Over the last few weeks, we have been busy making ash trees safe which has meant felling some of the larger trees. Sadly, we have quite a bit of ash die back but many of the trees are still healthy. We replace any that die with a different species. Over the winter months we had a varied mixture of temperatures and weather conditions but predominantly mild. There was just one very cold spell lasting several days and included some snow. The pond iced over for a few days. The abundance of berries and apples earlier in the season was popular with the small flocks of redwing. Other birds seen or heard included coal tit, fieldfare, goshawk. siskin, robin, great tit, blue tit, mistle thrush, bullfinch, long tailed tit, blackbird, woodpigeon, wren, red kite, buzzard, snipe, woodcock, goldcrest carrion crow, raven, jackdaw, jay, linnet, house sparrow, mallard, greenfinch, magpie, heron, and hundreds of starlings, with some lovely murmurations.

The moles have been very active with some huge molehills (containing a network of underground tunnels and the nest chamber) in some areas and occasionally we see the earth move if they are active below.

The seed pods were still on the laburnum in December and some of the seeds had sprouted from the pods!   The first frogspawn appeared on the pond on 4^th February. The heron and a pair of mallards are regular visitors.

Some of the posts are sprouting bracket fungi making them look very beautiful but it does mean the posts are starting to rot and so will eventually have to be replaced. In the top field Keith spotted several sterile pestle-shaped bases which are the remnants of pestle puffballs. This species of fungi is large and when fresh they have a stout 20cm long white stalk, which darkens to brown as it matures. The fruit body is initially covered with ‘warts’ which eventually disappear to give a smooth yellowish surface. When they split the brown spore mass is exposed. They feed off surrounding plant roots and debris.

Towards the end of the season the snowdrops started to appear and flower. They were followed In February by the daffodils and primroses.

As we move towards winter the weather has been unseasonably mild and changeable. The reserve is a mass of autumn colours. The shrubs, in particular, are full of colour either from their autumn leaves or berries. Once again, the berries have been spectacular. The dogwood, holly and spindle berries remained abundant into November. Those apples that were not eaten by wildlife (or visitors!) before they fell from the trees are now on the ground to provide a continuous food source into the winter. Most of the hundred or so apple trees that were planted now produce apples – not the crab apples we expected but delicious eaters of several different types. It was crab apples that were originally ordered!

 

Jobs over the last couple of months have included managing bramble and blackthorn. We stopped mowing the grass paths in September, yet the mild weather has meant the grass is still growing. We have found it better to leave the grass longer in winter as it helps prevent the paths from becoming muddy.

 

On the morning of the 26^th October we had a rare walk around the reserve – not working but just appreciating everything that we have here. It was very mild with sunshine and showers. There were three showers and each time there was a colourful rainbow. The one seen from the car park behind the birch trees, all now devoid of leaves, was a double. The lower one was bright and multi-coloured, the top one rather faded. Whilst the sun shone, the droplets of rain sparkled from the many branches of the birch – such a lovely sight. There were over fifty redwings enjoying the berries, flitting overhead from one tree to another, frequently calling as they flew. The bullfinches we see regularly were enjoying the seeds. The flash of white and black makes this species easy to identify in flight. Today we saw eight, mainly on the birch, eating the seeds. There were several young among them, not yet showing their adult colouration. Ravens (with their wedge-shaped tails) ‘croaked’ overhead. There were some crows too, identified in flight by their fan shaped tails. Noisy jays screamed as they took chunks out of the apples still on the trees. A small flock of around fifteen linnets visited the shrubs and trees. On leaving the reserve a red admiral was perched on some fallen leaves enjoying the sunshine.

 

At the end of October the starlings arrived. Hundreds come here for the winter and form huge roosts not far from the farm. They roost in the taller trees. When the trees are bare there are sometimes so many the trees look as if they are full of strange dark leaves.

 

The spider (a four-spot web weaver) was seen and photographed by James whilst he was clearing blackthorn. It is said to be the heaviest spider in the UK.  Two species of lacaria fungi (common and purple) were found by Sally whilst she was clearing bramble from under some young oak trees. This species is now abundant under many of the trees. The photo shows the common form.  A lesser yellow underwing lava was found by Keith. We often see the adult moths.

May and June were one of the driest on record, but July was apparently the third wettest in over 100 years. August though was very changeable. The rain certainly encouraged growth. The rowan, hawthorn, blackberries, guelder rose, spindle and apple trees are all dripping with berries and fruit.

 

Butterflies, particularly the meadow brown, were abundant with more common blues around than normal. The small copper loved the ragwort flowers and we saw the comma laying eggs on nettles. Other butterflies seen included tortoiseshell, holly blue, small skipper, speckled wood, small heath, peacock, ringlet and, green veined white.

 

We were given 17 well developed caterpillars of the cinnabar moth from a local site where they are abundant. They were placed on ragwort here on the 2^nd August. Ragwort is a valuable late flowering species for wildlife but we control it by removing most of the flowers when they are seeding, so it does not spread on to neighbouring farmland as it can be poisonous to livestock.

 

The golden-ringed dragonfly has been a regular sight flying fast among the trees. The female is the UK’s longest dragonfly and is striking with its yellow and black bands. We also saw several common darters.

 

We are starting to see different fungi. Earth balls are abundant. We also found boletes and some of these had been infected with the bolete mould or ‘bolete eater’, as it is sometimes known. This fungus eventually kills its host. It is inedible and thought to be toxic. We think the mould on this bolete is Hypomyces chrysospermus, which manifests itself initially as a white mould-like flush that soon turns a lurid yellow in its second phase.

 

We are not sure of the actual identity of the Ichneumonoidea (parasitic wasp) pictured but it could be Ichneumon gracilicornis. In the UK around 10% of insects are in this family. They can be strange looking and colourful but all are stunning creatures. These wasps are often tricky to identify. We posted the photo on the British Ichneumonidae facebook page but it has not yet been formally identified. All these wasps parasitise other insect species by laying their eggs either on the outside of the host or inside it. On hatching, the parasitic larva start to absorb nutrients from fluids of the host.  Later they feed on non-vital organs, such as fat reserves. The host animal stays alive and keeps feeding until the parasitic larva have reached the stage where they are fully fed.  If the host is a caterpillar, this often coincides with the host caterpillar also completing its feeding cycle.  The parasitic larva then finish their feeding by devouring the host’s internal organs before pupating within the carcass of their dead host – or they can emerge and pupate in silk cocoons nearby.

It has continued very hot and dry, but the new pond has held some water and there were hundreds of tiny frogs and toads emerging from their watering beginnings.  Towards the end of June, the weather turned cooler with a few welcome showers. The flowers have all bloomed well and the red campion added welcome colour to the mainly white tree blossom. The butterfly orchid was back, and we also found a solitary southern marsh orchid along one of the paths. Birds seen or heard, in addition to the more common species, included garden warbler, goldcrest, siskin, blackcap, song thrush and bullfinch. The highlight though was going past the burial ground in the car just after midnight on the 31 June following a barn owl. We were able to get a very good view of the bird before it flew up high and over the hedge into the nature reserve fields.

 

A mating pair of meadow browns settled on Sally’s blouse.

This was the most abundant butterfly here, followed by speckled woods, small white, green-veined white, large skipper, ringlet, peacock, comma, silver washed fritillary and small copper. Cocksfoot micros included a solitary Cauchas fibulella flitting amongst the Germander speedwell. We had extensive patches of this flower species again this year. Cauchas fibulella is a tiny micro – just 5mm long. It is rarely seen. The pale roundish blotches on its wings are just about visible to the naked eye. It is a long horn species and has very long antennae but not as long as some of the other moths in this group. Other day flying moths seen included the silver Y, the silver-ground carpet, five spot burnets, yellow shell and hundreds of tiny garden grass veneers.

 

The hawthorn blossom was very abundant this year. One had very pink flowers.A fine male fox crossed in front of us whilst we were working. Not so welcome were five heifers that decided to break out from an adjoining field! Beautiful beasts but not fussy about where they trample. Thankfully we were made aware of their presence and the farmer put them back in their field and repaired the fence!

 

We came across a female wolf spider with baby spiders covering her back. She carries her egg sac in a unique way: She attaches it to her spinnerets at the bottom rear of her abdomen. When the eggs hatch, she carries her babies until they are able to fend for themselves.

We have been continuing with some clearing work along the path edges but we are being very careful to ensure we cause minimum disturbance to wildlife, and we keep away from any potential nesting site area. We leave a lot of dead wood in place, or it is moved carefully to create wildlife habitat piles in the centre of the new woodland areas. Dead wood is a very valuable habitat for mosses, lichens, and fungi, as well as many insects and rodents. If put in piles these can also be used by some bird species, such as blackcap and willow warbler which we see and hear regularly here in the spring and summer months.

The pretty and very colourful elf cups (which could be either Sarcoscypha austriaca or Sarcoscypha coccinea – they are difficult to tell apart) have grown on some of the dead timber and among the leaf litter in the damp areas. These are a food source for rodents and slugs. They apparently make a tiny puffing sound when they release their spores into the air but none of us have heard this yet! In European folklore, it was said that wood elves drank morning dew from the cups. Other common names for this species include scarlet elf caps, moss cups and fairies’ baths.

At the beginning of March the frogspawn had hatched (they take around three weeks to hatch) and the tadpoles are growing quickly in the new pond.

One of our customers reported watching two holly blue butterflies flying together above the wildflower meadow in the middle of April. Keith managed to get this lovely picture of a male orange tip butterfly resting on a dandelion seed head. We are also seeing green-veined white and peacock butterflies.

Keith managed to get some wonderful photos of this dark edged bee fly on the 15^th April.. The shutter speed of the camera matched the speed of the wings, showing off the yawing motion of its flight. This is a cute bee mimic! It is one of the earliest bee flies to emerge in spring, having pupated during the winter. The adult may look cute but at its larval stage it is a predator of the eggs and larvae of other insects. The adult females usually deposit eggs in the vicinity of possible hosts (beetles, wasps or solitary bees). When the larvae hatch they eat the larvae of bees and wasps in their nests.

During March the robin, dunnock, mistle thrush and song thrush sing whilst we work as do the wrens, blackbirds, chaffinch, and the various common species of tits, including a willow tit, only recognisable from its distinctive and repeated nasal call: tchu tchu, tchu. A pair of tiny goldcrest flit among the trees, their golden crests adding a splash of colour to the browns and greys of the branches, still devoid of leaves. Ravens croak overhead and jackdaws call ‘tchack’. Sometimes we disturb wood pigeons. We seem to have a regular pair. It is a good time to learn bird song of our common residents, before the spring migration brings in other species from abroad. The migratory birds started to appear here in April and our resident birds were joined by willow warbler, blackcap, chiffchaff and swallow. The migrant starlings were still here in abundance until the third week in March and then they left to return to Eastern Europe.

The days are getting shorter and the weather cooler, although this has been the mildest autumn for many years. The leaves are starting to get their autumn hues and spindle is particularly striking with its reddish orange, oval leaves and clusters of bright pink-and-orange berries hang from its twigs. The berries are a good food source for all kinds of creatures but are poisonous to humans. The conditions are ideal for fungi but so far we have only seen the species in the photo which we think is from the Agaricus family.

Berries of the rowan, holly, elder and guelder rose are still abundant and at the end of September small flocks of redwings were seen and a flock of over 20 fieldfares on the 18th October.  Kites, buzzards, and ravens fly overhead – the latter often with its infamous croaking call.

We have spread wildflower seeds taken from the farm to the wildflower meadow. Seeds are from angelica, knapweed, corncockle and birds foot trefoil. The latter is the food plant of the five-spot burnet which we have on the farm and are hoping to attract here. The solitary butterfly orchid we found is now in seed and we hope the plant will spread.

We saw this beautiful comma butterfly. It gets its name from the comma-shaped white spots on the underneath of its wings. It overwinters as an adult and is found throughout the year, having several broods. It is one of the most widely distributed of all the UK butterflies and we see the species here occasionally. Its favourite foodplant is the nettle flowers.

The common darter is still around, several fly around the pond.

Following weeks of dry weather and extreme, record hot temperatures, we did wonder how the younger trees would cope. When digging the graves, around 5 feet deep, it was clear to see how dry the ground was. So far, though, they all seem to be coping well. All were planted in 2012 and most are growing fast. With regards to the established trees in the ancient hedgerows, we had one outgrown pollarded ash collapse recently and several of this species are going to need attention in the winter as they are showing signs of Hymenoscyphus Fraxineus (ash dieback). As we write this (mid-August) the young rowan, guelder rose and spindle are flush with many berries. The crab apple trees too have fruited well and the apples are delicious!

At the end of August we scythed part of the meadow. Scything is the perfect option – it is quiet, just a rhythmic swishing sound as the blade cuts through the grass and this method needs no fuel. We cut as late as possible, so the wildflowers and grasses have had chance to seed.  The weather was perfect, dry and sunny with a cool breeze.

Insects are not so abundant than in previous years. Once the ragwort has finished flowering, we pull it out to ensure it does not spread on to neighbouring land where it can be a problem for livestock as it is an accumulative poison. Usually the plants are covered in insects but this year they are not. Sadly, we have found no sign of the cinnabar moth after introducing four caterpillars on the site last year.

There has been the occasional small copper butterfly, a few hoverflies, bees and flies but nowhere near the number of insects seen over previous years. Butterfly and moth species are down. The meadow brown is still the most common butterfly here, followed by speckled wood. There have been only a few ringlets, whites and solitary red admirals, peacocks and painted lady. We did see the pretty, day flying Five-spot Burnet moth. Its food plant is the birds foot trefoil which is abundant here. Dragonflies and damselflies too are reduced. We saw a couple of Brown Hawker mating in the vicinity of the new pond on the 19^th August. The common darter is a fairly regular sight, and we sometimes see the Golden-ringed dragonfly.

A lovely surprise was finding a butterfly orchid that just appeared alongside one of the paths in the burial field behind the car park. As far as we are aware, and we spend quite a bit of time working all over the nature reserve, this is the only one! We hope it will spread.

Birds too have not been abundant. We were pleased to see five bullfinch in mid-July and we have also seen jackdaws, blue tits, great tits, long tailed tits, red kites, swallows and swifts.

A mixture of sunshine and showers this month have encouraged lots of flower blossoms, new growth and long grass. We have been clearing blackthorn from the main tree planting areas. We have also pulled some bracken. During the spring and summer, we ensure we do no work that will disturb nesting birds. Birds seen and heard this month include, garden warbler, willow warbler, rook, buzzard, blackbird, robin, chiff chaff, dunnock, chaffinch, song thrush, blackcap, red kite, great tit, coal tit, blue tit, rook, crow and wren.

The dainty and very pretty green lacewings (Chrysopa perla) are flying around. The harvestman spider is abundant. The viburnum beetle lava have been very active on one area of guelder rose, eating large chunks from the leaves. This species can be a pest but as we have so many guelder roses we don’t envisage a big problem. The Panorpa communis is one of the UK’s few scorpion flies – its curved tail (which gives it its common name) looks like a sting but it is the male’s claspers used for mating. The emperor dragonfly has been seen flying over the wildflower meadows.

A lovely surprise was spotting a hummingbird hawk moth. It seemed to be taking nectar for the flowers on the large patch of red campion at the car park entrance. Usually, we see this moth feeding on red valerian. Other moths and butterflies seen include straw dot, silver ground carpet, dingy footman, common carpet, marbled white spot, grass rivulet (a local, tiny white moth that frequents wildflower meadows) red admiral, meadow brown, ringlet, large white, small skipper, small heath, speckled wood, peacock and a male Longhorm nemophora degeerella. Its antennae are about 4 times longer than this tiny moth’s body. The female has a much shorter antenna. It is quite common and can be seen dancing in the sunshine among the trees. A lava of a drinker moth was found and photographed by James, who helps with the land management.

The tiny micro moths are abundant. Having looked for the tiny micro moth, C. fibulella on the extensive patches of speedwell here, this year was the first time we have seen them. We have spotted 6 so far. In the buttercup flowers we have found Micropterix calthella, with its metallic bronzy forewings and Cocksfoot (Glyphipterix simpliciella) with its silvery-white streaks. These tiny moths can be seen better using close focus binoculars. The tiny caterpillars feed on the seeds of their foodplant, which is mainly cock’s foot (Dactylis glomerata) grass. When fully grown, the larvae will enter the stems of grass to pupate. Infested stems can be detected by the presence of small holes along their length.

It is wonderful to see the yellow rattle spreading. We sprinkled seeds in several areas last year. There are now many patches in the meadows and some in the woodland areas of grass, particularly alongside the paths. This species is a hemi-parasite (meaning partially parasitic)
on grasses and some legume herbs, such as clovers. As it weakens the grasses it allows other wildflowers to flourish so is an excellent plant for the wildflower meadows. The seeds germinate in early spring. It flowers May to July and sets its seeds in July and August, after that it dies. The new seeds continue the cycle the following year. It does need to have some space to grow within the grass sward.