Nature's Calendar: June

This is the month of the newly fledged. Everywhere, anxious parents are tempting their fluffy youngsters out of their cosy nests to make the leap of faith into the big wide world. Usually, their first flutter takes places in the morning, with shouty parents nearby giving encouragement. But some youngsters take an age to pluck up the courage, no matter how much food they’re offered, so you may see their life changing moment at any time of day.

The anxiety isn’t without reason. Young naïve chicks are an easier catch for predators like cats and Sparrowhawks, the latter needing food for their own young. There is also the risk of starvation, although most parents continue to feed their chicks for a week or two after fledging.

Most young birds are easy to spot as they look a little scruffy and dishevelled compared to their parents. 

One of the last summer visitors to arrive in the UK, usually in May for most parts, is the Spotted Flycatcher. They may not have the brightest plumage, with their greyish brown feathers and pale belly, but they’re red-hot hunters and well worth a watch if you spot one. Their usual technique is to sit on perch waiting for an unsuspecting moth, butterfly or another winged insect to fly by. When they get within striking range the Spotted Flycatcher dashes out and grabs its prey on the wing, before returning to their perch.

Spotted Flycatchers are now Red Listed, meaning they’re in serious decline. But they can still be found through much of the UK, with churchyards, parks, mature gardens and woodland with open glades the best place to see them at work. 

In early summer the UK’s coastal cliffs are alive with cackles, calls and cries of thousands of seabirds raising their young. These seabird cities make Heathrow in August looks peaceful, the sky jammed with incoming and outgoing parents, criss-crossing flightpaths as they travel to and from their nests. For us, it is the only time of year we see many of these species who spend the rest of the time soaring over high seas and diving into the deep blue, far from land.  

Some of the city regulars which cram onto the rocks include dapper Razorbills in their black and white suits and the equally smart Guillemot. These two can be confused, but the best way to tell them apart is the slender beak of the Guillemot.

Elsewhere you might hear Kittiwakes calling their own name “Kitti-wake, Kitti-wake” and the cries of the larger Herring Gull, that familiar sound of the sea.  

Some seabird cities are also home to spectacular Gannets diving deep for fish and melancholic looking Puffins, speeding to their nests, trying to not get noticed by the bigger birds.

From late June and into July, squadrons of toadlets emerge from the waters where they were born and head out for pastures new. Since they hatched in spring, they’ve transformed from vegetarian tadpoles wriggling in the depths to meat-eating mini toads, swapping their tales for four legs.  

With so many predators and threats, toads play the numbers game.  In some places thousands of toadlets can be seen hopping out en masse from ponds, often after heavy rain. If you do go looking for them, be careful where you tread as they’re pretty good at hiding in the long grass.  

The lucky toads will spend their days hunting minibeasts under the cover of darkness before hibernating for winter. Then, next spring they will return to the same pond to start the cycle all over again. 

Okay, so they’re annoying when they start nibbling your best ever crop of peas or beans or your prize-winning dahlias. But let’s take a minute to celebrate slinky sleeky slugs.

For a start there are 40 different types in the UK, with only a small number likely to target your garden plants. Take the Large Black Slug which is found in gardens and woodland. It mainly eats rotting plant matter, so can help improve your soils. It also eats carrion and dung. The Yellow Slug, which can show up in your cellar or outhouse, is also just looking for fungi or rotting dead plants. 

Those species which do head for your flowers and veg are also a vital part of your garden’s web of life, providing food for beetles, birds, frogs and Hedgehogs. If you can bear the odd nibble, then it is best to leave them. But if they become a real problem there are nature-friendly ways of coping, such as protective barriers, trapping and choosing less susceptible plants. You can find out more about nature friendly slug measures here.

In the sunshine of high summer, grasshoppers serenade us with their song. There are 11 different types in the UK and 23 types of cricket.

What’s the difference? The most obvious one to us is the time of day they sing, with grasshoppers providing the daytime tunes while the cricket performs at dusk. They also make their sounds in different ways, with crickets rubbing their wings and grasshoppers rubbing their hind legs against their wings.  

Different species can be found all around the UK, in grassland, woodland edges and bogs. They’re usually pretty camouflaged, with their song often the only thing giving away their presence. Once you hear one, move carefully and slowly through the grass or vegetation and home in on the sound to try and get a glimpse. If you get your ear in, you can tell them apart as each species has a unique tune, just like birdsong.  

The most common in the UK are the Common Green Grasshopper mainly found in damp meadows and hillside pastures, and the Common Field Grasshopper, which can be seen on sunny days in gardens, parks and other grassy areas.