If you walked around Sutton Walls in May you would have seen the bluebells and many other wild flowers such as wood anemones and red campion. Along one road verge I counted over 30 species of wild flowers in bloom plus a few garden escapees. The colours of yellow, pink, blue, violet and white cheers one up after emerging from the winter. Look out for the uncut verges and the natural hay meadows that will soon be a picture of these colours. Unfortunately the green winged orchid has not reappeared this year as the land it was found on was disturbed to provide drainage for the road that was flooding.
I first heard the cuckoo one evening, on 20th April, and he has been heard many times since between Sutton and Marden. I have had no reports of earlier hearings. Swifts, swallows and house martins have been spotted but it has been noted that numbers are again low this year. The skylarks are singing, plus chiffchaffs, but again there are fewer of these too. However, the blackbirds and song thrushes are doing well as I saw a song thrush with a mouthful of worms heading towards a hedge in the middle of the village and as I write I saw a female blackbird pop out onto the wet grass dig up a mouthful of goodies and pop back into a very thick shrub. The babies are here and the parents are frantically feeding them; I wonder who is having to feed the ever-open mouth of the cuckoo hatchling. If you have a nest box in your garden sit quietly out of sight and see if there is any activity. We have at least three of ours occupied by members of the tit family. The great spotted woodpeckers are back and forth to the nut feeders so obviously are nesting nearby. In one oak tree near Marden/Sutton, a male has been hammering away for at least a week telling all and sundry this is his patch.
Since March many of us have spied many butterflies. One watcher sent in his list: Brimstone, Tortoiseshell, Orange Tip, Speckled Wood, Holy Blue, Small White, Peacock, Green-veined White and even a lovely fluffy Bee Fly. To add to this I have seen male and female Common Blues. Look out for butterflies on sunny days - we need our insect pollinators.