After cold winter spring is sure to come. IN winter period nature is resting, sleeping, covered with a snow blanket. It is not so difficult to notice the signs of the coming spring. The days are getting longer, the sun is shining brighter and brighter, and at noon it is already noticeably warming both the air and the earth. The sky is painted with bright blue colors. The snow is slowly starting to darken and melt. And the snowdrifts are getting smaller and smaller every day. The first streams have already begun to gurgle. Nature wakes up from its winter sleep.

With the arrival of spring, insects become more active. Stoneflies are the first to emerge into the spring air. Stoneflies have transparent wings and long, thin antennae. The very first butterfly to greet spring is the hives. This is a bright butterfly; orange, yellow and black tones predominate on its wings. Following the hives, the lemongrass butterfly wakes up, which is similar in color to a yellow autumn flower.

When primroses appear, bumblebees make themselves known with a loud hum. They busily scurry between the flowers in search of the first spring nectar. Bumblebees not only collect nectar and pollen from spring plants, they also pollinate them, helping the flowers reproduce.

As soon as the insect world comes to life after hibernation, insect predators begin to become active. We all know the bright beetle called “ladybug”. This predatory beetle eats insect pests, helping humans grow crops.

Insects are excellent food for birds. And keeping this in mind, with the onset of spring, migratory birds begin to return from warm regions to their native places. The rooks are the first to return. Starlings arrive after them. Starlings live so friendly with humans, helping to destroy harmful insects, that people specially build special houses for them - birdhouses. Arriving starlings immediately settle into birdhouses and begin to carry out general cleaning in them. They throw last year's nests out of their house and immediately make new ones.

When thawed patches appear in the fields, the larks return. In thawed areas they look for food, grains of various plants.

After water bodies are free of ice, migratory waterfowl appear. Geese, ducks, swans and many other waterfowl immediately upon their return begin building nests for their future chicks.

The last to arrive, at the end of spring, are swift swifts.

Many birds have chicks in the spring. During this period of time, birds are especially defenseless against both the elements and humans. And it is extremely important in the spring to help birds that have returned to their native lands, to feed them and in no case to touch or destroy their nests.

Which insect is the first to wake up in the spring?

At the end of March, when there is still snow, the first spring insects appear. Near the water you can see many stoneflies - large insects with a delicate, inconspicuous body, transparent wings riddled with veins, and long thin antennae on the head. The stonefly's wings are folded like a peaked roof over its body. The larvae of this insect live in the water, and adult stoneflies live on the shore. They fly poorly and prefer to run - fortunately their slender legs allow it.
Almost all butterflies usually overwinter as eggs, caterpillars or pupae, while the wren and lemon grass overwinter as adults.

Therefore, as soon as the snow melts, we are the first to notice them. The hives are the first to wake up - a bright, motley butterfly. The wings are brick-red on top, along the wing in front there are large black and yellow spots, and on the sides of the wing there is a trim of blue triangles with a black border. It is named nettle because only its caterpillars can eat stinging nettles. It has been noticed that hives can predict the weather: if on a bright sunny day a butterfly hides in a shelter, then it means that in two hours there will be rain and thunderstorms.
Later, ten days after the hives, lemongrass wakes up. This butterfly has a male and a female different color, although they are similar. The female is pale yellow-green and the male is bright yellow. Lemongrass with folded wings is difficult to notice: it looks like a yellow leaf. And this butterfly also has interesting feature: if you suddenly disturb her, she falls to the ground, folding her wings and pressing her legs. Try it, notice this one!
In early spring, large bumblebees appear in gardens and parks. The bumblebee has a black body with a red fluffy collar, a shaggy abdomen and bright yellow pollen on its hind legs (the bumblebee has special device- baskets for collecting pollen). Serious, unhurried, he busily flies around flower after flower in search of nectar and pollen. Noteworthy is the bass hum of the bumblebee, which can be heard even when it does not move its wings. Where does this sound come from?

It turns out that the buzzing is a very rapid contraction of the bumblebee's pectoral muscles. By moving its muscles, the insect warms itself. His body temperature is +40°, even if it is only +10° outside. To warm the nest, bumblebees buzz especially loudly at three or four o'clock in the morning - the coldest time. The ability to increase body temperature with such physical exercise allowed bumblebees to spread so far to the north, where there are no other plant pollinators besides them. Bumblebees live in Chukotka, Greenland, Alaska, and the islands of Novaya Zemlya.
The bumblebee is the best plant pollinator of all insects. During the day it flies around thousands of flowers. But you need to know that only pollinated plants will bear fruit. Some plants, due to the structure of their flowers, can only be pollinated by bumblebees. The value of these insects for people is great. To save as many bumblebees as possible, they even created a special reserve “Bumblebee Hills”! After all, every destroyed nest means the loss of millions of seeds of clover and other field and meadow grasses.
Bumblebees make nests on the ground. In the spring, the overwintered female sits on the ground, crawls under the foliage or into a burrow and makes cells there from a mixture of wax and pollen for future offspring.

In the midst of spring, when many voracious lovers of greenery appear in the world of insects, they come to the aid of plants ladybugs. A ladybug is a beetle with strongly convex, bright, shiny wings with black dots. How is this beetle similar to a cow? Why did you get such a name? The fact is that in case of danger, the beetle secretes a drop of poisonous white-yellowish liquid - “milk”. This is why he got his name. Ladybugs are one of the few insects that can completely destroy insect pests. They have repeatedly brought great benefits to people by preserving plantations of tea bushes, tangerines, lemons and other agricultural crops. In our area, the ladybug destroys aphids - small, but very harmful insects for plants.
In the evenings in May around deciduous trees you can see a large black-brown beetle with noticeable whisker bristles. It’s funny to watch how, having opened his large, stiff wings, he rises into the air with a hum. This is the May beetle, or, as it is also called, the May beetle. The beetle flies for only twenty to forty days, and then lays eggs, from which larvae emerge. The larvae live and develop underground for three to four years! Only in the fourth summer do they pupate, and a beetle emerges from the pupa.

Spring wreaths are woven from it, This is the very first flower,

and when it fades, it appears from under the snow and flies away.

to all directions of the world. (Snowdrop)

(Dandelion)

What insects appear first in spring? Why?

The hives are the first to wake up - a bright, motley butterfly.Typically, caterpillars pupate in the fall, the pupa overwinters, and in the spring a butterfly emerges from it. The wren butterfly emerges from its pupa in the fall. She hibernates in any crevice, in a crack in the bark. Therefore, when the sun warms up, she flies out first!

Later, ten days after the hives, lemongrass wakes up.

After butterflies, ants and bumblebees appear. Ants do not come to the surface until the air temperature warms up to 22 degrees. Therefore, they can be used to determine the final arrival of heat.

When willows bloom, bumblebees will definitely be on their catkins. Flowering willows provide a rich supply of sweet nectar, so necessary for insects precisely at this time, when the meadows and forest glades are not full of flowers.

With the first days of spring, stoneflies appear near the water. This insect lays larvae in water. Adult individuals live on the shore.

Hobo spiders appear in early spring and begin their hunt for insects awakened from sleep.

Greenish-blue harp flies

ladybugs

All these insects overwinter as adults.

Why should the spring bumblebee be treated with special care?? Only females that give birth to offspring overwinter with bumblebees.

Where there are bumblebees, red clover grows. None of the insects is able to help clover with pollination, except for the hardworking bumblebees.

Why don't they kill fur-bearing animals in the spring?
In the spring, fur-bearing animals molt,They lose their thick and warm undercoat, this depreciates the value of the fur. In addition, in the spring the animals have cubs.

Who appears earlier in the spring? the bats or insects? Insects. And after their flight, bats appear, for which insects serve as food.

What changes in the life of wild animals occur with the onset of warmer weather?

Why can’t you make noise in the forest in spring and early summer? Answer: Because birds and animals are breeding at this time, they may get scared by the noise and leave.

Spring is a particularly joyful time. The earth, water, trees are awakening... The rich diversity of beauty is gradually returning, the color and sound picture of nature is being renewed

People believe that there are 3 springs in nature.

The first spring is light. What month do you think this is?(March) - Why? (Because the days have become longer, the sky is lighter.)

- The second spring is the spring of water. What month is this?(April)

Why? (Because in April the ice begins to melt, rivers overflow, and floods. This month there is always a lot of water.)

- What month is the spring of grass and flowers?(This is May because in May the gardens bloom and the leaves bloom on the trees.)

If tits stay near human habitation for a long time, the spring will be cold. After the arrival of blackbirds, frosts occur extremely rarely. The lark flies towards the warmth, the finch - towards the cold. Migrant flows in flocks - to a friendly spring.

Long icicles - for a long spring. Geese fly high - there will be a lot of water, if they fly low - there will be little. The first thunder with a north wind is cold, with an east wind it is dry and warm, with a west wind it is wet, with a south wind it is warm.

12. Spring - light up the snow, sparkle the ravines

In the spring the rain soars, and in the fall it wets

He who sleeps in spring cries in winter.

In the spring, if you miss an hour, you won’t be able to make it up in a week.

Whoever works hard in the spring will have fun in the fall.

Spring day feeds the year

Hope for spring, and save firewood.

March with water, April with grass, May with flowers.

13. Gerasim Grachevnik.Everyone was waiting for the arrival of the rooks - the first heralds of spring. If the rooks arrived on time, then it was said that Gerasim brought the rooks, and the rook brought spring. Day of Gerasim the Rooker On this day the rooks flew in (Photo: jacglad, Shutterstock) March 17 This holiday in Rus' coincided with the time of arrival of the rooks, which is why it received such a popular name - the day of Gerasim the Rooker. People used to say: “The rook is on the mountain - so spring is in the yard”, “I saw the rook - welcome spring.” The behavior of the rooks on this day was used to judge the nature of spring: “If the rooks fly straight to old nests, the spring will be friendly, the hollow water will run away all at once.” If the rooks arrived earlier than March 17, then this was considered a bad omen: they predicted a lean and hungry year. To speed up the onset of heat, on Gerasim’s day they baked birds called “rooks” from rye sour dough. The recipe for birds made from lean dough can be read here. There was another belief about this day: “Gerasim the rook-keeper will return the rook to Rus', and drive the kikimora out of holy Rus'.” On the day of Gerasim, they baked birds - “rooks” Kikimora - one of the varieties of brownies from the ancient Russian belief. She was represented as a dwarf or a small woman. If she was depicted as a woman, then her head was small, about the size of a thimble, and her body was thin, like a straw. Her appearance was ugly, her clothes were sloppy and unkempt. If they were depicted as a dwarf, then they must have eyes of different colors: one for the evil eye, the other for leprosy. Less often, the kikimora was represented as a girl with a long braid, naked or in a shirt. In the old days, it was believed that if a kikimora appeared in your eyes, then you should expect trouble in the house. She was a harbinger of the death of one of the family members. They didn’t like kikimoras and tried to get rid of them by any means, which was extremely difficult. Just on Gerasim Day it was believed that they became quiet and harmless, and then they could be kicked out of the house. On other days, people protected themselves from kikimora with the help of prayers and amulets. The best amulet against kikimora, so that it does not take root in the house, was the “chicken god” - a stone with a natural hole created by nature. They also used the neck of a broken jug with a piece of red cloth, which was hung over a chicken roost so that the kikimora would not torment the birds. Kikimora is one of the varieties of the brownie from the ancient Russian belief. She is afraid of the juniper kikimora, the branches of which were hung throughout the house, especially carefully protecting the salt shakers so that at night she would not spill the salt, which in the old days was very expensive. And if the kikimora was annoying with the rattling of dishes, then it was necessary to wash it with water infused with fern. It was imperative to find a doll or foreign object in the house, with the help of which the kikimora was sent to the family. This item should have been carefully taken out of the house and thrown away, or best of all, burned. There is still a sign that if a person wants to harm another, he leaves a charmed object in his house, and in order to remove the damage, it is necessary to get rid of this object. By folk beliefs If you sweep the floors in the house with a wormwood broom, then evil spirits will not appear, including kikimora. The belief is based on the attitude towards wormwood as one of the amulets. People believed that the pungent smell of this herb repels evil spirits and evil people.

Spring has fully come into its own: a carpet of cheerful greenery is already peeking out from under last year’s old grass, butterflies and flies have appeared, spring primroses and trees are blooming. Today I will show you photos of the first flowers and insects, taken using a lens that is not at all suitable for macro photography.

The willow continues to bloom. Although such a plant as willow does not exist for botanists, this is what some of the species of the genus Willow are popularly called - Goat willow, Acute willow, etc.

But we continue to call these fluffy pompoms willow flowers.

Other bushes and trees are blooming, for example, the American maple, on which “helicopters” will appear in the fall, blooms with such beautiful tassels.

Birds rejoice in spring. The songs of tits and finches are constantly heard.

Right there, on the edge of the forest, in the grass, small blue-violet flowers turn blue. This is probably how some of the Skullcap species blooms; I couldn’t determine more precisely.

In the comments, this is ivy bud (Glechoma hederacea).

Not far away, next to the river, a flat yellow top is visible, on which it is not clear where yellow flowers, and where are the yellow leaves surrounding them, which, the further from the top, the more ordinary and green they become. This is what the alternate-leaved spleen (Chrysosplenium alternifolium), or ordinary, looks like, so named because in folk medicine used for diseases of the spleen.

Nearby, among old grass The star-shaped flowers of the buttercup turn yellow. This is probably the Kashubian Buttercup (Ranunculus cassubicus). They suggest that this is a buttercup anemone (lat. Anemone ranunculoides)

It grows in a river bend as a separate cushion-curtain.

In the river, where near the shore there are piles of all sorts of debris left over from high water, and where there is almost no current, water strider bugs frolic.

Nearby, a small butterfly sat down to rest on the grass, its color somewhat subtly reminiscent of the widespread and well-known urticaria, but 2 times smaller in size. This is the Variable Wing (Araschnia levana). It is so called because butterflies of different generations (spring and summer), or even simply kept in cocoons at different temperatures, look completely different. The spring form is shown here, while the summer form has black wings with a wide white stripe.

Nearby, on a nearby blade of grass, this strange furry elephant with a trunk sat down to rest. This is the Small Buzzer (Bombylius minor), in some areas listed in the Red Book. It needs a long trunk in order to drink nectar from flowers, next to which the buzzer can hover in place in the air, just like a hummingbird. Yes and appearance buzzingly resembles this small tropical bird. This is a good example of convergence in evolution, when completely unrelated organisms, thanks to a similar way of life, receive common external characteristics (the example of a hawk moth, which has even more similarities with a hummingbird, is more indicative here).

In the next photo there is a butterfly from the White butterfly family, most likely the Blueberry (Pieris napi), although the dot on the wing of this particular specimen is practically invisible.

And I’ll finish the selection with photographs of three spiders.

Isn't that right, handsome? Just look at his gray, furry-striped paws, which give him a very stern look, which is offset by a pair of sparkling eyes, almost like the cat from Shrek.

First spring insects Spring brings joy with the first gentle rays of sunshine, green grass and flowering trees. And at this time, various insects wake up after a long sleep, filling the air around with buzzing, chirping and bright colors. As soon as the weather begins to warm up in March, the earliest insects – stoneflies – can be seen near the water. There is still snow around, but these creatures with transparent wings and thin antennae on their heads are already running and flying near bodies of water. Adults overwinter on the shore, while stonefly larvae live in the water. A little later, with the melting of the snow, one of the main workers of the forest - ants - wake up. As soon as the snow melts from the anthill, these insects climb onto its surface to bask in the sun. And turf ants wake up only after the soil warms up a little. Immediately after the snow melts, provided there is no frost, the first butterflies wake up. The bright and motley nettle is the first to fly into the air. It can be recognized by its brick-red wings, along which there are yellow and black spots in front, and blue triangles on the sides. It got its name from the fact that only its caterpillars can feed on stinging nettles. It is believed that urticaria can predict the weather - if on a warm day it hides in a secluded place, it means it will become colder or there will be rain. And a week after hives, lemongrass wakes up. Their females are pale yellow-green in color, while the males are bright yellow. The rest of the butterflies appear much later, because they overwinter eggs, caterpillars and pupae, which need time to turn into a butterfly. And in lemongrass and urticaria, adult individuals overwinter. As the snow melts, parasitic insects such as ticks also become active. That's why you need to be wary of them not only when there is green grass. After visiting a forest or even a city park, you need to carefully examine your clothes and body for the presence of these parasites, even in March. In early spring, you can hear a characteristic buzz in the air - large bumblebees have gone in search of the first flowers. Thanks to the rapid contraction of the pectoral muscles, causing a loud buzzing, these insects support optimal temperature body +40°C, even if the temperature outside is no more than 10°C. Among those who wake up for a long time in the spring are ladybugs. These small, bright insects appear by mid-April and immediately get to work protecting plants from aphids. They are easily recognized by their arched back, as well as yellow or red wings with black dots. In May, the air is filled with harmful midges and mosquitoes, which cause a lot of trouble for both people and animals. The bites of many midges are quite painful. Then you can notice the first sleepy flies. And at the end of spring they wake up May beetles- large insects of black-brown color with characteristic whisker bristles. True, they fly for only 20-40 days, and then lay eggs underground, which develop for several years.