The insects are flying in all directions: sometimes high above and sometimes just over our heads or passing close by, and sometimes even landing for brief moments.
The spring arrived even through the persisting daily rain showers and, as the sun raised the temperature to just over 12 C at 13.30pm on 12 March, for the first time this year the butterflies showed up. The brimstone fluttered through, as ever in an east to west direction through the garden’s soggy beds and into the fields, a fly past that is always over in minutes.
An uninvited thorny tree is welcomed more by some than others!
The population of brimstones is consistently growing in the 10-acre patch. It seems the brimstones only fly in ones or twos at regular intervals from early spring through to September, so the number of times we have seen them that tells us they are here to stay. So far this year, by the middle of May, the ‘fly through’ of brimstones was eight times already. Last year, 2023, it was at least five times in the 12 months, an increase from once or twice in the first years after planting the buckthorns!
As novices in the world of tree planting nine years ago, we trusted that the tree whips that arrived would be the actual species we had chosen for reasons of regeneration of nature’s varied species. Specifically, alder buckthorn was chosen as a brimstone favourite for egg laying and caterpillar feeding. Now that the trees are planted species, we realise that a close family member arrived too: the purging buckthorn, which has the largest thorns ever to be seen, 5cm plus!
Luckily, both trees are of real value for increasing brimstone numbers. However, while the butterflies are content, the hedge and tree workers as less so. We were aiming to reduce thorny bushes overall and now we have ended up with the bushes with the biggest thorns ever!
Bluebells, teasels and garlic mustard: a tasting menu for butterflies
It seems that butterflies are very specific in their nectar needs and the brimstone has a long proboscis and is able to access nectar that other insects and butterflies struggle to reach. It certainly values the bluebell and teasel as a nectar source, the latter well established in the meadow areas in the fields. The bluebells are just over the fence on the west, two fields away in a protected woodland site, hence the brimstone’s travels, east to west?
Allowing the hedges to increase shape both in width and height has meant the long dormant bluebells are reappearing, another welcome surprise on the field edges. Orange tip butterflies in regular numbers emerge all through April, as the garlic mustard has now proliferated in many places. So, planting their favourite food source which spreads easily and effortlessly has meant their numbers have increased. It has been a poor year for them around the UK according to Butterfly Conservation surveys.
Tree management makes for difficult choices
Now six to nine years on, the woodland areas are maturing with a range of trees at different heights and growth. Managing the number of trees in the five acres of the ten becomes a focus in the early spring. Repeated walks through the planted areas helps plans to consolidate, leading to some removal, coppicing and ringbarking on a thirds basis. The 90% survival of the trees means far too many are growing far too well in the rich clay soil full of riverbed cobbles, so now selective thinning is needed.
We discover the oaks have somehow even managed to grow well in places where there are four to six trees too close to each other. This a real lesson for us that if oaks are planted with good protection and tree guards, they survive well. These oaks are so close together that we have put off the ‘deed’ to fell them. In fact, in some places we have now taken out other trees to give the oaks more space and we’ll wait and review next year. Such tall strong oak trees in their prime!
The silver birch brash piles grow, their trunks headed for the wood store. It feels quite hard to take down a tall, young tree in good state, but the recycling of the brash for bird and mammal use helps with the decision. We opt for some oaks, alders and silver birches to be ring barked, thus allowing a slow decline that will provide a resource for insects to invade and therefore food for birds.
We make a handy and time-saving discovery from experience with ring barking. Initial trial attempts at cutting with a Stanley knife and then a decent wide chisel proved both useless. Then we found a truly large handle machete style bill hook and it proved just the job. An all-day job was completed in less than two hours, a rare event in the field activities.
The rush to nest
At last, we found a knowledgeable hedge layer and cutter and the birds were certainly thrilled with the outcome of wider, lower hedges that could fit them all in. It was a race against time to get this work done before nesting season began and the spring migration birds arrived. After all, the tits – blue, great, long tail, coal and march – had to get their best nest sites occupied before the ‘summer tourists’ arrived.
The migration brought so many warblers – willow, garden, chiffchaff, whitethroat and lesser whitethroat – that the hedges now sing. The nest sites within the garden and fields are numerous, from ledges, inside sheds and holly bushes to old holes in apple trees and clematis.
In the last week we were overwhelmed by a creche of fledglings, with robins, dunnocks, blackbirds and wrens all having young in the fields and garden at the same time. Each time we made a trip up the field, there came the warning calls of parents to a brood on the explore. Placing human feet became a challenge in places!
To our delight, the tree sparrows are nesting again, relocating away from the threat from feral cats to safely feed their broods. At the time of writing, the swifts have not returned yet and so their nest boxes are in the hands of house sparrows making the most of this latest addition of a deluxe penthouse suite with a fine view. Masham Swifts report swift numbers are down in this part of North Yorkshire and we explore their live camera feed to follow them, much exhausted on arrival due to weather issues.
An exceptional and thrilling explosion of nature
Then, while working in the fields clearing docks by hand, we hear a shout and the cupped hands of our naturalist emerge: a mating pair of poplar hawkmoths! We were all thrilled with this result, a product of our planting of aspen trees, populus tremula, and of allowing nature the space to flourish.
Will the spotted flycatcher be drawn to nest on a site with so many insects? Hopeful expectation has led to some investment in nest boxes and an update will follow next time.
The safety offered in these acres, the plentiful food sources and diversity of vegetation options mean we are packed out with birds, insects and dragonflies on warm days. What’s more, we have just checked the the UK’s mammal and bird lists and our population is exceptional for this corner of England. Of the 70 birds red listed in the British Trust for Ornithology’s “Birds of Conservation Concern” in 2021, we have 14, and of the 103 birds on the amber list we have nine.
To see bullfinches, tree sparrows, greenfinches and more relishing their patch – just thrilling and so the story continues. The spotted flycatcher arrived late May for the mayflies!
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