May was all about the miniature; tiny shrews were running around, beautiful beasties shone in the sun, and the many wildflowers burst into life. The woodland was still carpeted in bluebells, but the white flowers of the wild garlic had transformed the park.
With the beautiful dry weather we've had this last week, the rain all through May seems a distant memory. There was a lot of it though, I felt it took the whole month for it to stop, but luckily there were some dry days to get out with the camera.
May saw the arrival of the swifts; a beautiful flock flies over the shops as I walk through to the woodlands.
The Grey heron has visited the pond a lot more this month. He appears to be alone now, standing and stalking the wee fish in the pond.
May was beautiful and gave me many species I had yet to record from the park before.
The wildflowers stole the show, there were a number of species that were in full bloom.
For the first time, I saw a female blackcap; a beautiful species with a flutey song. The females have a brown cap unlike the males.
On one of the sunniest days, a robin sang in the sunshine as if it was celebrating a break in the rain.
Fungi are slowly popping up here and there. I recorded Chicken of the woods (aka Sulphur Polypore) for the first time. An unmissable yellow bracket fungi that was devoured quite quickly by various creatures.
There were many wee creatures worth photographing in May. Here are some of my favourites below. I do not know the species of the hoverflies or Spider, if anyone knows please let me know!
My highlight this month was capturing a photograph of a shrew. I always have the kids with me on my walks, and this time I only had the littlest one who was sleeping at the time. I can finally hear everything around me. Walking along a path, I noticed the most high pitched squeaks coming from some deadwood ahead, baby birds perhaps, a wrens nest? Far too high pitched I think, and then that's when I see a scurry of little mammals chasing each other in and around this old log. I stood still trying to get some shots, but they were so fast it took a while to learn what route they were taking through the ivy & moss. Finally, I got this shot below and saw they were Common Shrews.
It's not perfect, but it was the only one that wasn't a blurry backside or a photo of leaf litter. I stood for about 15 mins with the shrews; the longer I stood, the more came out & just like that, there were a dozen running around my feet! I'll admit to being mesmerised. I was so distracted I nearly was late picking up my son from nursery. Definitely one of the best reasons for being late for anything if you ask me.
Thanks for reading about Castlemilk Park this month!
Look out for my latest Butterfly transect blog, May was all about the Orange-tips!
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loved this article!
Hi lovely photographs your either very very lucky or have the patience and awareness of what is around especially if you have one or two children with you. I think your local park is a remarkable place it keeps providing many interesting images of nature at its best 👍
Thank you, Christine. I appreciate you reading my blogs every month and taking the time to comment! I hope to get the butterfly one up soon. :) x
Awesome as usual Emma photography brill well done and great patience getting the wee shrew well done look forward to your blogs and looking forward to the butterflies. X