Langdyke volunteer Jackie Robinson writes regularly about developments on our reserves. Here she describes the work to restore an important pond, the importance of surveying butterflies, how she discovered an intriguing wasp spider and the joys of raking …
Last week we were greeted with a man on a ride-on mower carefully whizzing around the top field of Swaddywell Reserve. Great, we thought, he is ‘Cutting and Collecting’ no raking, yay!
However, although he collected and consolidated the cuttings we still needed to remove the piles of grass to preserve the area for wildflowers and orchids next year. Seven intrepid volunteers tackled the piles of grass with pitchforks, rakes, a tarpaulin and wheelbarrows.
It was a windy, very overcast day and the butterflies, if they had any sense, would stay, protected from the elements, in the shrubs and trees, so the Butterfly Transect was postponed for a day and the moving of grass piles carried on after tea and cake break. We actually manged to clear the whole lot. It is now at the bottom of various bramble patches providing habitats for small mammals.
Swaddywell’s leaking cabin pond looks a bit sad at the moment but the volunteers are in the process of emptying and thoroughly cleaning it to be ready for relining and filling again, hopefully by January to allow it to settle before being needed by the wildlife visitors who give us so much joy.
The other ponds at Swaddywell are still dry at the moment but with the sort of rain we had Saturday evening it won’t be long before they start to fill. I noticed Sarah Lambert found some fungi in the bottom pond area and it reminded me of a couple of years ago when the whole pond area was filled with clumps of small brown fungi in between all the wild mint and marjoram stalks.
On the insect front, we have thousands of Ivy Mining bees on the sandy, stony area at the top of Wasp Spider Hill. If you stand for a few moments you can see the grass moving with hundreds of bees investigating small and larger holes in the beautifully sandy soil.
I finally did find the Wasp Spider; it is on the opposite side of the hill to where I saw it last year and very well camouflaged until its web moves and you can spot a nicely wrapped grasshopper or cricket. A few people have posted pictures on the website and I have attached mine from last year as this year it was a blurry shot and I haven’t had time to go back. She can usually be seen between April and October.
‘The wasp spider is a great mimic – looking just like a common wasp keeps it safe from predators, even though it is not dangerous itself. It can be found in southern England but is spreading north. It is a very large, colourful spider that is a recent arrival in the UK from the continent and has slowly spread over the south of England. It builds large orb webs in grassland and heathland, and attaches its silk egg-sacs to the grasses. The web has a wide, white zig-zag strip running down the middle, known as a ‘stabilimentum’, the function of which is unclear. Mating is a dangerous game for males; they wait at the edge of the web until the female has moulted into a mature form, then take advantage of her jaws being soft and rush in to mate. However, many males still get eaten during this time”.
– Wildlife Trust
The last butterfly transect will be walked this week (September 26) and then Ian Wilson will collate all the monitoring data from this year and do a report. I think the numbers will be lower this year although I have recently seen some very fresh looking Commas and Red Admirals about. My last week’s total was only nineteen butterflies and mostly whites but nineteen is better than zero.
The Mirabelles have all disappeared from the trees at Swaddywell, maybe the birds got suddenly hungry or human hands have been foraging. I missed my handful as I passed on the butterfly count.
As always, we are on the lookout for volunteers, so do have a think about joining us. The Etton Maxey group meet Monday morning and Swaddywell meets Thursday morning. It’s fun (except raking!)
We are celebrating 25 years of the Trust by combining it with a thank you BBQ at Swaddywell for volunteers. I think the sheep will be safe though … there are quite a few Veggies!