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| 40 years of saving butterflies, moths and our environment |
| Butterfly Conservation | |
| 40 years of saving butterflies, moths and our environment |
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WORK PARTY REPORTS 2008/09
Langdon Lake & Meadows - 22nd March 2009Eight Branch volunteers met up with Reserve Officer Mick Coulson to continue the work which a few hardy souls had started exactly a year ago on this site (click here to see report) – in very different conditions. The sunshine and mild breeze which we enjoyed this year contrasted sharply with the previous year’s driving wind and rain.Mick explained that the Essex Wildlife Trust had taken over management of the site in July 2007 (from Basildon Council) and the management plan aimed to reduce the scrub to some 10% to 20% of the area, a western facing slope on the east side of the lake. The work is primarily aimed at encouraging the spread of creeping cinquefoil (Potentilla repens), the foodplant for the caterpillar of the Grizzled Skipper.
The day’s task was simple – to clear a 15 metre wide bramble infested strip down the slope, breaking up the existing scrubby area into two separate blocks; and, if time allowed, to create some narrower rides within the scrub along the contours. Four brush cutters distributed themselves around the slope and a two and a half hours later had broken the back of the work nicely in time for lunch in the sunshine,; other volunteers used hand tools to cut back some thicker scrub and rake off the brash into piles for burning at a later date. During the day, work was punctuated by some very welcome sightings of various butterflies; a female Brimstone drifted through the lower field, a Peacock was seen by some while a Small White flew through all of us while having lunch; an Early Thorn moth was also found later in the afternoon and those working on the lower slope area in the afternoon were treated to a singing Chiffchaff – all very spring like.
It won’t be long before cattle supplied by a local grazier will be brought on to the site to help keep the bramble from spreading back into the cleared areas and to keep the sward short – just right for Grizzled Skipper in a couple of month’s time and if anyone sees one please let us know (see the Sightings page for details of how to send in sightings). Many thanks to Vince for his round of iced-lollies at the end of a splendid day and to all for attending: Mick Coulson (Reserve Officer for Langdon Lake & Meadows), Dave Murch (Volunteer Patrol Warden) and Eric (EWT volunteer) together with BC volunteers Vince Lea, Louise Bacon, Carl & Val Blamire, John & Kathryn Dawson, Tony Moverley & Paul Hudson. Orwell Clunch Pit - 15th February 2009Fifteen branch volunteers were joined by three of the local villagers for an excellent days work on this lovely little site. With 2008 having been such a cool grey summer we still don't know for sure if Chalkhill Blue occur on the site, but it is certainly important for the rare Chalk Carpet moth, and has a good number of Horseshoe Vetch plants which are in need of conservation management to get them to thrive sufficiently to encourage the Chalkhill Blue which certainly have occurred here in the past.Vince Lea, conservation officer, explained the work while John Dawson got the tools prepared, particularly the all-important scrubcutters which take a while to get going. The first jobs to do therefore involved the hand tools, and Val, Ian, Kathleen, Dave, Janet, Kathryn, and new volunteer Debbie got to work cutting scrub along the top path. This should help semi-shade species like Speckled Wood but also is key to the on-site grazing work, as the path was getting narrow and thorny so could cause the sheep to get stuck! Meanwhile, John and Joyce took down some old wire fences that had been trialled to monitor the vegetation but had now proved their worth and been damaged by the passing sheep. Once the strimmer and scrubcutters were going, John D, Vince, Louise & Hilary set to work clearing the ranker grass and young scrub growth from the steep slopes where the sheep are less keen to graze when there is still plenty of grass on the flat ground. Some of the others switched to wielding rakes and pitchforks after the power tools had been through, and the area round the fire site was soon cleared and raked, then Clive (from Orwell) got the fire going, and Bob and Paul also joined soon after and helped keep it stoked. Dave Seilly arrived customarily late as the path clearance neared completion, and he set to work cutting back the scrub edge from the grassy slope, saving a couple of Elm saplings and a Buckthorn as butterfly food plants. We had achieved a huge amount by the time lunch happened, and as the weather deteriorated from mild and dry to heavy drizzle, thoughts turned to packing up and going. A few of the gang set off for home, but then the weather brightened and we rallied for another burst of cutting on the furthest slopes, particularly focussing on the brambly area at the bottom of the slope where the rabbits had neglected their duties. Everyone who was left finally switched to raking and burning the cut materials and we finally called it a day about 2.30 with an enormous amount of excellent work done! Unfortunately our usual roving reporter was unavailable on the day so there is no photographic evidence of our efforts, but I would recommend anyone passing the area to pop in and have a look for themselves - it's a lovely site! Tiptree Heath - 25th January 2009This was to be a combined Work party with the “Friends of Tiptree Heath” and some members of the Essex Wildlife Trust. The weather forecast was for heavy rain for most of the day and sure enough in the morning, heavy rain it was. Some members, I knew, were not turning out, and in view of the weather, I advised those living at a distance not to come. I went along however, in case other members did turn out. Three in fact did, and the local people were there and prepared to carry on in the rain anyway, so with wet weather gear on we joined in.The management aim is to restore as much of the area as possible to heathland. This entails cutting down young tree growth, mainly birch, and removing scrub. Opening areas up in this way should be no bad thing for the butterfly population. It was a 10.00am start for us (9.30am for the locals) and with a brief coffee break we worked through to 12.30pm. A good sized area was cleared and the cuttings burnt. One of the local people must have had a magic touch to get the fire going in the conditions !! The rain did ease after a while, stopped for a short time then started again as a fine drizzle. Thanks go to Paul Parmenter and his wife Kathleen and Mark Bunch for braving such a day. The work party totalled around twenty in all. Richard Bigg - Conservation Officer for Essex Brampton Wood - 7th December 2008As the hard frost succumbed to the morning rays of glorious sunshine, thirteen of us gathered at the car park at Brampton Wood, one of Cambridgeshire’s most important sites for Black Hairstreak. This was the Branch’s third visit in recent times.We were warmly greeted by Roger Orbell, a lifelong devotee of the wood. We did not have far to walk to our first work site; the track from the public car park to the shelter had become very overgrown with hawthorn and other scrub. Black Hairstreaks, one of the wood’s important rarities, are often reported being seen along this stretch and so we soon got to work to clear the eastern side, removing all but blackthorn which was then ‘layered’, whereby the old vertical trunks are cut about three-quarters of the way through about a foot off the ground and then bent over to the horizontal. . To the uninitiated, this may look quite a brutal process and passers-by may be given to thinking that vandals have been let loose in the wood!
We managed to clear the stretch from the water-filled ditch up to the shelter by lunchtime, leaving the western side for perhaps another visit.
During lunch, we were pleased to see a Common Buzzard flying over the area, adding to a list which included, amongst others, Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Redwing, Fieldfare and Sparrowhawk. Tony also found a fresh male Winter Moth.
We were all finished by 3pm, leaving enough time for a few of us to take an amble around the wood to inspect some of our previous year’s efforts and to relocate some Polypody ferns seen in previous years. Samples of these were requested by the county plant recorder as this was a new site record for the genus and it turns out that the specimens represented 2 different species – both additions to the already long list of species known from Brampton Wood. Many thanks to all: BC Volunteers: Roger Orbell, Robin Field, Ian Barton, Kathleen Rosewarne, Richard Bigg, Dave Jones, Vince Lea, Louise Bacon, Tony Moverley, John Dawson, Rosalyn Payne and Phil Bromley. We were also helped by local volunteer Orsa. Thrift Wood - 2nd November 2008Thrift Wood is a regular location for one of the Branch work parties. The central glade in the wood supports a large quantity of Cow Wheat, the larval food plant of the Heath Fritillary butterfly. However, each year, hornbeam and chestnut saplings, together with bramble scrub threatens to smother the low growing annual Cow Wheat.The aim of the work party is twofold; firstly, to cut back the scrub and secondly to open up new areas by coppicing along the edges of the glade. A Wildlife Trust working party the previous week, had partly cut the scrub using a tractor driven flail, but this did not cut everything and had left pieces of growth over the whole area. The morning, which began rather misty, quickly cleared and became a very nice mild autumn day with some sun. The party was split up, some clearing an area of bramble and saplings on the NW edge, some coppicing on the eastern edge of the central area, and John strimming the whole area, cutting the growth left by the flail. In no time Val had a fire going – no mean achievement when everything was wet from heavy rain the previous day.
During a stop for lunch, one of the inhabitants of the wood came along to say thanks for what we were doing – a (Four-dotted Footman?) caterpillar crawled up on to Louise’s boot! Wood and scrub was burnt on the fire, Laura helping with that operation, and the day finished with everyone raking and disposing of the strimmer cuttings in the wood. Thanks go to all the team: Conservation Officer: Richard Bigg Site Warden: George Fletcher BC Volunteers: Vince Lea, Louise Bacon, John Dawson, Carl and Val Blamire, Norman Feltwell, Owen ….. and daughter Laura, and David.
Devil's Dyke, near Newmarket - 19th October 2008Eight members of the branch, all from Cambridgeshire, turned up for the first work party of the season, including two first-time volunteers for the group, Sean and Rebecca O’Driscoll, who have plenty of experience with conservation work from time spent at the WWT reserve at Welney.An area of the Dyke at the far end of the first section (up to the Cambridge Gap) was selected as being in need of scrub and grass removal, it being quite heavily overgrown. A combination of 2 bladed brushcutters and 2 nylon strimmers were use to remove the scrub and grass while the other half of the group set to work on the denser patches of scrub with bowsaws and loppers. After a good hour of work, we had a brief break and some jobs were swapped around – the steep slopes and heavy tools mean that a change is as good as a rest on this site! A couple of people started the all-important job of raking off the cut material to the bottom of the slope, so that the best area of grassland is maintained in a low nutrient state and there is plenty of short turf and bare ground for insects to bask and for plants such as the Horseshoe Vetch to germinate. By lunch time we were really able to see that we had made a big impact on the habitat, and with the pleasant sunshine and being sheltered from the brisk wind at the bottom of the ditch, it was really satisfying. Most of the scrub was now gone from the section we had chosen to work on, apart from the least troublesome stuff in the bottom of the ditch. In the afternoon we continued cutting with the power tools and had more people raking. John didn’t relinquish his scrubcutter except for occasions when he was called upon by the rest of us with a technical problem that only he could resolve! As usual he was the last one to switch off the engine and call it a day, by 3pm or so we had cleared at least 150m of the dyke and it really looked good.
After the tools were packed away, we spent some time searching for the overwintering larvae of Dingy Skipper, searching an uncut area where they had been seen ovipositing in the spring. The equivalent of nearly 6 person-hours were spent looking at Horseshoe Vetch all over the bank, but to no avail. We are a little concerned that some of these larvae get cut & raked off by our operations, although it will only be a small proportion of the population. Various ways to research their requirements on the dyke are being planned, and hopefully this will lead to an increase long-term, particularly if we can advise on management for other sections where they are currently in very low numbers. Many thanks to the team: Vince, Louise, John, Lynne, Val, Sean, Rebecca & Hilary. |
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