WORK PARTY REPORTS 2006/07

• Over Railway Cutting March 2007
• Brampton Wood Feb 2007
• Kirby-le-Soken Jan 2007
• Devil's Dyke Dec 2006
• Dunmow Railway Cutting Nov 2006
• Thrift Wood Oct 2006

Over Railway Cutting - March 2007

The final conservation work party of the 2006/07 season took place at the railway cutting near the village of Over, NW of Cambridge on Sunday 11th March.

Attendance:
Vince Lea (Conservation Officer)
Trevor Grange (Site Warden)
BC volunteers: Louise Bacon, Carl and Val Blamire, Ian Barton, Kathleen Rosewarne, David Seilly, Julia Napier
Local volunteers father & son...

An unpromising initial turnout of five people at 10am were soon joined by the two locals for the long walk with the tools to the work area, about 800 yards from the cars. We were extending an area worked on last year, beyond the end of the cutting itself.

This stretch of the railway line has a small embankment which faces south, and the hope is that by clearing hawthorn scrub from here, new habitat can be created for Grizzled Skippers, as a contingency plan in the face of the guided busway which is scheduled to remove some of the important habitat within the cutting. The flat area between the scrub and the railway line has been worked on for several years and has developed into a nice piece of grassland with large anthills and diverse flora, and occasional Grizzled Skippers have been seen in the area but probably don't breed here.

Soon after work got underway, we were joined by four more members, and a good team of eleven set to work, cutting the hawthorn and dragging it to the other side of the meadow to create a 'dead hedge', providing additional wildlife habitat and a windbreak. The grassland had previously been cut by contractors working for the guided busway, and two of our group spent the morning raking up the mowings to help reduce the fertility of the grassland and avoid the build-up of thatch which can inhibit plants.

Before . . . © Vince Lea	. . . and after © Vince Lea

Throughout the day we were treated to glorious sunshine, although a keen fen wind blew, and this became progressively more noticeable as more and more sheltering scrub was removed! After lunch, we toured the official mitigation area to see how the landscapers had been creating potential butterfly habitat.

Embankments and bays are being created, using subsoil rather than the fertile farmland topsoil. These will be sown with native wildflower mix, and plug plants of cinquefoil will be inserted. A trench has been created to take the clinkers from the old railway trackbed, an important component of the site's habitats. Gaps have been cut through the scrub to encourage butterflies to fly through to the new area - and we are hoping that a population will be established in 2007 before the existing habitat is damaged by the works, due to start early in 2008. It all looks very well designed, the question is, is it all a bit too late for the vegetation to develop? We hope not!

The afternoon saw us complete the scrub removal at the western end of the designated section, and we made a start on the short eastern section. Isolated hawthorns were left along the top of the embankment, to provide a little shelter.

No butterflies were seen during the day, but I'm sure if we had been working in the shelter of the main cutting we'd have had a chance of brimstones or peacocks, however, we did see a number of bumble bees and there were plenty of primroses to admire. One caterpillar was found which turned out to be a Light Emerald moth.

Brampton Wood Feb 2007

Once again, a bright crisp morning greeted the 8 people who turned up for the conservation work outing at Brampton Wood, an ancient Cambridgeshire woodland dating back over 900 years and a new site for the Branch in its long history of conservation effort throughout the two counties.

Warden George Cottam starts clearing © Tony Moverley	. . . the volunteers move in © Tony Moverley

The volunteer warden, George Cottam, led various committee members together with the very welcome addition of local Branch member, Roger Orbell who has made the study of the local Black Hairstreak colonies a lifetime pursuit. It was also good to welcome Trevor Grange of Over Railway Cutting notoriety.

With George’s chain-saw and Roger’s intimate knowledge of the Hairstreak sites, we quickly got to work clearing invasive Hazel and Hawthorn from the south side of a known colony, to make more of a sunny glade

Layering some mature Blackthorn was also undertaken. Those skilled in this method of regenerating new growth from old wood were generous with their knowledge and willingly passed it on to those that wished to try their hand at this art for the first time. . . . with varying degrees of success it must be said! Roger kindly showed us the result of Blackthorn layering a couple of years after the event just so we could see what we were aiming for (see photo below). Layering the Blackthorn keeps it (and any Black Hairstreak eggs laid on it) alive, whilst giving it a new lease of life for the future, ensuring generations of hairstreaks to come have suitable sunny Blackthorn on which to lay their eggs.

Vince layers a mature Blackthorn © Tony Moverley

Lunchtime in sunshine and time enough in the afternoon to move onto a second nearby site; this time clearing the debris of two Aspen trees felled to increase light levels on another colony, and then layering some more Blackthorn.

Despite being the first week of February, some branches of Blackthorn were in full flower and I suppose we were not really surprised by at least one early flowering primrose. We were also treated to a short but interesting history of the successful dormouse re-introduction programme by George.

We were all done by 3pm and departed with the feeling that a relatively small group of labouring volunteers really can make a difference.

Protecting the layered stump from foraging Muntjac © Tony Moverley	. . . and the perfect result after a couple of years © Tony Moverley

Kirby-le-Soken - January 2007

The first of the three 2007 work party events started with a day on the Essex coast at Kirby-le-Soken, overlooking the backwaters of Walton-on-the-Naze.

Zoë Ringwood, co-ordinator of the Fisher’s Estuarine Moth project, led 13 others to a site on Devereux Farm where it is hoped to establish both the moth and its food plant, Hog’s Fennel, out of reach of rising sea-levels.

Sunshine greeted all of us while those that choose to walk the few hundred yards down the road to the site were also treated to a late running Barn Owl.

Planting out Hog's Fennel at Devereux Farm, Kirby-le-Soken January 2007 © Alan Roscoe

The objective of the day was to plant out 2,145 one year seedlings at 1m intervals in an area measuring 50m by 46m. Initial concerns over the integrity of the not-so straight lines were soon sorted with the application of string. As on previous occasions, the team positioning the pots was followed by 3 or 4 hole-diggers with their special spades which make the exact shaped hole to accommodate the pots. Finally, the planters planted and firmed the seedlings into their final position. This was precision stuff and even with coffee and lunch breaks, we were all done by 2:30pm, leaving enough time for a stroll along the sea wall at the NNR and SSSI that is Hamford Water (access down Island Lane).

Waders galore, hundreds of Brent Geese, a magnificent flock of Avocets (near 300 birds), a fly-through Peregrine and a Barn Owl at dusk rounded off a cracking day on this little visited part of the Essex Coast. Thanks to all concerned.

As a post script to the 2006 conservation effort at Holland Haven – so far about 85% of the 1,500 plants have survived the first winter, a truly amazing survival rate given the very tough conditions in which they started life!

All three operations on the go; Positioning the pots, digging the holes and planting - Kirby-le-Soken January 2007 © Alan Roscoe

Devil's Dyke - December 2006

Weak sunshine and a cool wind greeted the eight of us who met up for the final work party of 2006 at Devil’s Dyke, near Newmarket. We worked a 200m section not far up from the July racecourse car park, and commented on how dry the area was despite the recent heavy rains. Two brushcutters took on the more bramble infested areas towards the bottom of the slope while two strimmers made light work of the predominantly grassy area on the top half of the dyke. The rest of the gang snipped, sawed, dragged and raked in our efforts to maintain this as THE place to see spectacular numbers of Chalkhill Blues for many miles around (see Sharon Hearle’s transect report).

Coats off - warm work © photo: Mike Gittos

We managed to clear quite an impressive area; certainly more than our numbers might have suggested and there was no doubt that the cool wind helped blow most of the strimmed grass away before it had a chance to lay flat and necessitate hand raking.

Strimmimg the top half of the Bank © photo: Mike Gittos	. . . and the final result © photo: Mike Gittos

Now that the funding for the Devil’s Dyke Project has finished, the future of regular conservation at this site lays almost solely with this Branch of Butterfly Conservation so lets hope that we can continue to gather enough volunteers together to come out once or twice a year for a few hours to maintain and improve this superb site. Our thanks to ALL who have already helped out over the years. And finally, as testament to the fact that its likely to be one of the mildest December's on record, we must mention the plants we saw in flower: Harebell, Rock Rose, Burnet Saxifrage, Ragwort, Sow Thistle and Yarrow.

Are we finished? I think so © photo: Mike Gittos

Dunmow Railway Cutting - November 2006

Bright sunshine greeted us as we met up for a day clearing the banks of the Dunmow Railway Cutting along the old railway line that is now designated the Flitch Way Country Park ( Click here for more info and a very useful and interesting downloadable leaflet).

Nigel Wood, Senior Ranger, was delighted to welcome a total of 16 volunteers; 9 from our Branch together with 7 members of the recently formed ‘Friends of the Flitch Way’. With such a magnificent turnout, Nigel was able to split us into two separate work parties.

The first group worked on Bank 1, one of four clearings made on the south facing North embankment while the rest of us, including 3 working with power brush-cutters, cut and raked the much larger Bank 4, where we had worked the previous year. We also continued to open up the area opposite on the N facing south bank.

Heavy brush-cutting work on Bank 4 © photo: Tony Moverley	. . . and the result at the end of the day © photo: Tony Moverley

Bonfires were set at both locations, superficially to dispose of all the trimmings but their real purpose became clear at lunchtime when Nigel produced steaming baked potatoes with all the trimmings.

With well over 100 members and friends, the Flitch Way now enjoys strong and growing support from a wide variety of people who can enjoy this 15 mile disused railway line and its varied wildlife.

The queue for baked potatoes through a haze of bonfire smoke © photo: Tony Moverley	Lunchtime refuge at the top of Bank 1 in the sunshine © photo: Tony Moverley

It is definitely worth visiting in the summer and while scarce butterflies are unlikely to be encountered, a wide variety of the more common butterflies are likely to be seen, including Common Blue, Speckled Wood, Small & Essex Skippers, Ringlet and Gatekeeper. Also keep a look out for scarce bumblebee Bombus ruderatus (see http://www.bumblebee.org/uncommonSp.htm) which has been reported here.

Thrift Wood - October 2006

The first conservation work party of the 2006/07 season saw a total of 11 people meet up at the car park at Thrift Wood, the Essex Wildlife ancient woodland Trust reserve a few miles SE of Chelmsford.

George Fletcher, reserve warden, directed the assembled workers and we were delighted to welcome Kathryn Grumball, the Branch’s new Conservation Officer for Essex, to her first work party.

We were also pleased to welcome another new face, Richard Bigg.

Robin Field, Branch Organiser, had driven all the way down from his Northamptonshire home, primarily to risk-assess several volunteers undertaking power brush-cutting activities. Fortunately we all passed and Robin proved just as useful with a bow-saw as his clipboard!

The assembled gang © photo: Tony Moverley	Hand coppicing in the sunshine © photo: Carl Blamire

Three brushcutters were assigned to clearing young hornbeam shoots and bramble from the main glade area while the rest of the gang set to work coppicing an area adjacent to the ‘scallop’ which was cleared last year.

Under careful guidance from George, small areas of bramble were left scattered through the glade to provide nectaring sources for the adult Heath Fritillary, the reserve ‘speciality’. This beautiful and rare butterfly continues to fly here in significant numbers some 22 years after it was first re-introduced back in 1984. Indeed, much of the conservation work at Thrift Wood is aimed at re-establishing a coppicing regime which provides the ideal habitat for the caterpillar’s food plant, Common Cow-wheat (Melampyrum pratense) which thrives in the leaf mould rich open ground of a fresh coppice area.

Common Cow-wheat Melampyrum pratense Image Copyright © Malcolm Storey www.bioimages.org.uk All Rights reserved

Like last year, the sun shone but unlike our previous visit (see the 2005 report), no fritillary caterpillars were found.
Members are encouraged to visit this lovely wood at any time of year but those wishing to see Heath Fritillary on the wing are advised to visit on a warm sunny day during mid to late June and spend time around the main glade area. If you do, don’t forget to send in your sightings!

Robin Field coppicing © photo: Tony Moverley	Before work began. . . © photo: Tony Moverley	. . . and the result © photo: Tony Moverley