Spring has arrived on The Mound

This weekend the warm weather has brought out some of the flowers and insects in the Biodiversity Area.  The grass is about knee-high at most, and so it is possible to walk around the spiral maze.

The first trees to flower are the hazels, wild cherries, the elder and the rowan.  There is also some sloe blossom in the old hedge-bank.  The Pussy Willow catkins are good sources of nectar for bees.

Wild Cherry planted April 2014

Rowan planted April 2014

Goat Willow (Pussy Willow) 2016

Elder - existing hedgerow

I also saw a black ladybird with red spots (possibly a 2-spot), three Great Tits, a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly, a wren, two brown Carder Bumblebees.  There are also a lot of Red Admiral caterpillars in their nettle tents.

Caterpillars hidden from predators inside their 'tents'

Some early flowers are dandelion, celandine, lady's smock - the food plant of the Orange Tip butterfly.  The leaves are opening on the Alder Buckthorn, but no sign of Brimstone butterfly eggs yet.

Spring 2017

2012 Rowan in bloom

On Friday 28th April a group of us went to check on the trees and pull out some of the grasses from their base.  They have grown well already this Spring.  Some of the older trees from 2012 and 2014 are well above head-height.  I think the tallest Rowan is now 8 feet high.  One Rowan has its first flower-head.  Similarly the Red Dogwood has flowers.  These will provide pollen and nectar for insects and later on, berries for the birds.

2014 Red Dogwood with flower buds

We still have two Alder Buckthorn bushes, planted in 2013, which is the food-plant for the bright yellow Brimstone butterfly caterpillar.  This Spring there is no sign yet of any eggs or caterpillars on them.

Alder Buckthorn 2013

In a Biodiversity Area, plants considered as weeds in gardens, have a value.  The dandelions provide early nectar for bees, whereas the dandelion clocks provide seeds for goldfinches, which I have seen in our patch.

Dandelion clock

There are lots of Red Admiral butterfly caterpillars on the nettles, enclosed in their nettle 'tents' and I found an interesting brown spider asleep on a holly leaf - possibly an Orb spider.