Profusion in June
June is a great month for spending time close to nature in your local churchyard or cemetery. The second week of June sees three initiatives; Love Your Burial Ground Week with Churches Count on Nature and National Cemeteries Week all taking place in celebration of these special places and the fantastic volunteers who care for them.
You may be able to attend an event as part of one of these, take a look on the Caring for Gods Acre map of events to see what is happening near you but if not, please go to a churchyard, chapel yard or cemetery on your own, with your family or friends and see what you can see.
Wildflowers may be present in profusion if there is a meadow area, look out for oxeye daisy, lady’s bedstraw, vetches, cat’s ear, hawkbit amongst others. Is there a patch of medium length grass, where shorter-stemmed plants can flower without the mower cutting them off? If so search for bird’s eye speedwell, self-heal, red clover, buttercups and medics. Burial grounds can be rich in species as they contain a mosaic of habitats, with large trees, areas of shaded woodland, stonework as well as grassland of varying lengths. The butterflies to be found can be a mix of species usually found in woodland, grassland and scrub. In June you may find a rich array, look out for comma, red admiral, small copper and common blue which favour shorter vegetation such as grasses and nettles for laying their eggs, all plants found in meadows or in the dappled shade of a woodland or large tree canopy. You may catch a glimpse of a yellow brimstone, which lays its eggs on buckthorn, a woodland shrub.
June is also a good time to site quietly and watch birds busily feeding young, darting in and out of nests. Again, burial grounds can be rich in birds which may also use neighbouring gardens. The church itself can host house martins under the eaves, swallows in the porch or lychgate and perhaps swifts, nesting invisibly in the eaves or in boxes behind tower louvres. A visit in the early evening may be rewarded with the sound of screaming swifts circling around the church building.
Please let us know what you see and hear, be it plant, insect or bird. You can record species using a smart phone and the iNaturalist or iRecord app, by email or by post. Open this link to find out how to make a recording or visit our website.
All the best,
Harriet Carty
Diocesan Churchyard Environmental Advisor
www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk - individuals and groups in the diocese receive 20% members discount on all CfGA materials. Use the discount code diomem22