Photos of the month: June

This month we received 270 records from 142 recorders. This is fewer than last month when we had 2131 records from 253 people. This can be explained by the flurry of spring records in May compared with the winding down of spring activity in June.

Trees and shrubs

The tail-end of spring records are still coming in. Dog rose first flowering was popular in June with 36 records, elder first flowering was also well-recorded with 28.

Tree recording tip for summer

You have already been telling us about the abundance (or lack of) fruit on trees. So far we have records for beech, field maple, sycamore and horse chestnut fruits. If you have got to know a particular tree well over the years and have seen a range of the fruit crops it can produce you can let us know how much fruit it has produced this year. Simply choose from the numbers below:

1 = no fruit    2 = meagre    3 = moderate    4 = good crop    5 = exceptional

Remember to only record 'amount of fruit' from mature trees which have not been trimmed.

Flowers and grasses

The last ‘first flowers’ of the flowers and grasses are trickling in. We received 23 records for Yorkshire fog first flower and 22 for cocksfoot. Oxeye daisy had 18 records for first flower.

Birds

We still have a few records coming in for adult birds spotted taking food back to their nests. 10 for blue tit and 8 for great tit. We received 15 records of blackbird first juvenile seen. Also 15 first seen swift, the late arrivals to the UK.

Insects

The spring season is drawing to a close with some last minute first sightings of butterflies. 20 first sightings of red admiral submitted, these are likely individuals moving north from the Europe mainland. We received 11 first sightings of speckled wood, 7 for comma and a lone holly blue.

What to look out for now

With all this warm weather the summer fruit will soon be ripening. Look out for bramble and rowan fruits. When they’re ripe let us know – you can check this by doing the ‘squish test’ – the fruit should squash easily between fingertips and no longer be hard. And of course, leaves will start tinting soon.