What will you be doing for National Golfers day?
If you are anything like the guys in the photo above, you will be out on your favorite golf course hitting those white balls down the fairway and putting on the immaculate greens.
A golfer on an 18 hole course can walk anything from 5 to 8 miles during a round and burn something like 2000 calories. It's a great form of exercise and keeps you healthy being out in the fresh air for 4-5 hours.
A Golf Course is not just about the game of golf though. There is so much more to see. Sure there is lots of grass but there are trees, wildflowers, water features, and various other shrubs and bushes such as Gorse, Viburnum, and Buddleia and with all that different habitat comes a huge amount of wildlife.
Why not make your round of golf a bit more challenging. Now the weather is improving and beginning to warm up there is lots more to see and hear, Set yourself a challenge, how many different species of birds can you see and hear during your game or butterflies fluttering by as your look for your ball. Below are some of the species you can look for at this time of year.
A Chiffchaff, a familiar summer visitor singing away with its familiar song
Perhaps you could see a Red Kite drifting overhead as you walk down the fairway
A Male Blackcap (a summer visitor singing from a tree).
Photos above: Male & Female Orange Tip (courtesy of Chris Walpole), a Brimstone, often one of the first Butterflies to appear in early spring and a very obliging Peacock, a rather unmistakable looking Butterfly.
When you play your next round of golf, enjoy your game but also enjoy your surroundings and the wildlife that you share it with.