May 2026

I did the bird count on the 5th. This confirmed that there was just the one Mute Swan on the lake. I guess that the pen and her brood were got by a fox? By the end of the month, there were a pair of swans again, so the Cob had obtained a replacement mate. Sometimes the Swan Sanctuary carries out a rescue, but I haven't heard of any recent activity there. Meanwhile, the geese all managed to hatch broods. There were three pairs of Greylags accompanying their broods, two sets of Egyptians and one Canada Goose brood. Just the one Great-crested Grebe was seen, the hope is that the other was sitting tight on a nest. Swifts were evident most days in the month, commuting to the lake, so there must be some insects emerging to make those commutes worthwhile. Swarms of non-biting midges were noted on the 30th. Blackbirds, Robins, Song Thrushes, Stock Doves, Woodpigeons and Wrens were all singing, in most cases in the lead up to a second brood, I expect. Some birds were conspicuous commuting between feeding places and their nests, with Starlings most obvious.

Hawthorns were in bloom early in the month. 

At the beginning of the month, the effects of widespread spraying with glyphosate became evident. Despite the acknowledged value of Admiral's Hedge, this herbicide was sprayed onto hedge-bottom plants, so killing off everything growing there. Hedge bottom wildflowers are valuable, but here they get no chance. The perimeter path here is separated from the hedge by a grassy strip which is mown regularly. This frequency is appropriate beside the path, but there is room for a natural hedge bottom on the other side here, instead of the scortched earth that we now have. We still don't know why natural vegetation is regarded as the enemy here .

At the same time, elsewhere in the park, spray was used around the base of trees, poles, fences, hedges and seats. I had planted out some woodland wildflowers in Cecile's hedge, hoping to establish them in the park. Unfortunately I put them near the seats, so that I knew where to look to see if they established. Sadly, almost all of them were sprayed out. Here, too, there was no need for glyphosate use, as the hedge bottom plants there were shaded by the shrubs of the hedge and so were not tall or invasive at all. 

Glyphosate is licensed for use in England, but I don't imagine parents and carers will be delighted to have their little ones investigating the bottom of the fences beside the children's play areas. Children investigate things in their natural exploratory behaviour and the chemical can take hours to be absorbed when humidity is high. It's my view that there are easy alternatives in most or all of the places that glyphosate is used. One can decide to live with, and celebrate, the wildflowers, or use a strimmer.

Painted Lady

The warm dry Spring resulted in a surge in insect populations. Late in the month I saw several Painted Lady butterflies. This species is a migrant from the Mediterranean, numbers varying between years. A conspicuous resident species was the Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly, which I saw dipping to the surface of the lake depositing eggs. There were also many Large Red Damselflies and one of the many blue damselfly species.

Broad-bodied Chaser

 

 

The vegetation of Ricardo's Shrubbery is now dense, making it difficult to find all the species, but a survey added 10 extras and corrections to some previous identifications.

At this time of year the hedgerows and woodland edges need pruning to remove vigorous incursions into the adjacent grassland whilst retaining the flowering and fruiting branches. I did this with hand tools, as the bird breeding season has two months to run and nests are notoriously difficult to find in amongst the dense vegetation. Working by hand means that almost all nests can be seen and avoided. 

I sampled the lake water on the 27th. The chemical analysis gave low concentrations of both Phosphates and Nitrates, but the water quality was low nevertheless. The good news is that the benthic blue-green Oscillatoria had diminished, although the bottom sediment remained anoxic and most unpleasant, there were no longer globs rising to the surface with trapped photosynthetic oxygen. The bad news is that there had been an earlier than usual great growth of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, which floats in mid-water. Roughly one bright-green cluster of filaments per cc of water. The water sports people are aware of this. Most members of the public seem unaware and I see dogs put in to swim and families feeding the birds in big number. The Waterwatch chemical monitoring shows low levels of nitrates and phosphates, perhaps because the blue-greens have taken up most of it. Whilst there is no doubt that the main cause of the blue-green bloom is excess nutrients (exacerbated by the heat wave) I'm not aware that anyone is monitoring the tributaries. That's something that AELTC could afford to do, given that the tributaries all issue from their land. I doubt that the Environment Agency will do anything. There was a big hatch of fish fry on the 27th, probably Carp. Fish-eating birds, however, are in diminished numbers, suggesting that the biomass of small fish remains low.

The Cuckoo Flower Meadow, between the tennis courts and White Pavilion was not living up to its name, with just one or two flowers at the end of the month. Perhaps it should be called Germander Speedwell Meadow, as there was a nice display of this bright blue flower there at the end of the month.