A Spring Song: The Seasons of Elmley

Boxing hares, basking lizards, emerging butterflies and a chorus of songbirds: The spectacle of spring provides the most wondrous show at Elmley.

As the days grow longer and the Reserve teems with new and returning life, spring is a time that Elmley’s incredible transformation from intensive farmland to wildlife haven - the labours of four decades of nature restoration - are arguably the clearest to see and celebrate.

Groups of hares can be spotted streaming across the meadows throughout April and May, as the female gives the males a game of chase, before the victor’s strength and fitness is tested with a boxing match. Our high density of hares ensures this is a common sight to behold on the Reserve until the grasses grow longer and this mating ritual continues under cover.

The first of the leverets start to make an appearance too, sometimes spotted by guests on our dusk tours, as they venture out to feed from their mother’s milk having remained hidden all day.

The story of new spring life continues with calves on the grazing marsh and our Cattle Egret, whose first eggs will be hatching in their nearby nests.

While the short-eared owls start to dwindle in number as they begin their staggered spring exit, they offer a last chance to catch a glimpse until around the third week of April. The Barn Owls and Little Owls remain and by late April have their own chicks to feed. The fledgling chicks often find their way into some of the outdoor guest spaces, quietly cohabitating until they fully find their flying wings.

From April the breeding season also begins for our beloved waders, taking advantage of the incredibly special habitat created for them by 40 years of restoration of the marshes here at Elmley. The UK’s largest collection of breeding wading birds, including the Lapwing, Avocet, Oystercatchers and Redshank, safely settle to successfully breed, with their chicks increasingly easy to spot. As the wet grasslands and marshes provide an important sanctuary for these beautiful, but sadly threatened, species.

This spring breeding activity inspires one of the highlights of the season; the dramatic display of the looping male Lapwing as they protect their young from predators, an acrobatic act that sees them twist and turn as they beautifully traverse the sky on an invisible rollercoaster.

April also means the welcome return of the Swallows, who start to arrive from their winter spent in South Africa to settle on the wires across the courtyard, creating a picture postcard scene.

The bumblebees and butterflies also gradually reappear as they emerge from hibernation. As the early queens come out to set up their nests, our six different species of butterflies that hibernate as an adult, who have spent the winter tucked away in the farm building and old school, emerge as soon as the temperature is warm enough. First Brimstone, Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell, followed by the Orange-tip, Holly Blue and hopefully the Large Tortoiseshell, one of the UK’s rarest species, who were discovered to have a large colony on the Reserve last summer.

But while the sights of spring on the Reserve are nothing short of spectacular, it’s perhaps the sounds of the season that most memorably define these pre-summer months. With April comes the exciting arrival of the Cuckoo and their distinctive song, along with the two note tick-tock rhythm of the Chiffchaffs and first Wheatears. The woodland birds sing amongst the newly green leafy trees, and a wander through the treeline to the old school house is a wonderfully immersive evening experience in Spring.

There’s also the cackling chorus of the marsh frogs and the booming song of the Bitterns, best heard after dark, reminiscent of someone tunefully blowing into a glass bottle.

The phenomenal birdsong becomes bigger in volume and diversity as more migrant birds arrive, culminating around National Bird Chorus Day on the May bank holiday weekend. Guests can arrange a private dawn tour to immerse themselves in its full splendor, or simply enjoy its easily audible melody from the comfort of their beds.

As with so much at Elmley, it is the incredible, landscape scale to this nature filled wonderland, that is the most awe inspiring. As the leaves burst into green and the grasses across the meadows grow, interspersed with wildflowers, the huge views across this wildly beautiful green landscape are a restorative tonic for the soul. A time of new life and new beginnings.

Discover the magic of the flourishing of Elmley in spring with a wildlife tour or enjoy a rejuvenative wellness treatment. Book your experience today.

A special thanks to Jim Higham, Ian Ridgers and Keith Fraiser for some of these wonderful photographs.