When to Watch Wildlife

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© PMcS 2006

July

arable "weeds"
 

Birds nesting on sea cliffs
Butterflies and dragonflies
Bats on the wing
Heathland reptiles
Chalk and Limestone grasslands in flower
Swifts, swallows and house martins chasing insects

As the warm breeze caresses the tall stems of the green corn, silver waves ripple across the fields reflecting the sunlight off the long seed awns. A sunny July will see the wheat mature.

The hedgerows are full and plump with nettles, the tall upright hedge parsley, burdock, cleavers, creeping thistle, meadow crane's-bill, and grasses setting seed.  Where the verges have escaped being cut false-oat grass and cocksfoot are the most dominant grasses.  As the month progresses their ripening 'flower heads turn the roadside verges from green to flax yellow.

In many hedgerows traveller's joy, which is a relative of the garden clematis, grows prolifically.  Where it takes hold it can seemingly smother the plants below.  It is also called old man's beard from its woolly seed head that appears later in the year.  Greater bindweed also climbs though the hedge.  Its big white trumpet flowers open during the day then twist closed as night falls.  The occasional teasel can also find a foothold.  The teasel's small pink flowers appear in whorls amidst its spiky flower heads.

	greater bindweed

In the west and northern counties, where the soil is more acidic, the pink bell foxglove flowers are climbing the stem, leaving conical seed pods lower down as the flowers die.  Where stone walls are present the wall pennywort grows supporting spikes of small bell-like pale flowers.  The brambles are still in flower and herald the blackberry harvest yet to come.  At the foot of the hedge the pink and white lesser bindweed rubs shoulders with red and white clover and the feathery yarrow leaves, with its white flowers pushing up to the sky.

At this time of the year the showy rosebay willow herb, found in many different places where the ground has been disturbed and enriched, comes into flower and can form spectacular drifts.  It used to be called fire weed and was associated with old bombed sites after the war.

	rosebay willowherb	meadow crane's-bill

The birds are largely quiet now, but chicks are still growing especially those of sea birds on cliff nesting sites.

When the atmosphere is heavy and close with threatening storms, minute thrips swarm and irritate.  These tiny black insects get everywhere and are quite capable of even finding their way behind the glass of pictures hanging on the wall.

The first broods of butterflies are ragged now but still flit between the flowers of rich grasslands such as that on the downs.  The moths are now plentiful and can be attracted with lights at night.  The slugs and snails likewise abound.  Gardeners wage battle against them but should leave some for the hedgehogs and thrushes.

	fly orchid		frog orchid

The blues, pinks and purples dominate.  Amongst these are the flowers of the clustered bellflower, harebell, betony, thyme, small scabious, field scabious, marjoram, basil, black knapweed and greater knapweed, and later on the devils-bit scabious.  They are joined in some places by the alpine looking round-headed rampion.

	marjoram		round headed rampion

In the ditches and wet verges meadow sweet proliferates with its creamy white blossoms on tall stems.

	meadowsweet

Young water birds such as mallards, coots and moorhens may still with their parents feeding themselves or like many other birds occasionally begging for food.
 

Amongst the calls and songs that you may hear are the three note cooing of the collared dove and the five note cooing of a wood pigeon.  The melodious songs of song thrushes, blackbirds and blackcaps are also occasionally heard in July, and stand out now that many other birds are silent.   In the countryside you may come across flocks of goldfinches, known as 'charms'. They twitter and rattle loudly to one another, often singing from open perches high in trees or from the top of thistle stems.   In woodlands some summer warblers are still singing, but you are more likely to hear the clicks and wheezes of robins from the undergrowth.

On open farmland buntings are still singing and on heathlands, and other open countryside, stonechats clack to call to their young.  Yellowhammers are still pushing out their 'little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese' phrases from the tops of hedges.  They will continue to do so throughout summer.

With the advent of swarms of summer insects house sparrows and starlings join house martins and swallows in pursuit of aerial prey.  This is not their most natural way of feeding, but these opportunists twist and spin in the air and often successfully catch flies and daddy long legs for instance.  The swallows and house martins chat amongst themselves in mid air.  Both may still have young in their mud nests.