June was an absolute scorcher of a month, creating a perfect opportunity for seeing some amazing flowers and wildlife across our reserves.
Many of our plants are now in full bloom, with a couple of rare spots that haven’t been seen in decades making an appearance.
Here is a small selection of the sightings recorded across our reserves this month!
A grass snake was spotted towards the end of June at our Brockholes reserve! They appear from April to October and hibernate from October onwards. The females can lay anywhere from 10 to 40 eggs in rotting vegetation, such as compost.
Grass Snake by David Longshaw
The lovely bee orchids have made an appearance at Middleton Nature Reserve! They are quite fussy, so can sometimes disappear for years at a time then spring up out of nowhere. It’s fascinating to look at them up close as they resemble a female bee, which aims to entice males that will then pollinate it. They release a pheromone which attracts them too!
Bee Orchids by Janet Packham
Cuckoos are back for summer and are well known for their unusual breeding habits of invading existing nests, laying an egg and then disappearing, leaving another pair of birds to nurture it. Cuckoos are globally threatened, which is thought to be due to declines in the birds (‘hosts’) that nurture their young or climate-induced shifts in the timing of breeding of these hosts.
Cuckoo by Kevin Hall
In 2020 there were no Manchester Argus (Large Heath) butterflies in Manchester. Now, not only are they back, but they’re flourishing. We were part of a joint project between Chester Zoo, Natural England, Manchester Metropolitan University, and other organisations in the Great Manchester Wetlands Partnership to bring it back, and now it’s becoming a common sight on some of our reserves!
Large Heath by Paul Slade
Joshua Styles spotted this tiny Royal Fern that was last seen at Astley over 100 years ago! His tweet about the sighting gained a lot of attention, with many people appreciating the incredible spot. Its name is down to it being one of the largest European ferns.
Royal Fern by Joshua Styles
Our Project Manager for our Wigan reserve, Mark Champion, spotted this Betony at Bickershaw CP, part of the Wigan and Leigh Flashes NNR. It consists of hundreds of flowering spikes and is the first time for a long while that this species has been recorded flowering in Wigan! Betony was once a valuable medicinal plant throughout Europe.
Betony by Mark Champion
What will you spot at our reserves in July? Don’t forget to tag us on social media for a chance to be featured in next month’s roundup!
