees starting to produce some leaf, but also, the lesser celandines are in full flower. These are one of the first plants to flower in Spring and they produce bright yellow clumps and even carpets of flowers, which are a very welcome sight, especially after a grey winter. As they are one of the first plants to flower they are an important nectar source for many insects. As if to demonstrate this, as I was taking photographs of the lesser celandine …
… a freshly hatched orange tip butterfly came down to feed on one of them! This lovely butterfly is a male and is easily identified by the bright orange patches on the end of its wing (hence its name). The females, however, are a bit more tricky to identify as they are all white and can be easily confused with other white butterflies. If you look carefully, you may see part of the underwing and the lovely mottle green splodges, which are characteristic of the species.
Another harbinger of Spring is the chiffchaff, which is more often heard, rather than seen, especially when the trees are covered in leaves! It is one of the first summer warblers to arrive back to the UK, as it very sensibly overwinters in the Mediterranean or North Africa. It is not the most colourful of birds having olive brown plumage and a faint eye stripe, but it has a very distinctive song. It sings its name "chiffchaff chiffchaff" ands once you recognise the song, you will hear it all the time in the Spring!
February 2026
With most of February being wet and soggy, it was lovely to have a few warmer and sunnier days towards the end of the month. The sunnier weather was most certainly appreciated by this blue tit who was being very active amongst the hedgerows. Whilst blue tits are fairly common and sometimes over looked, it's worth just having a closer look at them. This little chap is really rather gorgeous, with his yellow bib, a dark eye stripe and a blue cap on top of his head, which will only get more blue as the breeding season approaches.
Many of you will remember the horse chestnut tree that fell onto the Green a few years ago. We had it chopped up but kept the wood so it could break down naturally and not only recycle nutrients back into the ground, but also give a home for “things” to live on. So, I was delighted to see much of the tree covered in fungi — one of the first stages of wood decomposition. At the top of the photo you can see the orange wavy growth of a fungus known as hairy curtain crust (yes, it does have hairs on its upper surface!). Lower down is a good covering of another fungus known as turkey tail. This is so called because the brown fruiting bodies have a white edge and look a bit like a turkey's tail! So next time you walk past the tree, just stop and admire at what is growing on it.
Whilst taking the photo of the fungi, I saw this delightful ladybird walking along the tree trunk. Ladybirds hibernate over winter and start to emerge late February, so this one was right on cue! Amazingly there are 26 easily recognisable ladybird species in the UK, and this is one of the more common ones — a seven spot ladybird. Unsurprisingly it is so called as it has seven spots on its body - three on each wing and one behind the head. It was lovely to see it going for a wander and a definite reminder that nature is starting to wake up.
January 2026
January has certainly been a gloomy month, but there is always something happening on the Green that makes me smile. So I was delighted to come across this jelly ear fungus growing on a dead elder tree. If you haven't already guessed, this fungus is so called as it looks remarkably (and rather weirdly) similar to a human ear! If you look closely at the photo you can see the brown lobed cups growing directly from the dead wood. You can also see that the outer surface of the cup is sightly hairy, whilst the inner surface is smooth and shiny. Fascinating stuff and I just wonder what stories those ears have heard!
Just to make you think that Spring might be around the corner, there is a small clump of snowdrops just starting to flower near the Leomansley House fence. These are an ornamental variety, which I suspect escaped from Leomansley House and have been growing on the Green for well over twenty years. They are slowly spreading and are definitely a welcome sight on a dreary January day.
The birds are also starting to be more active and vocal and song thrush, blue tit and great tit (to name a few), can all be heard on the Green at the moment. The jackdaws are also becoming more active and can be seen amongst the trees on the edge of the Green and then coming down to feed. They are most probably making the most of the soft ground and having a hearty meal of grubs and invertebrates. Jackdaws have a distinctive black head, grey hood and light grey eye, which distinguishes them from their close relative, the crow. They are highly social and in a few weeks time they will certainly be making a lot more noise!