April 2014
What a contrast with last winter! In 2012/13 we had snow, ice and cold winds. In 2013/14 we had rain, rain and more rain accompanied by strong mild SW winds and hardly any frosts. Now we are getting temperatures of 18°C and more, when last year the temperature did not rise above 6°C until well into April.
I am seeing brimstone butterflies almost every day now; the male is bright sulphur yellow, and the female much paler and almost white. Their caterpillar food plants include buckthorn, spindle and privet. Another early butterfly that I am looking out for is orange tip. Again, it is the male that lives up to its name and has orange tips on its wings; the female has just black edges to its forewings. Both males and females have greenish speckled hind-wings. The food plant of this butterfly is ladies smock, also known as milkmaids. This is the lovely purple crucifer (cress) related to watercress. This flower is just appearing now, and is common in wet ground, indeed it is a sign of water underground such as a spring or drainage system. I am also frequently seeing peacock and tortoiseshell butterflies. These two species have caterpillars that feed on stinging nettles, and are two further harbingers of the reawakening of nature that is happening right now (mid-March).
Spring is turning out about as good as it could be at present, with long periods of blue sky and warming sun stretching each day a little longer, about half an hour per week. 21st March is the spring equinox when day equals night everywhere on the planet. Suddenly, our resident dawn chorus of blackbird, robin, songthrush, chaffinch, wren, dunnock, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, skylark, green and great-spotted woodpeckers, carrion crow and woodpigeon birdsong will be augmented by our summer visitors from warmer climes, such as chiffchaff, willow warbler, blackcap, whitethroat, swallow, garden warbler, nightingale and cuckoo. In May the swifts will arrive, and these aerobatic aviators will be swooping around the houses of Uckfield screaming as they go.
I had a report today (March 16th) of a probable juvenile red kite in the Framfield area, so please keep an eye out for that. This enigmatic and large raptor is not actually red, but mainly brown with a rufus tail in the adult. Juveniles are paler buff coloured, and tend to roam in first year.