Nature in April

Well, we’ve endured March with its bizarre weather-changes and “willit-won’t-it” animal emergences. The little Gendarmes are hardy, and will stay, but many of the early-risers may not make it to spring. It was quite a good start for plants, though. Crocuses were blooming in sheltered spots before the end of February, and the daffodils in my little local wood were starting to show yellow spikes before March had started. Trees were early, too. Remember I told you about the hazel trees and their aerial pollen distribution? I saw a cloud of golden pollen blowing from my local hazel trees about two weeks before the end of February. It was a dry, sunny day, with a light but gusty wind blowing. Ideal for them!

Now we shall have the flowering trees geeing into action. Blossoms will appear on the trees by the end of the month. The Juneberry tree (Amelanchier) is usually the first to blossom, because, as its name suggests, it bears its fruit very early. By the same token, Apricots are fairly early to blossom.

The name “Apricot” derives from the same root, Latin praecox, as “Precocious”, and indicates an early maturity. It is the first stone-fruit to ripen.

Birds will be starting to nest and lay their first clutch of eggs. That is why all hedgetrimming and tree-lopping should be over by now. However, it’s not just trees that afford a good home. The whole of the front of my limestone-built house is a tenement of sparrows’ nests. Every gap in the stonework is home to a vociferous family, and later on, when the weather is more amenable, a quiet drink on the terrace will be drowned out by the youngsters’ demands for food.

Butterflies will be starting to appear. One or two may have been seduced out earlier if we have one of March’s confusing short warm spells, but now they are starting to appear in earnest. The Brimstone (Fr: Citron) Gonepteryx rhamni may well be one of the first. This butterfly can overwinter as an adult, hiding in ivy clumps, and awakens to begin a new generation which will emerge in summer. Indeed, I saw one or two in late February. In a good year there may even be an autumn brood. The male is a startling sulphur-yellow, the female is considerably paler, but both display the characteristic “hook” on the front corner of the forewings (Gonepteryx = sharpangled wing).

The Large and Small Whites, and the Green-veined White, should also start to appear. Please don’t just dismiss these as “Cabbage Whites”. They go through the same stages of metamorphosis as the most spectacular butterflies and are every bit as wonderful. It is true that the Large and Small White caterpillars do eat the odd cabbage – that is our fault for deciding to eat this cruciferous plant as a vegetable. Cruciferous plants are these butterflies’ natural food. The Green-veined White’s caterpillars also feed on wild cruciferous plants, but seem not to like cabbages.

Towards the end of the month the lovely little Orange Tip (Fr: Aurore) Anthocaris cardamines will appear. Remember, only the male has the orange tips to its forewings; the female has a black tip to these wings, and can look like a Greenveined White at a casual glance. It can be distinguished by the chequer-board pattern of green spots on the underside of its hind-wings.

Rabbits will soon be bringing their young out to learn about the world. During April the naked, blind kits will gain strength underground. Hares, of course, which nest in the open, bear their young fully-pelted and wide-awake, so they can immediately take evasive action if required. You may still see “Mad March hares” rushing around crazily in April, and boxing each other for all they are worth. It used to be said that the boxers were male hares fighting for mating-rights, but of late it has been realised that in fact the combatants are of opposite sexes. It turns out it is the leporine equivalent of “Not today, I’ve got a headache!” Not good news for the male hare, but such a sighting is supposed to bring good fortune for a human, so keep your eyes open.

ByMikeGeorge

Mike George is our regular contributor on wildlife and the countryside in France. He is a geologist and naturalist, living in the Jurassic area of the Charente

This is usually the month when the cuckoo announces his reappearance after his winter sojourn in Africa. “In Aprill, come he will,” as the old poem has it. It used to be that one heard the cuckoo but rarely saw it. It had somewhat the appearance in flight of a small bird of prey. One theory was that this scared the small birds which the cuckoo parasitised, making them hide and giving the cuckoo the few moments it needed to lay its egg in a suitable nest. The cuckoo’s really useful trick is to eat up prodigious quantities of Processionary caterpillars. Most creatures avoid these pests like the plague, and wisely so, but the cuckoo has developed a technique to deal with them. It swallows them whole, so that the poisonous hairs from the caterpillars collect in the bird’s upper digestive tract. This is well-supplied with mucous, which traps the hairs.

Periodically the bird ejects the mucous and its cargo of hair, without apparent harm to itself. So, avoid cuckoo-spit! This, of course, is distinct from what we English-speakers used to call “Cuckoospit”, that frothy glob on a plant-stem that marked the nursery of an immature Froghopper bug.

Sadly, the Cuckoo is becoming scarce. When I first moved to the Charente it was not uncommon for spring to be punctuated by the calls of both the Cuckoo and of the Hoopoe; now the Cuckoo is rarely heard, and the Hoopoe seems to be getting more elusive.

One more word of warning. As April ends, the month of May bursts forth in all its glory. The French mark May Day by handing out (or selling) Lily of the Valley, in French Muguet (Convallaria majalis). This exquisite little plant is a sign of love, and with its soft perfume is a gift any girl would be glad to receive. It is also deadly poisonous in all its parts! It contains glycosides which interfere with heartrhythms. Symptoms include blurry vision, diarrhoea, vomiting and nausea, disorientation, drowsiness, headaches, red skin rashes, excessive salivation, sudden alterations in your cardiac rhythm and possible death. So, give it to your lovedones, enjoy its gorgeous perfume, but do not eat any part of it!

Enjoy the burgeoning Spring!