May

By Peter Conway

May is the height of spring, a month when everywhere seems to be exploding with flowers and blossom. Early in the month there can be a moment when all in the countryside seems to be aboslute perfection.

On the other hand, all this growth can become rather oppressive. The cheerful, fresh displays of April give way to over-exuberance that can start to look somewhat messy. The weather also is not always that cooperative in May, with cool grey skies all too often making it feel anything but spring-like.

WEATHER

One dreams of sunny May so intensely all winter that one tends to forget that it can be a very mixed month for weather.

The month ought to be like 2001, when May was largely sunny, but more often than not it sees quite a bit of drab, grey weather. The reason for both types of weather is often high pressure, particularly earlier in the month, with lows often breaking through from the third week onwards. 2008 was a good example of this pattern, with highs bringing wonderful sunny weather until 14 May, producing temperatures in the low 20s, and and then cooler and wetter (though still fairly static) weather in the second half of the month.

The high pressure is not always good news, however. In 2002, it kept the first three weeks of the month grey and cloudy in the south east, though sun did set in for the last week, and it was a similar story for the first 12 days of 2004. Blazing sunshine then followed for the rest of the month, however.

In 2005, high pressure drove icy cold winds down the east coast in the second and third week, even producing night time frosts. In the fourth week, it then gave way to a slow moving low which was bad news for the north, which had lots of wet weather, but generally good for the south, bringing scudding clouds and sunny intervals.

In 2009, the weather alternated every few days between between lows to the north (some fairly static, and bringing quite strong winds to the south) and periods of high pressure: the latter produced four periods of sunshine, with temperatures rising from 18-21 degrees mid month to 25-27 degrees towards the end.

More unusually, May can be dominated by classic fast-moving Atlantic lows, as happened in both 2006 and 2007. 2006 was the wettest May for 23 years due to an endless series of Atlantic lows, and while 2007 was not so bad it was nevertheless relentlessly grey, showery and cool with temperatures in the mid teens – a stark contrast to the bone dry April when the heat had soared to a summer-like mid 20s. In both months, there were days right up to the end of the month when one felt like running the central heating.

Generally, even if the weather is not cooperative, coolness in May is relative – in March similar temperatures would have seemed balmy and warm. It no longer gets sharply colder in the evening, and winds (with 2005 excepted) do not tend to be cutting. It can still be cold enough for an extra layer, but only one: this is the first month when one can go out for the day relatively lightly dressed.

When the sun shines, one starts feeling the need to use suntan cream for the first time and even to sit under the shade of trees. The adverts for portable air conditioning units that start to appear on the Tube at this time still seem a bit incongruous, however.

May has two bank holidays, of course, and it is almost axiomatic that one of them at least will have miserable weather. The question is, which one?

The early May bank holiday once seemed to be a prime candidate, but in recent years it has had a good record. In 2003 and 2005 it was gloriously sunny, while in 2006 and 2008 there was sun and cloud. In 2007, there was a miserable Saturday and a wet Monday, however, and in 2009 a sunny Saturday was followed by cooler, cloudier days with some drizzle on the Monday. In 2007, a 38 day drought broke on the Monday with heavy rain.

As for the late May bank holiday, it was largely dry in 2009, with a glorious hot Sunday with temperatures reaching 25 degrees. And in 2005, temperatures on the Friday before the bank holiday reached a record 32 degrees – the first hot weather in a rather cool May - before cooling again over the next few days.

But from 2006 to 2008, the late May bank holiday was stubbornly cool and wet. 2007 saw temperatures as low as 8 degrees, or 5 degrees in the Chilterns, and in 2006 both the Saturday and Monday were grey and rainy. 2008 continued the tradition with a thoroughly wet and miserable Sunday and Monday.

Almost unnoticed, you are in the some of the longest days of the year. Lighting up time goes from 8.30pm to 9.05 pm during the month, but it barely seems to register, and one rarely seems to make the best of it.

When the weather is sunny, the outside tables of a pub or cafe are suddenly all occupied and the inside ones empty – the exact reverse of the situation for the previous six months. People start to stand around drinking outside city pubs, and the swimming pool is suddenly full.

One feels one ought to be able to abandon the duvet in May, but nights can remain stubbornly cool - as in 2005, 2006 and 2007 - right up to the end of the month, though not in 2008, which had night temperatures as high as 15 degrees as early as the first week of the month.

NATURE NOTES

• The very height of spring, when everything seems to be in flower
• Meadows come into their own
• A cacophony of birdsong – but it is hard to see them

For pictures of the flowers mentioned here, see the photos to the right of this page. Put your cursor over any photo to see its caption. Plenty more photos are available on Flickr: simply click on any photo to see them: this also gives you a larger view of the photo. In addition, Wikipedia has photos and more information on many plants.

Bluebells are out in full force at the start of the month, but are fading by the end of the first week (though in the late spring of 2006, when the bluebells did not come out in force till the end of the first week in May, they stayed out into week three).

Their passing causes a momentary sadness as the early part of spring comes to an end. But it is shortlived, with interest soon shifting from woodland floors to meadows. Meanwhile roadsides and field verges continue to be carpetted with flowers, and blossom continues in hedgerows, making open countryside a very pleasant place to be.

A few plants that do linger on in woodlands include ransoms – wild garlic – which is at its best in the first week or ten days of May, but whose dying leaves can still give off a pungent garlic smell at the end of the month. The pink-flowered herb robert also lasts all month, and you can also find the yellow-flowered herb bennet (otherwise known as wood avens) and rarer plants such as woodruff.

Meadow flowers

If you had to pick one flower to represent May it would be the buttercup (top photo). From early in the month (though somewhat later in 2006 and 2007) you start to get the small, daisy-height ones, and taller meadow buttercups follow a week or so later. For the whole month, they continue to turn fields into a sea of yellow. From about mid month, they are joined by enormous white ox-eye daisies, which reach their best at the month’s end.

Grass in meadows grows tall and green at the start of the month, but as it progresses more and more of it goes to seed. You realise as this happens just how varied grass is, with different varieties such as timothy, yorkshire fog and foxtail. Early in the month, the seeding grasses just add further variety to the meadows, but towards the end it can start to overwhelm the flowers, spoiling the lovely spring effect.

Also to be found in meadows in May – but only to be seen if you look closely – are all sorts of other flowers. The humble plantain puts out flowers from around the second week, and you can find such delights as shepherd's purse at the same time. Some flowers of clover – white and red being the two varieties – is evident from about the second week, but it gathers force as the month goes on. You might also see pignut – a small cow-parsley like flower, once common in haymeadows and cherished for its edible roots, and from mid month common sorrell gives grassland a reddish tinge.

On an even smaller scale, one can see common vetch quite widely in grassland, and mouse-ear, a tiny stitchwort-like plant. A tiny and very common flower with yellow globules for blooms goes by the unlikely name of black meddick (its fruit is black, apparently), and you can see minature cranesbills (such as dovesfoot cranesbill: these are relatives of garden geraniums), or pretty white meadow saxifrage.

May is also a fabulous month for daisies, though these are more seen in parks and lawns than in fields: if short grass is left uncut they can positive carpet it throughout the month. Dandelions can also cover arable fields and verges, but they are at their height in late April, and are going over in early May. Briefly their famous white seed heads can make a good display, but then they tend to be all gone by the second week.

Also to be found in grassland mid month is silverweed, but as its flowers look just like buttercups, it is rarely noticed (though the backs of its leaves are indeed metallic in colour). The wierd lettuce like things you see growing in fields in late May are thistles. Notice also cuckoo spit which appears on plants in late May and looks just like its name (it is actually produced by an insect called the froghopper).

On the verges

Walking down a path or a country lane can be a delight in early May. Most of the flowers that fill waysides and verges in early April continue into the first part of the month. Stitchwort is at its best at the start of the month, though most of it has faded by mid month. The same is true of garlic mustard, though the latter can hang in places on till the third week. In the first half of the month you can still see ground ivy, bugle, wild strawberries and yellow archangel, while speedwell and alkanet last right through the month in places. White and red deadnettles can also sometimes be seen well into May, as can comfrey with its strange hanging flowers. Red campion (bottom photo), which can appear as early as late April, gathers strength as the month goes on, and less commonly you can see white or bladder campion.

The most prominent verge flower in May is cow parsley, however, which produces great white drifts along every lane from early May till around the third week. Once it goes over, lanes look a lot more drab and never really regain their cheerful spring appearance. Less prettily, verges sport species such as spurge and cleavers (goosegrass) which produce inconspicuous or green flowers, and of course stinging nettles, which by now can be waist high. Crosswort also appears in early May and can form attractive greenish clumps by the month’s end. More strikingly, from mid month you can also foxgloves, and the exotic purple flowers of woody nightshade (aka bittersweet).

Wasteground and other habitats

Later in the summer, wasteground and other odd habitats are fertile ground for flowers, and one starts to see some sign of things to come in May.

An example is hawksbeards/hawkbits – a confusing family of yellow dandelion-like flowers – which appear on railway tracks from early in the month (probably beaked hawksbeard), and then later in the month colonise all sorts of places, including downland and fields – see July for more details. Ragwort also grows along railway lines from early May, though interestingly nowhere much else till later in June. Talking of railway lines, if you see a fabulous display of pink flowers draped over a chainlink fence, then it is clematis montana. This garden escapee starts to flower in late April, fading by mid month or so, and seems fond of trackside fences.

Another common plant of field edges and verges in May is charlock – a yellow plant a bit like oilseed rape (middle photo), whose great yellow seas of flower dominate arable fields till the second or third week of May. Both plants are crucifers, that is members of the cabbage family, and there are all sorts of these to be found in May, including various mustards and cresses (eg hoary cress, wild radish and dittander – all on odd bits of ground forgotten by cultivation or even corners of city streets. Greater celandine is another of this family (not to be confused with the totally different celandines of March, which are correctly called lesser celandines): it comes out in April and lasts till mid month. Hoary cress and other crucifers go over in late May, but charlock and many mustards last into June.

On walls, you continue to see ivy-leaved toadflax, mexican fleabane (a kind of daisy) and yellow cordialis, all growing out of cracks that seem to provide no possible nutrients or water. A relative of the latter – the delicate pink common fumitory – is found on path and field edges, as is mallow (common mallow and also the more delicate musk mallow) which start to appear in late May, and last much of the summer. A curiosity to be found in some places is columbine, whose wierd upside down flowers look just like something escaped from a garden, which indeed it has.

By water, you can see the flowering iris (also known as yellow flags), and note too that reeds are now growing strongly. If you see a cow parsley-like plant growing in a ditch in late May, leave it alone: it could be hemlock water dropwort, which despite being very poisonous is remarkably common

Downland

May is too early still for downland flowers: June is the best month for them. One lovely flower that continues to be found until around mid month on downland is the cowslip, however. You can also see small buttercups. Towards the end of the month, one starts to see June flowers appearing such as birdsfoot trefoil, tormentil, rock roses, mignonette, vipers burgloss (which at first appears like a small blue flower, not the spike it later becomes), and yellow rattle. The cliffs above Dover are also covered in wonderful pink sanfoin, a member of the pea family.

By the sea

May is a wonderful month for clifftop flowers, but the best place to see them is Devon and Cornwall. In the latter county, clifftops are absolutely covered in pink thrift, white sea campion and yellow kidney vetch in May: you can sometimes see these on wilder spots in the south east – eg thrift can be found in small quantities on the cliffs near Hastings.

Even in the south east one finds alexanders, a greeny yellow-flowered umbellifer (ie, a bit like cow parsley) which is only found in coastal areas, and red and white valerian, a rubbery plant with large flowers that grows improbably out of cracks in walls (it carpets walls in Devon). On sea cliffs one also sees wild cabbage during May – another yellow crucifer and the genuine ancestor of our edible cabbage, which is thought to have been brought to Britain by Roman legionaries.

Another interesting coastal habitat in May is shingle beaches – in particular the southern end of Deal beach. By the month’s end this is covered in red valerian, mallow, charlock, and exotic specialties such as red hot pokers (which look just like their name). You can also find plenty of the fine aromatic leaves of fennel here, though it is not yet flowering.

Trees, shrubs and blossom

The blossom sequencies continues in May with hawthorn, which usually appears in the second week (first week in 2008) and lasts a couple of weeks. At its height, it can look like dollops of ice cream, and as it goes over it can sometimes turn a pretty shade of pink.

The first half of the month is also the traditional time for apple blossom, both on orchard trees and on the wild crab apple. But in recent years (ie 2007, 2008, 2009) this seems to have come out in late April, fading at the start of May. All apple blossom was certainly long gone by the end of the first week of May 2009. The enormous candle-like flower spikes of horse chestnuts also straddle the end of April and the start of May, fading around mid month, and the first half of the month sees rowan put out its white flowers.

There is plenty of other less immediately obvious tree activity in May. By the end of April all trees are usually in leaf, but ash can be a laggard: in 2009 its leaves were only very small in the first half of May: bunches of new seed keys soon follow on trees that have flowered and been fertilised. One striking tree at this time is whitebeam, whose remarkably light leaves hang oddly in pairs early in May.

In the first or second week, the air in London parks can suddenly be full of fluffy flying seeds, which come from the towering London planes, whose seed cases, which remain on the tree all winter, have finally broken open. Sweet chestnut puts out leaves and catkins early in the month. Holly puts out tiny flowers, and there are new red cones on larch trees. By the end of the month maple, sycamore and hornbeam have all produced seeds (the latter in large hanging clusters), and the horse chestnut spikes have given way to clusters of tiny green conkers (many of which fall off before becoming ripe in the autumn). You might also see tiny green plums or cherries at this time, as well as new green holly berries.

In gardens, early May sees the wonderful laburnum tree in flower, with its great dripping clusters of yellow. Lilac (which starts in mid April) also continues to flower, and you can see the climbing plant bougainvillea turning buildings a mass of purple. All of these have gone over by mid month, however. This is also the month for garish rhododendrum flowers, which can last right to the end of month.

From mid month (the third week in 2009) you can also see elderflowers (on elder bushes) starting to appear, and you may get some dog roses and burnet roses as well as bramble (ie blackberry) flowers at the very end of May, though their province is more properly early June

Birdsong delights and frustrations

Birdsong is at its height in early May, sometimes producing a positive cacophony of sound. Suburban parks, woodland and wildlife reserves can be the best places to hear this, as well as scrubby areas in the country; on farmland the concentration of birdsong is not so intense. This is a frustrating time for anyone trying to identify birds and their song, however, because the new leaves on trees and bushes now provide plenty of cover.

Nearly all the native birds seem to be singing in May, as the mating season reaches its height. Blackbirds in particular seem to be very prominent during the month, as are song thrushes in the early part at least. The cascading song of the chaffinch and its “hweet hweet” call also dominate, and you can hear lots of dunnocks, whose song sounds to some like a squeaky supermarket trolley.

Listen carefully to that dunnock, however, because it maybe a blackcap, a summer visitor which has a remarkably similiar song. (Some blackcaps also over-winter here). Another famous summer visitoryou might hear in early May is the cuckoo, which often chooses dunnock nests to lay its single egg in. (As every child knows, the fledgling cuckook then pushes out the dunnock eggs). But perhaps the most dominant visitor’s birdsong in early May is that of the chiffchaff, whose ponderous three note song sounds like its name.

Other summer visitors are seen as much as heard. Look out for house martins – often in happy groups, but sometimes alone – swooping low over the ground for insects. If you see a house martin with a long forked tail it is a swallow, and if it has long swept back wings, it is a swift. Both house martin and swallow do have their own twittering calls, but they are not very easily identifiable.

Back with the natives, sudden loud trilling explosions of wren song are not uncommon (they sing all year in theory, but seem to be especially noticeable in May). Greenfinches also continue to squeege and trill – the former sound is made particularly by males sitting on the top of tall trees. You might also hear the odd green woodpecker laugh, and of course over grassy fields, larks trill invisibly overhead. By houses, sparrows cheep cheerfully away, as they do all year.

Robins also continue to twitter away in May, though somehow they are not as dominant in the soundscape as they seem early in the year. You might also hear the see-sawing call of the great tit, but this is very rare by now. In general as the month draws to a close, a lot of birds of all species have mated and so stop singing. By the close of May, only blackbirds still seem to be going strong, though all sorts of other birds can still be heard from time to time.

Insects

April has already seen quite a lot of tiny insects emerge (it is one reason those summer visiting birds come to our shores), and this continues in May. You still don’t get many flies – more the kind of tiny insects that fly into your mouth when you are running or cycling, or produce mysterious insect bits on your arms and legs. Mayflies can be seen doing their curious mating dance by water and one can also catch a sight of irridescent blue damselflies (looking a bit like dragonflies, but with one set of wings). Bumble bees also busy themselves on anything in flower, but wasps don’t seem to be about yet.

An unusual year

In the very exceptional May of 2007, the bluebells faded more or less on time at the end of the first week, but much else that should have been flowering at that time had already come out after a very warm April, and a mild winter. This was a very strange May, with rain from the second week onward helping grass and nettles grow tall and green, but most flowers and blossom gone over.

© Peter Conway 2006 - updated 2007, 2008, 2009 • All Rights Reserved • From his South East of England Almanac