Anja Murray: Skylark, lapwing and the dangers of shifting baseline syndrome

My generation is lucky in many ways... to have the privilege to experience wild orchids in abundance, to bask in the soundscape of skylark and cuckoo. We are also the last generations with the potential to turn the current trajectory around

"From high above, skylarks are singing incessantly, beautifully rich and strikingly continuous songs providing the May soundtrack" — Anja Murray

At the moment, rough fields across out-of-the-way places in parts of Ireland are filled with wild orchids, their striking pink flower heads standing proud above the cover of rough grasses and sedges. In Connemara, I’ve identified the sturdy, tall pink flower heads as ‘Western marsh orchid’ — hundreds of plants per field, spilling out on to roadside verges too. Alongside these abundant wild orchids, the cheerful pink flowers of ragged robin are emerging now, and delicate cuckoo flowers too — also fond of wet meadows.

High-viz yellow shines from the reflective petals of swathes of meadow buttercups. In the really wet dips and hollows of these old stone-bound fields, yellow flag iris cram together, also all in flower right now.