RSPB's Morwenna Alldis reveals how to make your garden a haven for nature this month
For me, March is the month of awakening in nature. New leaves and buds are fattening and unfurling. Many creatures that have spent the winter months snoozing, are now stretching delicate wings, wriggling webbed feet, and shaking out their prickles, ready to start the year anew. Spring finally feels tangible, as nature gears-up for the breeding season. And as birds pair-up and start to feather their nests, your gardens and local green spaces become a hive of activity. The beautiful dawn chorus also warms its vocal chords in March, typically commencing an hour before sunrise. Skylarks, thrushes, robins and blackbirds are the first to sing in the day, later followed by wrens and warblers. At least once this month, I urge you to set your alarm a tad earlier, go outside and just listen. The birds’ symphony of layered sound will hopefully uplift even another day in lockdown.
Photo: Robin singing on branch. Credit: Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)
No matter what space you have outdoors there will be something you can do to help your local wildlife this March. It’s important to remember, that whilst we can excitedly get whipped up in the assurance of spring, this month is tough for many creatures. Temperatures can get very low, especially at night, and nature’s parlour hasn’t restocked her juicy berries which the birds plundered throughout autumn and winter. And yet this month our wildlife heavily relies food and safe shelter because they need to breed.
Photo: Blue tit feeding chicks in tree hole nest. Credit: Blue tit Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)
Photo: Red admiral butterfly on purple flowers. Credit: Jenny Tweedie (rspb-images.com)
Hear the buzz: This month you may spot solitary bees, queen bees and butterflies emerging from hibernation. However, it’s a risky time of year to wake up as the weather can be so volatile – warm one minute and plummeting to frost the next. It’s essential that these insects have access to food in the form of energy giving nectar. One of the earliest flowering plants are dandelions – so whilst these are often seen as weeds and pulled up, please let learn to love your dandelions, or at least look the other way this spring - they’re doing a really important job for our garden wildlife. Primroses and willows are also early bloomers for bees and butterflies.
Photo: RSPB volunteer watching solitary bee on cow parsley. Credit: Andy Purcell (rspb-images.com)
Other perfect spring blooms include:
We also sell a range of seeds for planting here.
Photo: Bees enjoying sunflower pollen. Credit: Jenny Tweedie (rspb-images.com)
Photo: Children constructing a mini pond. Credit: Nick Cunard (rspb-images.com)
Photo: Common frog sat amongst long grass and daisies. Credit: Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)
Photo: Bug hotel. Credit: Nick Cunard (rspb-images.com)
With light at the end of the lockdown tunnel now visible, let’s say a big thank you to our gardens, greenspaces and the wildlife that calls them home this March – by gardening with wildlife in mind, because without nature’s tonic this past year I don’t personally know how I would have coped.
Photo: Daffodils in sunlight. Credit: Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)