Walton Hall Nature Trail, what's on April

Spring has finally arrived - just. The daffodils are now out, birds are singing for all they are worth and frogspawn has arrived in local ponds.

Plants Look out for primroses now in full flower, there are a few introduced clumps around the trail and thousands of sown plants under the grid road tree plantings in Milton Keynes. Brilliant white sloe (Prunus spinosa) blossom should be out soon, it will join yellow 'pussy willow' flowers which are already providing food for early flying bees. Other plants in full flower at present include the bright yellow lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) and red dead nettle (Lamium purpureum).
Birds This year has been very good for redwings, no apology for mentioning them again as they have been one of the commonest birds round the nature trail and on roadside verges throughout the city.
The nesting season is well under way with many birds singing loudly. Returning migrants such as chiffchaffs, willow warblers and house martins are also starting to turn up.
Insects Butterflies such as brimstone and small tortoishell are now starting to appear after hibernation.
Amphibians This year has been rather stop-go for amphibians, frogs were spawning early in the south of the country but then things came to a grinding halt with all the cold weather. Clumps of frogspawn are now present in Milton Keynes ponds and toads have made it to Walton Lake so there should be the long strings of toadspawn soon.
Bats Towards the end of March there was a bat circling round outside the BBC building in the late afternoon. A few days later it was spotted flying near the church river bridge by startled staff out for a lunchtime stroll. It is not uncommon for species of bat such as Pipistrelle to make daytime flights during the winter months.

Lichens Keep on the lookout for Usnea lichens as they could be an important biological indicator of air quality in Milton Keynes. The lichens look like small grey/green balls of cotton wool and grow mainly on willow and poplar bark in this part of the country. I would be interested to know exactly where you find them as we would like to set up a long-term measuring program recording the same individuals every year.

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