On Saturday 8th June we have planned a field trip to Ham Wall RSPB Nature Reserve near Glastonbury with Andrew Graham and Debbie Carter as your guides. The focus will be on birds but there should be many other wildlife to see. Bring binoculars if you have them. No dogs.

Please let us know by Thurs 6th June evening whether you plan to go on this trip and whether you will car share from the Nadder Centre or meet us at the Reserve because we need to know numbers in advance. Without this information there is risk that this field trip could get cancelled. We do require a booking for each field trip in our programme.

Meet at the Nadder Centre car park for a departure at 9.30am or at the Ham Wall Nature Reserve BA6 9SX for 10:30-45am. The car park is at OS ST44893959. What3words biggest.sharpened.clots https://www.rspb.org.uk/days-out/reserves/ham-wall/location
 
Anticipated end time: Departing Ham Wall at 3:00pm to arrive back at the Nadder Centre by 4:15pm.
 
Distance, Difficulty and Footwear: Approximately 5 km/3 miles on flat gravel paths which may be a bit muddy if there has been recent rain. Good stout shoes should suffice rather than wellingtons. Climbing steps may be necessary to enter hides. Bring a packed lunch and refreshments.​

On the Field Trips page, you'll see that we've updated the in-depth document for the Field Trips. Please note that the Wild Woodbury field trip is on Saturday 6th July, not Sunday as previously listed.

I've installed a new app to run our contact page and I received help from their tech team because it wasn't embedding at first. The page is working again now, so fingers crossed it will work perfectly!

Andrew Graham is leading a walk through Bentley Wood, West Dean with a focus on butterflies.
 
Meet at the Nadder Centre car park for a 9:30am departure or at Bentley Wood Eastern Car Park, West Dean,  for a 10:30 am start. (GR SU 258 291. What3Words: filled.village.screeches)

There is no limit on this field trip, but if you could let us know beforehand it helps with organising car shares and knowing if you plan to meet us at West Dean.
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Bentley Wood is a 1,700 acre (688 ha.) nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest, roughly 7 miles east of Salisbury, that has been worked for at least 2,000 years (and is still commercially managed today, though with a view to conservation).
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If you want to read more about the wood ahead of the visit, go to this blog on the Hidden Wiltshire website: https://www.hiddenwiltshire.com/post/bentley-wood
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We've heard recently that some of the messages sent through the Contact form haven't been received at the website admin account. I'm sorry about that and I'll be rebuilding the page this week. Once we're confident that the new form is working properly, I'll put another note on the Blog to say it's all sorted.

​Julia

Shaun Leonard, Director of The Wild Trout Trust came to talk to us last month. The subject of rivers and water quality has risen towards the top of society’s interest recently and that was borne out in the good turn out for this excellent speaker.

Shaun started by outlining the organisation whose aim is ‘helping and inspiring everyone to protect wild Trout and their habitat.’ The Trust partners many other likeminded organisations to pack a bigger punch for conservation, with a nationwide team of conservation officers.

He then outlined the various problems that rivers are facing ~

Quality: namely pollution from sewage spills and from farming especially.

Quantity: water extraction, especially in the South East of England and abuse, such as canalisation, obstructions, straightening, and dredging where the river is separated from its flood plain.

Shaun then went on to present some interesting, thought-provoking interesting facts on trout especially on trout parasites. For example, on dissecting one he found the entire digestive system filled with worms. Another had choked on another fish whilst trying to eat another trout nearly as big as itself! Apparently eating other Trout is normal behaviour and trout fry can form a major proportion of their diet.

Shaun finished his talk by showing us some practical projects The Trust have been involved with, from Scotland to Somerset. Locally this is the construction of a bypass channel to Daslett hatches at Sutton Mandeville, working with Nick Lawrence and David Holroyd, and habitat improvement on the Nadder.

Trout fishing has progressed from manicured banks and stocking with large Rainbow Trout towards a completely different way of thinking where improving habitat to aid the recovery of wild Brown Trout in a wilder more natural environment.

The Trust works with volunteers in practical demonstrations and fun days out as well as helping in restoration projects to remove weirs and reducing bunds for example. Shaun took questions throughout his excellent presentation and again at the end, covering subjects of close interest to the audience, so we all came away wiser and more informed.

Peter Shallcross

The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme has recently released its report for the 2023 season and it was a mixed bag. The results provide a picture based on recording at more than 3000 sites nationwide. Some species had very good years while others had a particularly bad year. In some cases, it was easy to put the poor showing down to the impact of the summer drought of ’22. Those butterflies associated with damp conditions, such as the Green Veined White and the Ringlet, did particularly badly last summer.  Their larvae probably found it difficult to find sufficient plant material on which to feed in the parched landscape.  Particularly disappointing is the continued decline of the Small Tortoiseshell, a lovely looking insect, familiar to most but becoming increasingly uncommon. As it is faring better in the moister north and west of the country, this decline could be a result of climate change. That impact may be expressed on the insect itself or it may be that the parasites that attack it are favoured by the changing climate.

One species which did well in ’23 was the Holly Blue. On my transect outside Tisbury, I recorded more than twice as many in ’23 than in any of the previous 8 years. I only saw one there in ’22. It is another butterfly that is regularly affected by parasites, and this leads to a boom-and-bust cycle every 4-6 years.  The caterpillars may be attacked by two species of parasitic wasp, which lay their eggs into the larva’s body where they hatch and feed.  When the wasps are rare, the population of Holly Blues is able to increase but soon, with increased numbers of caterpillars to prey on, the population of the parasitic wasps grows. Eventually, the parasitic wasps become so abundant that they cause the population of the host butterfly to plummet. That then causes the wasp populations to crash for lack of larvae and the cycle begins again.

Now is the time to look out for Holly Blues in sheltered sunny gardens, hedgerows and woodland glades. They will often be seen flying amongst the tops of bushes and hedgerows, often where there is holly or ivy present. Although by no means a certain guide, if you see a small blue butterfly skipping around at height, amongst bushes and trees, it will be a Holly Blue; other blues are more likely to be seen close to the ground. In spring, eggs are often laid on holly flower buds. These give rise to a second brood flying later in the summer and, by contrast, the females of this brood generally lay their eggs on the flower buds of ivy.

A Holly Blue flitting around the garden is a sure sign of spring and it will be interesting to see if the numbers of last year are exceeded or whether this season brings a crash.

​Andrew Graham