Grizzled Skipper Project 2023/2024 Work Party Programme

Sunday 19th November – Granby Disused Railway – hay raking/ maintenance of egg laying sites.

Tuesday 28th November – Saxondale Disused Railway Spur – hay raking/ scrub clearance.

Sunday 10th December – Grange Farm, Normanton on Soar – scrub clearance/ bare earth creation.

2024

Sunday 14th January – GCRN, Lime Sidings to Barnstone Tunnel – maintenance of egg laying sites/ scrub clearance.

Tuesday 23rd January – Flawborough Triangle – scrub regrowth clearance & treatment/ bare earth creation.

Sunday 4th February – Newstead & Annesley Country Park – scrub clearance.

Tuesday 20th February – GCRN, Rushcliffe Halt & Cutting – maintenance of egg laying sites/ scrub clearance.

Sunday 3rd March – Flawborough Footpath – scrub clearance and scallop creation/ bare earth creation.

Tuesday 12th March – Grange Farm, Normanton on Soar – scrub clearance/ bare earth creation.

If you want more details contact Christopher.Jackson@nottscc.gov.uk Notts Biodiversity Action Group Officer

Wilwell Walk Rescheduled

NOTE this walk is recscheduled to Sat 12th Aug – Wilwell Farm Cutting in Late Summer – A stroll round the reserve to look at the sites natural history with Gordon the Warden. Meet 10 am at the Wilwell car park on the left, just before the ring road bridge on the B680 between Ruddington and Wilford (look out for reserve sign). Post Code for approx location NG2 7UT, Just Three Words = home, news, fuzzy Need more info contact gordon.dyne@gmail.com

Moths – The underestimated pollinators

A new study published in Ecology Letters (available here) suggests that moths should be as highly valued as bees because they play a larger role in pollinating plants than was originally thought.

The research involved collecting pollinating insects on sunny summer days and during calm, warm nights at eight allotments in the Leeds area. The researchers recorded which species were caught and sequenced the DNA of the pollen that was stuck to them to find out which types of plants they had visited during their foraging.

The scientists caught 67 species of moth, compared with 20 species of bee. According to the researchers, over half of the moths analysed carried pollen, significantly more than some prior studies had indicated. They were visiting several species of plants not previously known to be pollinated by them, including redcurrants and strawberries; eight percent of the plant species analysed in the study were pollinated only by moths.

Moths accounted for up to one-third of the plant-pollinator stops, and in late summer visited as many plants as bees, indicating that moths provide an essential but previously unknown role in urban pollen-transport networks.

One observation from the research is particularly troubling: “Given that macro-moth abundance has declined by ca. 33% in the last 50 years in the United Kingdom (Butterfly Conservation 2021) our results suggest that these declines may represent a significant and previously unacknowledged threat to pollination services for both wild and crop plants.”

However, the results suggested that gardeners can help support moth populations by growing plants such as buddleia. “Pollen from the plant was the most common found on the moths’ bodies, probably in part because the bushes give them a place to hide during the day” said the researchers.

Spreading Populations

On the theme of animals ‘new’ to our area, we have recently reported on our FaceBook page sightings in Rushcliffe of Marbled White butterflies at Wilwell and East Leake, a species very seldom seen before in Rushcliffe. The NBN Atlas shows one previous record at Bingham in 2015, (although I’m fairly sure there was at least one sighting on the Bingham Linear Path last year). According to Butterfly Conservation, it is widespread in southern counties from late June through to early September, with outposts found running up through the East Midlands into Yorkshire.

Marbled White pair mating

We also shared on FaceBook a sighting at Rushcliffe Country Park of Small Red-eyed Damselfies, not previously recorded there. According to Paul Simons in The Times on 24 June “The species came from Hungary before landing at the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent in 1999. Since then it has moved northwards and is now found in Newcastle.”  The article also states that “Britain is experiencing a boom in dragonflies and damselflies flying over from Europe or native to the UK. Among the migrants were unusual numbers of Vagrant Emperor” and “another rare species that appeared this year was the Scarce Chaser”

A native species we also reported seen in June at Cotgrave Country Park and Ruddington was the Hairy Dragonfly. The NBN Atlas shows only three records in Rushcliffe since 2019.

Hairy Dragonfly (f)

Beewolf found in Rushcliffe

I recently posted an article on Philanthus Triangulum The Beewolf (click here), in which I speculated that based on sightings elsewhere, it was probably only a matter of time before this fascinating insect would be found in Rushcliffe.

Female Beewolf at Skylarks, 3 Sept 2022

So, it is with a mixture of surprise and embarrassment I report that, a few days after posting the article, whilst cataloguing images I had taken at Skylarks in September last year, I found two images of a female Beewolf feeding on ivy.

So, rather more quickly than I had imagined, the Beewolf is here!

Look out for Wolves!

Over the last year we have explored species ‘new’ to Rushcliffe that may have arrived as a consequence of range expansion: Silver-washed Fritillary, Ivy Bee and Purple Emperor. Tim Sexton’s recent talk, part of our Winter Wildlife Talks Programme, raised the possibility of adding to that list a small, but truly fascinating insect with a remarkable lifestyle.

To find out more, read our article here

Moles, fortresses and Jacobites

Moles are very rarely seen as they spend most of their lives underground. They are stocky animals, with a wedge-shaped body and short tail. They use their spade-like paws to dig tunnels and hunt for their favourite meal of earthworms. They also like to eat underground grubs that would usually feed off crops, so moles can help to control unwanted visitors.

By digging up the earth, moles help make the soil healthier by aerating it. This allows more types of plants to grow, which in turn feed more insects. Not only this, their tunnels improve soil drainage, which helps stop flooding and huge puddles forming on the ground. Moles truly are the unsung heroes of the animal world!

A mole can dig up to 20 metres of tunnel in a day using its spade-like forepaws to effectively breaststroke its way through the soil. Every now and again, loose soil is pushed up to the surface, resulting in what we see as a mole hill. The mole’s velvety coat helps it to move easily through the soil, and its mouth and nose are protected from debris by their down-facing position.

Tarmacking and increasing numbers of hard surfaced gardens mean that moles are being pushed out of their natural habitats. Why not help green up the grey by making your garden a home for wildlife?

Whilst you may think that moles will hibernate through winter, this isn’t the case. Their main tunnels and nesting burrows are far enough under the frosty surface that they are able to still be active during the cold winter months.

The vast majority of molehills are relatively small and without internal structure. On occasion, though, moles construct large and structured mounds containing upwards of 750 kg of soil. Fortresses are commonly found in areas with a high water table which are liable to flooding. When the waters rise the mole can retreat from the waterlogged tunnels and take refuge within the fortress. There it can remain, dry in its nest and sustained by the stores of worms, until the waters recede. Fortresses also feature in shallow soils lying on a hard substrate.

Moles prefer to make their nests deep in the soil where temperatures are relatively stable and for most of the year rather higher than at the surface. Moles living in thin soils cannot dig deep nests and a fortress may offer a degree of insulation to the mole asleep in its nest. Fortresses are built with the soil excavated from tunnels that would have been dug anyway but there is a considerable extra cost in moving this large quantity of soil to one central point. (from The Natural History of Moles, Martyn Gorman and David Stone).

In early March 1702 King William III of Orange died after he was thrown from his horse when it stumbled on a molehill while he was riding near Hampton Court. The king suffered a broken collar bone in the fall and died a few weeks later after bronchitis set in. That deadly mole became revered amongst Jacobites and, on March 8th each year on the anniversary of the King’s death, a toast ‘to the wee gentleman in the velvet jacket’ became common place amongst Jacobite supporters, a nod to their underground assassin.

Birdlife IS beneficial

The Times, on 27th October, reported that

 ‘Listening to birdsong for a few minutes each day may hold the key to feeling happy.

Scientists found that watching birds and enjoying their chorus lifts the spirits for up to eight hours and can help to ease depression. They said birdlife has a major role to play in helping people with mental health conditions, highlighting the importance of efforts to maintain biodiversity.

The study by King’s College London involved 1,292 people, who were asked three times a day whether they could see or hear birds and about their mental wellbeing. The team found that among those with mental health conditions, hearing or seeing birdlife was associated with improvements in mood and happiness. Healthy people also experienced a similar effect, with improvements lasting for up to eight hours’

So, although there may be little birdsong to hear at the moment,  there should still be plenty of birds to see, so why not see them at local wildlife sites around Rushcliffe? Click here for some useful links to nature reserves in Rushcliffe, both NWT and Friends of sites, and some other sites outside of Rushcliffe.