We’re seeing sure signs of spring in the water meadows now. On the Butts, a chiffchaff has been heard for the first time this year by our wildlife recorders. This bird of woodland, scrub, parks and gardens sings its name out loud in a simple ‘chiff chaff chiff chaff’ song, which it performs from the tree canopy. Some chiffchaffs stay all year-round, but most migrate here from Africa. They are one of our earliest arrivals, singing their hearts out from the end of February onwards. Frogspawn has appeared, and when the sun shines, bumblebees are busy foraging.
Unlike the honeybee, bumblebees do not make honey, as they do not need to store food for winter. Instead, the season’s new queens hibernate and emerge to found their own nests in the spring. A huge cuckoo bumblebee queen was seen in Ram Meadow, probably looking for a White-tailed bumblebee nest to take over. Bumblebees are fascinating creatures that are sadly in decline due largely to changes in the way the countryside is managed. They feed only on flowers, and because of their colony-based lifestyle, need to have enough flowers available to sustain 40-400 sterile worker bees for the lifespan of the colony (potentially several months March-October) in order to produce the new reproductive individuals – males and queens – at the end of the colony lifecycle.
Other species to look out for at the moment are: the treecreeper – showing well in No Mans Meadow and the Great Churchyard; the pretty blue flowers of Persian speedwell; and if you are very lucky, water vole by the Lark.
One species we didn’t expect to see in February was a Leisler’s bat – or indeed any bat – as they should be hibernating until it gets warmer. With a wingspan of up to 320mm (c. 12”) these woodland bats are larger than the pipistrelles that dart around in the summer evenings; Leisler’s bats usually fly high and fast in the open, frequently at or below tree top level, with shallow dives. So it was a surprise to find one lying on its back on a path between some houses, alive but not moving much. On inspection this was found to be a young male bat, apparently uninjured, that had probably been disturbed from his hibernation roost, as there were cobwebs on his fur (bats like to keep clean and tidy, so he would have smartened himself up if he were more awake). Once he had warmed up, drunk some some water and waited for dusk, he refused to fly off so he was admitted to our makeshift bat hospital for rest and recuperation (and plenty of mealworms). We called him Elvis, on account of his lustrous hair and good looks, and after a couple of days and a break in the rain, he was successfully released where he was found. Hopefully he managed to secure a better spot to complete his hibernation and see out the tail end of winter.
Libby Ranzetta, Bury Water Meadows Group
