Nature's Calendar: August

Here at the RSPB, we get dozens of reports each summer of hummingbirds on the loose in the UK countryside. But hummingbirds are only native to the Americas, so how can this be? The answer lies in an unassuming moth – the Hummingbird Hawk-moth – which looks uncannily like a miniature hummingbird.  

Just like hummingbirds, they feed on nectar from flowers, but they’re much smaller, with a wingspan of just 5cm. They also lack the characteristically vibrant colours of their namesakes – instead, they have a greyish-brown body, with black and white markings, and orange hindwings. 

These day-flying moths migrate all the way to the UK from north Africa and southern Europe in early summer, but as our climate warms some are managing to overwinter in milder years.  

Keep your eyes peeled for them darting between flowers and using their long proboscis to slurp up the energy-rich nectar inside. Their wings beat at an incredible 70 to 80 beats per second, which allows them to hover in the same way real hummingbirds do. 
 
Despite their size, and correspondingly tiny brain, Hummingbird Hawk-moths are thought to be able to remember their favourite flowers, so if you spot one flitting around your flowerbed, or poking its proboscis into your patio plants, the chances are you’ll see it again! 

Teeming with weird and wonderful creatures, rockpools offer a glimpse into the mysterious underwater world that’s left behind when the tide goes out.  

Look closely and you might be lucky enough to spot the colourful tentacles of a Beadlet Anemone wafting in the water. These alien-like creatures use their stinging tentacles to stun passing prey, like shrimps and small fish, before stuffing their paralysed victim into their mouth. Anemones can pull their tentacles in when water levels drop, so be on the lookout for jelly-like blobs sticking to rocks.  

Beadlet Anemones aren’t the only fearsome predators to inhabit rockpools. Dog Whelks feed on mussels and barnacles by boring a hole in their shells, injecting special chemicals to digest the soft flesh inside and then sucking out the resulting ‘soup’! If you find a shell on the beach with a perfectly round hole in it, it’s probably the work of these amazing little predators.  

When exploring rockpools remember to always put creatures back where you found them and follow our top tips on how to rockpool responsibly. 

With their exuberant calls and aerial acrobatics, Swifts are one of the highlights of summer. But these long-distance travellers will soon be embarking on their epic journey back to Africa, so enjoy them while you can! 

To prepare themselves for leaving the nest and making their first migration south, chicks do ‘press ups’ to strengthen their wing muscles. Once they set off, these young birds will spend most of their lives airborne, until they’re ready to raise a family of their own in two or three years’ time. They can eat, drink, sleep and even mate on the wing! 

Sadly, the joyful screaming of Swifts is a sound we’re hearing less and less in summer: for every 10 Swifts zooming through our skies in 1995, there were only around four in 2021.  

It’s likely that a lack of nest sites is contributing to this decline, but the good news is that it’s a problem we can all help to fix. Follow our tips on how to give Swifts a home and you could be welcoming some new neighbours when they return next spring.   

On warm, sunny days, the countryside comes alive with the sound of crickets and grasshoppers chirping loudly from the undergrowth. It’s the insect equivalent of birdsong, but instead of singing to attract a mate, crickets chirp by rubbing their wings together. Grasshoppers have a different technique and rub their back legs on their wings – a bit like running a bow across violin strings – to create a rattling noise. Visit meadows, grassland and heathland and you’re likely to hear this wonderful soundtrack of summer.  

Top tip: if you manage to catch a glimpse of one of these insect instrumentalists in action, but don’t know if it’s a cricket or grasshopper, look at its antennae. Grasshoppers have short, stubby antennae, while crickets have long, thin, elegantly curving antennae that are sometimes even longer than their body.

Visit your local pond, lake or wetland in summer and you might notice something odd – all the male Mallards seem to have disappeared! In fact, they will still be paddling around, but in disguise. Males lose their showy green breeding plumage and grow new brownish feathers (called their eclipse plumage) once the breeding season is over, making them resemble females. Look closely though and you can tell the difference – males still have their greenish-yellow beak, while females have a brownish-orange beak. 

So why do these usually dapper ducks bother with this drab disguise? It’s all down to the way they moult. Unlike most birds, ducks moult all of their wing feathers in one go, which means that they are temporarily unable to fly until the feathers grow back. This quite literally makes them sitting ducks for predators, and so it pays to swap their eye-catchingly iridescent plumage for something a little more low-key that will help them blend in.  

Rathlin Island 
At Rathlin Island you can visit Ireland’s only upside-down lighthouse and scan the waves for dolphins, Minke Whales, porpoises and maybe even Humpbacks and Orcas cruising along the coastline.   

Belfast WOW  
Come and be ‘WOWed’ at Belfast Window on Wildlife! From Arctic Terns to Swifts, more than 100 species make their home here – just ten minutes from the city centre. Drop in to the visitor centre or one of our hides to see nature up close.