It certainly felt like May was muted, with hardly any bird photos taken and concentrating more on insects and flora it seemed that way until reviewing everything I listed and photographed to upload here, I realised it was actually quite busy!
The Lesser Whitethroats were active at the start of the month and then went quiet, hopefully about to start nesting and bringing up some little uns'.
Everything was paired and looking at nesting, House Martins were buzzing around the houses, more Swallows were passing. There were still a few Wheatears being seen in the fields off the lanes, and on the 8th of the month I had my first Swift over the garden, a sight I long to see every year. The next day and even more swifts passing overhead and then it seemed to just stop, no doubt the changeable weather had held them up further south!
Along the clifftops when Sarah and I were walking the dogs on the 13th, we encountered our first ever Wall butterfly.
A lot more plants were coming into bloom and on one occasion with the sun shining bright I couldn't help notice a sea of light blue through the gaps in the hedgeline, rounding a gap further along Sarah and I were amazed at the expanse of colour before us, the mobile phone camera could not match the sight our eyes saw. After asking around and researching I found it to be a crop called Lacy Phacelia (known by other names also such as scorpion weed) it is used as a ground cover for birds/with a high nectar count it's used for pollenation/and also used as green manure. They were definitely attracting the bees, I think I will have to get some of this for the garden.
Another new plant addition for us both was the Early Purple Orchids, found in the roadside verges along the lanes, it had eluded us the previous year but now we had finally found some.
On the 14th my first Hobby of the year flew past the back garden, a few more were seen heading in during the month. And on the same day an evening walk to the clifftop bench with the dogs produced at least 3 Harbour Porpoises close in to the groynes.
We were starting to see a few of these little green gems around Trimingham, the Green Hairstreak is a stunningly coloured butterfly.
This Wolf Spider was in my garden, it's resting position,stretched out as in the 2nd photo, is characteristic of this spider, it is a webless spider ( except for the female spinning a web for the nursery of young) due to the fact that it is such a fast moving spider it can chase down its prey with ease.
It is great to find out about nature that you didn't know had an interesting background or history, this Fumitory plant is one of those such subjects. I have found it along the lane verges and on the edge of a crop field, when reading up on it I was amazed at it's meaning, the name of "fumitory" is derived from a medieval latin word meaning "smoke of the earth", pulling a plant from the ground will cause the roots to give off an acrid/gaseous smell recalling the fumes of nitric acid, this is the origin of the North American name for the plant "fume root", and if that wasn't enough background knowledge, if the sap gets into your eyes it will make them water as if affected by smoke! amazing!
Back to birds now, and mid month I had a cuckoo calling from the scrub near the pottery and then along middle street on a couple of days, apparently awaking people there with it's early morning calling!
I saw a group of Mediterranean Gulls pass the back garden and was happy to once again see the swifts passing over, on one morning at the end of the month I saw 2 Common Cranes out to the western edge of Trimingham circling up on thermals before heading southwest, a welcome addition to the patch list as normally when the Cranes decide to have a day out as it were from broads region, they previously seem to cut off this corner and head further along the northern coastline before turning back to where they came from, perhaps blown more this way by the winds they were a welcome sight. To finish off the bird reporting, the night silence on the 30th was broken by the very welcoming sound of a Tawny Owl, it had been at least a year or more since I regularly heard them nearby, so it was nice to once again have one around.
Chocolate Tip
And last but not least, the mothing was producing different species for the year as the month progressed, on a few occasions I took over a lot of room in our fridge with the pots! With a few new species for the garden and indeed some firsts I've not had before hopefully this year will be a productive one for the moths.
Treble Lines
Heart and Dart
Rustic Shoulder Knot
Waved Umber
Light Emerald
Pale Tussock
Green Carpet
Lime Speck Pug
Clouded Border
Setaceous Hebrew Character
Iron Prominent
Pebble OakTip
Least Black Arches.
