Late Spring on the Local Patch

At the moment, whilst I write this blog, its strange times we live in, a one in a life time event, one for the history books. Looking back from the future, we might ask what all the fuss was about, or maybe what a tragic time it was. Lockdown really has brought the country to a full stop, yet nature carries on regardless, and spring has come and sped past as we sit indoors.

LONG TAILED TIT

It really is a frustrating time, compounded by the fact that the only area of countryside I can visit is the Local  Patch, an area within walking distance. Somewhere I only used to visit once a week is now the place that I visit every day, going out spending hours wandering the footpaths that cross this landscape. Keen to get out of the sterile homestead it feels so good to be out, to breathe in the fresh country air, something good for the soul as well as the body.

River Meadow

Nature means so much more when its rationed, something precious now we no longer have much access to it. People are now becoming aware that nature is good for the soul and that too much of today's society is isolated from it. After this lockdown it seems that its not a case of returning to a world run on economics, but one run on people's wellbeing. And nature is a key part of people's wellbeing.

With Brexit happening, its now a time to create a greener society, to create an agricultural policy that actually has the importance of nature at its core and that recognises that nature is important to people. Its quite simple, food can be grown alongside nature, the two existing in the counrtyside together, they are not opposing forces.

Suffolk Punch Field, the bushes white with HAWTHORN flowers

At the moment the countryside is so lush, so green and verdant, life really has fully come on with such power that it can be quite staggering. Its such an amazing time of year, my favourite. With life supercharged at the moment, its quite difficult to realise at the same time, nature is finding it difficult out there in the general countryside, that we have destroyed a lot of our natural world, in an insane drive to overproduce food, based on world war two ideology, one so dated and out of context with our times. Things need to change and maybe lockdown will help turn things in a better direction.

Looking across from Second Field

Over the late Spring, the weather has in general has been quite hot. At the end of April there was a week of rain, after which everything just grew and grew. In mid May, for a week. the temperature halved to 10 degrees as a cold wind blew down from the Arctic, and there was frosts in the mornings, but that didn't affect things too much.

LINNET in dappled light, subtle colours, but still pretty

Despite visiting the Patch every day, not a lot was forth coming, bird wise. A NIGHTINGALE was heard singing for a couple of days from the scrubby area behind the church. I don't know whether it just quietened down to breed or just moved on, as I didn't hear it later on, but it was in suitable habitat.
Nightingales are one of those mythical birds, the greatest of our songsters. Their song, a variety of melody, comes out like a machine gun, hitting your ears with force, making it unmistakable. If you wonder if a song belongs to a nightingale, it probably isn't a nightingale. This bird, like many, is finding things difficult in the countryside, due to many varied causes, internationally, but Suffolk is a stronghold for the species, and there are still many to be found in the county.

female LINNET

The first WHITETHROAT appeared on the 18/4, with LESSER 'THROATS on the 23/4. These species are birds of the open, farming, landscape. 'THROATS prefer hedgerows and areas of grass with scattered scrub, and are quite common. LESSER 'THROATS, which aren't in fact smaller than their cousins, inhabit taller, overgrown hedgerows, and are a lot more secretive and rarer.

Flock of LINNET, First Field

LINNETS have been late to start breeding this year. They winter somewhere else than the Patch, and so I don't see them for half the year. This Spring there have been two large flocks, a flock peaking of 60 on the First Field and one of 30 near Rise Hall. The flocks would fluctuate in number as birds come and go, with pairs breaking off to find a territory. This bird had been in decline but I think their numbers have now steadied, and as you can see are plentiful on the Patch.

Most of  the Patch is given over to agriculture and crop growth, which isn't productive for nature, but put food on our plates.

Towards the end of the period, bird song slowly began to curtail as most of the resident, early singers, were now busy rearing families, and so didn't have the energy to do sing anymore. By mid May, most of the Spring bird migration had mainly come to a stop, with only a few late birds passing through.

Brood of MALLARDS, miles away from the nearest body of water, they must have got lost

HARES haven't been that common on the Patch during this period with just one record in the Prairie Field north of the Suffolk Punch Field. A HEDGEHOG was found dead on Byron Road, the street I live on, crushed under the wheels of a car, just one of the many obstacles our wildlife has to face.

The Pond

Even somewhere as unremarkable as the Patch can still throb with the energy of Spring. There is so much life out there at the moment, anywhere, in any scrap of land. Nature really is a power, something humanity has been incapable of properly harnessing. Its always assumed that man has to tame nature, but that's not the case. I think humanity will have a better future if we can just regain some reconnection with nature, because I think its possible with a little bit of creativity.