Daylight
By Daniel Butler, author and forager
Ever since the first hunter gatherers arrived on our shores, the British have celebrated the longest day of the year. Our Neolithic predecessors aligned vast stones at Stonehenge, Avebury and Orkney’s Skara Brae with the solstice sun, while the mediaeval church adapted existing pagan fire festivals by turning it into John the Baptist’s Day.
Dawns are already slowly getting later
Picture: Author’s own
It isn’t difficult to see why it was so significant. Our summer weather may be variable, but the longest day is both guaranteed and predictable – although it is still misunderstood by many people. Most believe the summer solstice is 21 June, but every four years or so it falls on 22nd because the earth year is 365 ¼ days long. Also, the longest day is actually an average based on the halfway point between the earliest sunrise (16 June) and the latest sunset (27th).
The precise timings vary surprisingly even with the British Isles. Today (24th June) sun rise in London is 4.44 and it sets at 21.21 that evening, but these are 4.53 and 21.39 in my corner of Mid-Wales. It’s not just longitude that matters, actually latitude is more important. The curvature of the earth means that in Lerwick, sun rise is at 3.39 and sunset at 22.34 – meaning a day is about two and a half hours longer than in the capital. Add in lightening skies at each end of the day and an Orcadian midsummer day is 21 hours long.
Wildlife is much more visible in summer
Photo: Author’s own
It is not just humans who appreciate this, however. Daylight rather than temperature is the magnet which draws so many migratory birds to our shores each spring. More light means plants grow fast to feed a wealth of protein-rich insects. These in turn are the perfect building blocks for fast-growing chicks. Better still, while a Sicilian chiffchaff never has more than 14 hours to hunt these, his Highlands counterpart has half as much time again. If the migrants venture further north, they reach the ‘Land of the Midnight Sun’ – where nights barely exist at all.
This year’s latest sunset will be on Friday 27th
Photo: Author’s own
This is not just good for wildlife, desperate to rear as many young as possible. It also provides fantastic wildlife viewing opportunities for humans. In June even the most secretive creature can only cloak itself in darkness for a few hours – and this at a time when hungry young are at their most demanding. Thus owls and bats are forced to hunt in broad daylight, while foxes and badgers forage openly in fields and along hedgerows.