Seasons Shifting

[Wild-Woman]

Do you think everything will run out of steam too early this summer as everything seems to be emerging and peaking well ahead of the usual?

[Hornbeam]

I don't know, but it will be interesting to find out. Many garden and wild plants were still in flower much later last autumn. With such a very short winter rest, here they come again! Perhaps more of us should log first and last dates in different parts of the country and get some idea of what is happening.

[Mr Mag00]

is that not what the UK Phenology Network do?

nature's calendar

[wildflower]

It does make you wonder as my angelica is out its burst the buds and also i have a oriental poppy opening ..These things normally happen the end of may..perhaps it will either be all over and finished by august or last year i had a second show on some flowers including a poppy so we shall have to see..think i prefer it to be normal..

[Wild-Woman]

Originally Posted by wildflower

It does make you wonder as my angelica is out its burst the buds and also i have a oriental poppy opening ..These things normally happen the end of may..perhaps it will either be all over and finished by august or last year i had a second show on some flowers including a poppy so we shall have to see..think i prefer it to be normal..

It could be another early harvest.The oil seed rape here has peaked already.
I wonder if it weakens a species...plant or animal. No winter rest to speak of then continual energy use into late Autumn?

[John]

Same here. There are Rape fields everywhere in full bloom. What with some very early arrival of birds it makes you wonder what is happening to the seasons.

John

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

It could be another early harvest.The oil seed rape here has peaked already.
I wonder if it weakens a species...plant or animal. No winter rest to speak of then continual energy use into late Autumn?

[Susie]

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

It could be another early harvest.The oil seed rape here has peaked already.
I wonder if it weakens a species...plant or animal. No winter rest to speak of then continual energy use into late Autumn?

I would have thought that, as long as there is a food supply to sustain them, it must be good for a species to have a longer season. There is more opportunity to flower/mate and mature to seed/bring up young. I would imagine it is the cold winter dormant period that is tough. If that is shorter then more will survive and go on to breed.

What may cause problems is when insects appear and there isn't enough food to sustain them, and then the plants flower and there aren't enough insects to pollinate them. Then when the birds breed there aren't enough insects to feed the young and so on. The whole balance of nature is thrown out.

Fortunately nature has a knack of adjusting.

[Hornbeam]

But there is no rain and the ground is hard and cracked already - and it's only April though it looks like August.

[Susie]

Yes, I agree that is bad.

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by Mr Mag00

is that not what the UK Phenology Network do?

nature's calendar

Yes, indeed, and we can all contribute to that.
However, the UKPN doesn't records every species and not always ones that are the most common in a particular neighbourhoos. This is where any of us can start our own study, recording first (and thirds - these tend to exclude the really weird results) and last appearances - you can build up your own database which could be very interesting ... over the years