This week saw publication of alarming news about the state of butterflies in the UK. A beautiful and important part of the UK’s wildlife, they are highly sensitive indicators of the health of the environment and play crucial roles in the food chain as well as being pollinators of plants.

The State of the UK’s Butterflies 2015 report found that 76% of the UK’s resident and regular migrant butterflies declined in abundance, occurrence or both over the last four decades.

Now Butterfly Conservation is warning that time is running out to save some of Britain’s best-loved insects, with the latest Red List assessment of butterflies, published this week, revealing a 26% increase in the number of species threatened with extinction. For more details, go to:

https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/half-of-british-butterfly-species-on-new-red-list

Conserving butterflies will improve our whole environment for wildlife and enrich the lives of people now and in the future.  To better understand why butterflies matter, go to:

https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/why-butterflies-matter

One of the ways we can help make a difference for butterflies and other pollinators is to make our gardens more welcoming places for them, and Butterfly Conservation has published  two invaluable guides to help us: ‘Pit stops for Pollinators’ and ‘Gardening for Butterflies’.  They can be found at

https://butterfly-conservation.org/pit-stops-for-pollinators?fbclid=IwAR2w08rQE1YJLsp4LVj0crPvwSQwSmOaNDPcto6kjOky0gOPEvYiyngTS7w

and

https://butterfly-conservation.org/how-you-can-help/get-involved/gardening/gardening-for-butterflies

In his Weather Eye column in The Times on Monday 23^rd May, Paul Simons reflected on orchids’ role as a good indicator of Britain’s warming climate.  In recent years, several foreign orchids have begun to appear here. Quite common in the Mediterranean, the Tongue Orchid Serapias lingua has begun to establish itself in England, having been found in Essex a few years ago. Last June, the Small-flowered Tongue Orchid Serapias parviflora was discovered on the roof garden of a London tower block and, subsequently, at sites in Suffolk and Cornwall. A third foreign orchid to arrive is Himantoglossum robertianum, a close cousin of the resident Lizard Orchid, discovered in Oxfordshire.

It is thought that orchid seeds are so light they are easily blown across the Channel – so have they been coming here unknown for many years? – and new varieties are only now growing and flowering as a consequence of the changing, warmer, climate.

In Rushcliffe we have a relatively small number of resident orchid species compared to Southern England.  One of them, the Bee Orchid Ophrys apifera, found at various sites including Wilford Claypits, Skylarks and Rushcliffe Country Park is experiencing something of a boom. In the 1960s it was largely confined to grassland in southern and southeastern England, but in recent years has spread northwards, appearing in different habitats including disturbed ground, reaching Scotland in 2003.  Interestingly, although an insect mimic whose flower imitates the shape, markings and furry texture of a bee, it is largely self-pollinating.

Bee Orchid (Chris Overton)

Sadly, the good news of the spread of Bee Orchids may not be entirely representative of the situation as a whole: in her Nature Notes in the next day’s Times, Melissa Harrison writing about Greater Butterfly orchids noted that “like most of the 50-odd orchid species in the UK, greater butterfly orchids have declined sharply since the middle of the last century…”

Now is a good time to get Out and About visiting local wildlife sites around Rushcliffe, so here are some useful links to nature reserves in Rushcliffe, both NWT and Friends of sites.

Rushcliffe Nature in Rushcliffe leaflet    http://www.southnottswildlife.org.uk/content/?page_id=18

Rushcliffe Nature Reserves    http://www.southnottswildlife.org.uk/content/?page_id=228

NWT  Reserve Bunny Wood   http://www.southnottswildlife.org.uk/content/?page_id=29

NWT Reserve  Skylarks          http://www.southnottswildlife.org.uk/content/?page_id=258

NWT Reserve  Wilford Claypits  http://www.southnottswildlife.org.uk/content/?page_id=217

NWT Reserve  Wilwell Farm Cutting   http://www.southnottswildlife.org.uk/content/?page_id=35

In addition for more formal outings, see our Out and About with Wildlife Programme http://www.southnottswildlife.org.uk/content/?page_id=231

Outside of Rushcliffe you can go further a field

Notts Wildlife Trusts full list of reserves https://www.nottinghamshirewildlife.org/nature-reserves

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust       https://www.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/nature-reserve

Leicestershire Wildlife Trust  https://www.lrwt.org.uk/nature-reserves

Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust    https://www.lincstrust.org.uk/nature-reserves  .

In particular I can recommend Leics WT`s Holwell Mineral Line& Browns Hill Quarry, Ulverscroft and Herbert Meadows, Lea Meadows, Wymeswold Meadows, Loughborough Big Meadow, Cloud Hill Wood, Dimminsdale and Charnwood Lodge which are all just over the southern border, no passport required.

One of the ways we can help nature is through more wildlife-friendly gardening.   NWT’s  two-minute survey can score your garden and offer ideas to make it even better for wildlife. To find out more, and why this is so important, visit https://www.nottinghamshirewildlife.org/blog/thewildlifetrusts/put-your-garden-test

Complementing this, and encompassing more than just wildlife,  the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) has just published ‘How to Get More Wildlife into Your Garden and Absorb More Carbon’ which can be found on its website at https://cieem.net/how-to-get-more-wildlife-into-your-garden-and-absorb-more-carbon-by-penny-anderson/?fbclid=IwAR1amHpc0bMwYGVFYXYcHA5E7sd1ZBR0SFcw3-2uIDo9chkoAjtQCnN-k7Q