Newsletter #172 June, Summer is here.
Newsletter about nature and science
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June, the Summer Month
Even though most of the month is still part of spring, it's easy to understand why June is called the summer month. Everything is heading toward summer. More grasses and other flowering plants come into bloom than in any other month, and insects are very busy with them. Most birds and mammals are occupied with teaching their young about the great outdoors.
June, the summer month. Even though most of the month is still part of spring, it's easy to understand why June is called the summer month. Everything is heading toward summer. More grasses and other flowering plants come into bloom than in any other month, and insects are very busy with them. Most birds and mammals are occupied with teaching their young about the great outdoors. The month is named after Juno, the wife of chief god Jupiter and goddess of fertility and the family.
June is about two and a half degrees warmer than May. Night frost is a rare exception in June, with temperatures averaging just above 16 degrees (and naturally, in recent years, a degree higher than in previous decades). There are always warm days, and often several tropical days as well. The number of sunshine hours is high, naturally thanks in part to the longest day of the month, but has also increased by about 5% to 227 hours. Rainfall varies greatly from place to place, but remains limited to an average of about sixty millimeters.
June is the blooming month for "useful" plants like buckwheat, rye, parsnip, carrot, and corn, but also for many "less desirable" plants like field and milk thistle, stinging nettle, cleavers, and ragwort. What's a nuisance for one is pleasure for another. No one will complain about beauties like water lily, evening primrose, royal fern, and shrub and cross-leaved heath. But with the introduced and blistering giant hogweed, that's a different story (all the more surprising is that this invasive plant is celebrated in northern Norway as the Tromsø palm). In roadside verges and grasslands, there's much "ordinary stuff" to enjoy, like yarrow, pignut, tormentil, meadow vetchling, cornflower, toadflax, common vetch, bindweed (also called the little pot), common valerian, and rigid eyebright. In sandy open spots, you'll see the purple masses of willowherb emerging, and at the water's edge the much more modest hairy willowherb. Elder, horse chestnut, and lindens are now flowering trees; in the water, look out for cattail, branched bur-reed, and arrowhead. More than thirty grass species are flowering, including English ryegrass, insofar as it hasn't already disappeared into silage. It's noteworthy that several early bloomers have vanished without a trace, such as lesser celandine and spring beauty.
These are also the weeks when you see somewhat clumsy and very well-fed young starlings begging from their exhausted parents. It's sometimes an embarrassing display. In general, all birds with brood care still have much work to do in the aftercare of their nest-bound young. A "late arrival" like the reed warbler is still brooding, while others like the dunnock, blackbird, and coot have started on follow-up clutches. Bird song is decreasing, although you wouldn't notice this from blackbirds, robins, and finches, for example. Meanwhile, the first migratory birds like some waders that have bred in Scandinavia are already flying over again, on their way to Africa, and our cuckoo is also beginning to think about its return journey.
In the air, swallows are busy collecting insects. The higher temperatures are good news for insects, and the flowering plants are naturally also an attraction. Grasshoppers become active; you can hear the field cricket "singing." Butterflies curiously often have a dip in June. The spring butterflies have disappeared, and the summer butterflies or species that occur in two or even three generations, like the map butterfly, small copper, or small white, are now also taking a break. Of course, there are also species like the meadow brown that are just becoming active now, but the real butterfly months are yet to come, in July and August.
Five Tips for Nature in June
The abundance of flowering plants makes June a special month. On the website www.floravannederland.nl, plants are arranged by the month in which they begin flowering, with good descriptions and photos.
Birds also sing in June, especially in the early morning. For bird sound recognition: the excellent Merlin Bird ID app can be easily installed; choose the Dutch language function.
Insects love sunshine, so it's worth seeking them out then. A good identification site is ObsIdentify.
Specifically for butterflies, but also for dragonflies: consult the butterfly foundation's website https://www.vlinderstichting.nl/vlinders/overzicht-vlinders. Mid-June features dragonfly observation days!
Grasshoppers and crickets are fascinating animals, not only in appearance but also in sound. For more information, look at https://determineren.nederlandsesoorten.nl under grasshoppers and crickets.
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