What’s going on at our
reserves right now
By Jackie Robinson
Surveys are an important part of the work done by our various work parties.
A variety of things are monitored by volunteers to produce records which show the changing face of nature. These take place at all of the Trust’s reserves.
Each year on the Thursday nearest to April 1 the Butterfly Transect starts to be recorded for the season at Langdyke’s Swaddywell nature Reserve. Similar surveys are carried out at the Etton reserves.
At Swaddywell the top meadow and the pit are broken down into eight sections and the same route, at the same time, on the same day of the week (if possible) is walked and butterfly species and numbers are recorded for the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme.
A note is made of sun, wind, temperature, who is doing the ‘walk’ and the start and finish time on each weekly sheet. The butterflies seen are recorded for each section.
They must be within six feet of the path right, left and up. It should take about an hour and a bit (depends if I have the camera!!)
Other interesting plants and bees etc. are noted on the back of the sheet as it is a good time to spot things we can’t see when we are working and they can be entered into the diary in the cabin for future reference.
Our first week’s recording was pretty poor, it was a cold and grey day with a bit of wind but one very brave, tatty Peacock was sheltering in the top meadow brambles. It was probably just out of hibernation, its wings were pretty damaged.
Week Two was better, a bit more sun but still windy; a total of seven butterflies were seen including a pair of mating Orange-tips (main picture, above) in the pit area near the bottom cliff face.
What we would expect to see flying now would be Peacock, Brimstone, Orange-tip, Holly Blue and in the right area Speckled Wood. I have also seen Comma and one Red Admiral.
Week Three, by all accounts (I was in Bristol) was even more disappointing – no butterflies seen at all. I think the weather had a part to play in this though. There was a similar result at Etton. Fingers crossed for the rest of April and coming into May as we are working hard at Swaddywell to make the habitat ideal for visiting butterflies.
Photo: Jackie Robinson
There are purposely constructed scrapes in both top and bottom areas and we are keeping these areas bramble free to allow wild strawberries and other butterfly friendly plants to grow.
These scrapes are particularly favoured by the Grizzled Skipper and we saw quite a few during the work parties last year. It was my first ever sighting and I’m 69 years old – how did that happen? Another reason I love volunteering at Swaddywell – so many knowledgeable people to point things out – for free!!
Photo: Jackie Robinson
Other interesting flying things to look out for are damselflies – I was really surprised to be sitting by my pond on April 21 and noticed a weak fluttering of wings; thinking it was a butterfly I turned slowly and a damselfly was attaching itself to a Bluebell leaf trying to keep out of the strong breeze. I was really surprised and headed in for the camera only to notice another one near to it.
They were trying desperately to hang on to the leaves presumably to dry out and get warm but it was a cold afternoon. I think they were slightly changing colour so maybe newly emerged. I stopped watching the Caddisfly larvae in the pond and watched two Large Red Damselflies instead.
We are keeping an eye out for the bees at Swaddywell too and I’ll report back on them when I see them.
One year there was a Hornet’s nest behind the tool shed, they were great to see but we kept a respectful distance (after I got a photo of course!)
Another welcome distraction from household chores!