June and July bring the longest days of the year to the northern hemisphere with the summer solstice this year falling on the 21st of June. With only a few hours of twilight in the weeks surrounding midsummer’s height there is plenty of light for the wildlife (and us!) to take advantage of.
Now is a great time to spot new life emerging out into the world with the woodland here at Lochwinnoch already filled with the sound of newly fledged birds begging for food from their parents. Many more fledglings will be taking to the air (and water) over the next months with a wide variety already spotted. The now officially opened boardwalk has proven an excellent spot to see mallard ducklings on both Aird Meadow and Castle Semple lochs. We’ve also seen nest building activity from the great-crested grebes who build their nests on top of aquatic vegetation so, fingers crossed, their young (the official term being ‘grebettes’!) will be spotted very soon.
Great crested grebe with grebette on Aird Meadow Loch
It’s not just the birds whose young are making their way out into the world this time of year, if you’re very lucky you may even catch a glimpse of roe deer fawns or young adult yearlings on the reserve. Roe deer fawns are born starting from mid May to late June and spend much of their first few weeks hidden out of sight before they are strong enough to accompany their mother. Right now, roe deer are generally much easier to spot as the previous year’s young are chased off by their mothers forcing them to find their own patch. So, if you find a roe deer wandering around looking a little lost during the late spring and summer it might just be a youngster learning to survive away from its mother’s side.
Roe deer grazing near visitor centre
From migrant birds to emerging bats, much of our wildlife is already out and about for this summer season. However, one group that takes a little bit longer to become a common sight are the dragonflies, with the adults of many of our species not emerging from their aquatic larval stage until June. Dragonflies belong to the order Odonata, an incredibly old group of animals that first appeared in the fossil record over 300 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs. Similarly ancient Odonatans are the smaller damselflies which can already be seen in abundance around Lochwinnoch, with common blue and large red damselflies able to be seen from just about everywhere on the reserve on a sunny day. The best places to spot these fast-flying insects however has previously been from the Fen Pool screen and Aird Meadow hide but keep an eye out as you travel along the boardwalk; being so close to the water will give you an excellent vantage point to observe them up close. Additionally, with the recent creation of the freshwater channels and opening up of the sedge beds to provide a more complex habitat it will be interesting to see how species of dragon and damselfly respond. We may get more interesting visitors like last year’s migrant hawker – a species of large, blue-and-yellow dragonfly that feeds on other insects by catching them in mid-air – as the name suggests, much like a hawk would!
Migrant hawker at fen pool - Ally Dowd
Although many of our favourite spring flowers will be up and gone, summer undeniably brings its own array of stunning plant-life. It seems that overnight the hawthorns have sprung into bloom and are now covered in beautiful displays of white and pink. Though it is also known as the mayflower with garlands of hawthorn associated with May Day (or ‘Beltane’ as the festival is known in Scotland) celebrations it often doesn’t flower until mid to late May for most of the UK perhaps making June a more fitting time to see the trees in all their splendor. Interestingly in the old Julian calendar May-day was actually celebrated on what is now the 12th of the month, making it much more likely that festival-goers would be seeing the first hawthorn trees in bloom.
Another plant that will soon be flowering is meadowsweet; a species that can be found in abundance at Lochwinnoch due to its preferred habitat of damp meadows and riverbanks. It is a sweetly scented member of the rose family and while some may find the smell of meadowsweet to be sickly or overpowering it provides a rich source of nectar which attracts numerous species of bee, moth and hoverfly. Meadowsweet was once an important medicinal plant used to treat fevers and headaches and though today it may be easy to brush this off as nonsense there can often be truth found in these old folk remedies. One of the main chemicals present in meadowsweet is salicylic acid, which is also the main component of aspirin. Aside from its use as a herbal remedy the plant has a rich history in the British Isles with it being used since ancient times to sweeten mead (owing to its English name) and traces of the plant have been found in several ancient burial cairns from around Scotland and Wales, perhaps suggesting it once held some degree of spiritual significance.
Hawthorn in bloom - Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)
From fledglings to flowers, feel free to share your photos and experiences with us at the visitor centre or on the RSPB Lochwinnoch Twitter and Facebook pages – we're always happy to see and hear what you’ve found!
Written by Lauren Mclean - Volunteer