THE BIG PICTURE
BRIDLEWAY IN BLOOM
Fringed by blossoming hawthorn and green-leaved ash trees, this bridleway near Harley’s Mountain in Herefordshire froths with tall cow parsley, creating an enticing and scented route. Pollinators are also attracted to the cloudlike blooms of cow parsley, which have a distinctive malty scent. The above-ground parts of the plant are all edible – but due to its resemblance to its toxic family members poison hemlock, fool’s parsley and hemlock water-dropwort, foraging is discouraged.
HARE HIDEAWAY
A young brown hare in its first year is known as a leveret – here one hides under the canopy of a sugar-beet field in Lincolnshire. Leverets are born fully furred with their eyes open and can fend for themselves shortly after birth; apart from a daily feed at sunset from their mother in the first month, they receive no parental care. Most often found on open farmland, at woodland edges and in grassland, hares shelter in slight depressions in the ground called forms, grazing on vegetation and the bark of young trees and bushes.
BLACK-TAILED GODWIT
The UK is home to 60 pairs of black-tailed godwits, which mostly breed at two locations: the Ouse Washes and Nene Washes in Cambridgeshire. This large, long-beaked and long-legged wading bird is very vulnerable, but Project Godwit, a partnership between the RSPB and WWT, hopes to revive its fortunes. Over five years, more than 200 black-tailed godwit chicks have been released as part of its ‘headstarter’ programme, including a recent release at RSPB Nene Washes.
Find out more at projectgodwit.org.uk
TIME TO EXPLORE 30 DAYS WILD
Can you do one wild thing every day for a whole month? Join the UK’s biggest nature challenge with The Wildlife Trusts
Throughout the month of June, 30 Days Wild invites people of all ages and abilities to do one wild thing every day. This year, The Wildlife Trusts, which run the challenge, will take you on a week-by-week journey through five different themes, each chosen to inspire a connection with nature:
• Tune into the senses
• Movement and play
• Learning and discovery
• Helping nature
• Emotional connection to nature The daily challenges can be as big or small as you like, from listening to birdsong and stepping out for a moonlit walk to building an owl box. Sign up to get your free 30 Days Wild activity pack.
wildlifetrusts.org/30dayswild
19–25 June INSECT WEEK
Organised by the Royal Entomological Society, Insect Week is an annual celebration of the “little things that run the world”, dedicated to encouraging people of all ages
