June in the Valley...

What can you expect to see...

June is the month when everything is happening: flowers blooming, trees in leaf, insects on the wing, young being born and fed… it’s as if mother nature has pressed the rush hour button and it’s full steam ahead! June starts one of the busiest periods of the year for wildlife watchers when butterflies, dragonflies and flowers are all at their best.

It’s the ideal time to go pond watching at one of the Valley’s many smaller water bodies. Although there are a large number of lakes in the Valley the small ponds provide a subtlely different habitat as the shallow, well-vegetated water can support many species that find the larger deep lakes unsuitable. Dragonflies in particular often prefer these smaller ponds for laying eggs. Look out for the Broad Bodied Chaser, which prefers newly created and ephemeral ponds. The male (pictured), is easily recognisable by its broad but flatish pale blue body with a line of yellow dots along each side. The all-yellow female will only lay her eggs in small ponds and carefully places each individual egg onto the surface of the water with her abdomen.

Another June dragonfly to look out for is the Four Spotted Chaser, an all-brown species with two dark spots on each wing (yes dragonflies do have four wings making eight spots in all but…). It’s present throughout the Valley and found in a variety of habitats including bogs, heathland ponds, canals ponds and lakes.  

Spring was a little late this year, so you should still see plenty of young ducklings and goslings around. Mallard and Tufted Duck are the common breeding ducks in the Valley, but you’ll still see families of Swans and Canada Geese as well as Egyptian Geese, that tend to be seen in the Horseshoe/ Moor Green Lakes area.

Summer migrant birds are more easily heard than seen as the small warblers are extremely well camouflaged, but the males sing loudly. Rowhill Nature Reserve is a good place to hear the distinctive notes of the Chiffchaff. The songs of the other warblers need an expert to separate them. Blackcaps and Whitethroats may be identified if you manage to catch a glimpse of them in the bushes.

Meadow flowers are at their best this month and Hollybush Park and Hill, Lakeside Park, Hawley Meadow and Shepherd Meadows are all well worth a visit. Among the most spectacular floral sights this month are the orchids, including the Common-spotted, Bee and Green-veined Orchid, although they are not always that easy to find. More easily seen are Foxgloves and Ragged Robin – the latter can be found in damp woodland and meadows at sites such as Lakeside. You can’t help but notice the drifts of Ox-eye Daisy - also known as Moon Daisy or Marguerite - seen everywhere as you drive along the Blackwater Valley road and walk along the path.

An interesting plant that does well in the Valley is Grass Vetchling (right). The leaves look just like grass, but in the middle of June it drops its disguise and produces the most spectacular and elegant pinky-red pea-like flowers. Look for it in the flower meadow at Lakeside.

  
   Bird of Month: Grey Heron

   Butterfly of Month
   Small Heath

   June sightings >>>

   June events  >>>      

Did you know...?

You can use the bright starry red flowers of the Scarlet Pimpernel Anagallies
arvensis (pictured above) to tell the time?

Depending on temperature
and humidity, the red flowers open around 8am and close when the sun goes in, or if it starts to rain, although they always close for the day at about 3pm, rain or shine.

This unique feature has resulted in the plant being regarded for centuries as a combined weatherglass and clock and is often referred to as ‘change of the weather’, ‘poor man’s weatherglasss’
and ‘shepherd’s sundial’.

The sprawling, many branched plant bears shiny oval leaves with pointed tips, and grows no more than 30cm tall. The long slender flower stalks are upright when in flower but
 drop when in fruit.

Although the flowers are usually scarlet, they can also be pink, white, lilac or even blue, in fact plants bearing both red and blue flowers are sometimes found. They contain no nectar or scent and are visited by few insects.

Scarlet Pimpernel was once valued for its supposed medicinal qualities and was thought to cure madness and dispel melancholy, hence its Somerset name of ‘laughter bringer’.