Our field trip for June is early in the month, so don't forget! Andrew Graham will lead us on a walk over Whitesheet Hill (also spelt White Sheet Hill on OS map) starting at 11am from the car park. 

This prominent hill just to the north of Mere has some unimproved downland which is good for spring butterflies and flowers. We will hope to find the Glanville Fritillary which appears to have a self-sustaining population there. Bring close focus binoculars if you have them. No dogs.

Meet at the Nadder Centre car park  for 10:30 am departure or at 11:00 at the Whitesheet Hill car park at OS: ST 797350 (Map 142).
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Distance, Difficulty and Footwear: – In places steep downland and depending on conditions paths may be slippery. Essential therefore to wear good stout shoes or boots rather than wellingtons. Bring your own refreshments.

Anticipated end time: Departing Whitesheet Hill at 2:00 pm to arrive back at the Nadder Centre by 2:30 pm.

We have now reached our limit on spaces for the Lower Pertwood field trip this Saturday 31st May. You will have received an acknowledgment by email if you booked a space. Let us know if you can no longer make the trip and if anyone would like to be put on the waiting list, do get in touch. Joining instructions can be found in the details document on the Field Trips page.

The destination for this field trip has changed to Gutchpool Farm, Gillingham, SP8 5QP with the same set off time of 5:30pm from the Nadder Centre and start time of 6.00pm at the farm. Please note the change of details in the document on the Field Trips page.

We have only a few places left for our field trip on 31st May to Lower Pertwood Organic Farm, so don't forget to email us if you'd like to go, details found in this month's newsletter. This is a limited field trip and you will need to receive acknowledgment of a space to be included.

Take a look at their website ​for panoramic views of their farmland and information about their dedication to conservation and providing a healthy ecosystem for crops and wildlife.

We recently had a fantastic excursion to Longleat, where we saw an impressive beaver territory, under the expert guidance of Dr Tom Lewis, Conservation Manager at the Estate.
 
We observed a series of dams and ponds, feeding stations and food caches, a lodge, a coppiced area… all the result of beaver activity since 2020, when these mammals - once extinct in Britain - were recorded in the area for the first time in hundreds of years.
 
Tom explained how beavers interact with the environment and each other and the transformation of the landscape since their arrival. We had heard beavers are ecosystem engineers and we saw how well they live up to the name!
 
A once temporary stream which used to dry up in the summer now has a permanent flow of water, thousands of tadpoles were swarming in the ponds, groups of spotted fly catcher families congregate in autumn to feed on the insects and the high canopy woodland now supports openings of freshly coppiced trees which provide lots of grazing opportunities for herbivores.
 
We felt very privileged to be there and see it all and we are very grateful to Longleat and Tom for letting us visit and guiding us there. We hope to be able to visit again in future to witness further beaver progress in the landscape!
 
This trip was not advertised on social media as numbers were limited and spaces were quickly filled from our mailing list. If you missed out, get in touch so we can add you to our mailing list and be the first to find out about our activities!

Inés López-Dóriga
​

When I was a child, apart from the “cabbage whites”, which I now know to cover several species, the easiest to identify butterfly and frequently seen in the garden was the Small Tortoiseshell. This pretty, bright orange butterfly splashed with yellow, black, white and blue, was a regular on nectar-rich flowers, such as buddleia and sedum. It emerges in spring, after hibernating somewhere sheltered, and making use of its widespread and often abundant foodplant, the common nettle, produces two broods during the summer. It is the second that provides the adults to overwinter.

Unfortunately, this butterfly is becoming an increasingly rare sight. To coincide with the start of a new recording season, the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) has just released its analysis of results for 2024. This is the 50th year of this scheme, which collects data from more than 3000 sites, as well as sightings from the Big Butterfly Count and from randomly selected kilometre squares throughout the country. The impressive long-term body of data the UKBMS collects allows us to assess  the state of the environment, the impacts of climate change and the progress of government policy initiatives to conserve biodiversity.

Last summer, many people were asking, “Where have all the butterflies gone?”, so many were awaiting the 2024 analysis with some concern and the results are extremely worrying.

It was one of the worst years since 1976, when UKBMS started. Although numbers always fluctuate up and down to a certain extent, for the first time on record more than half of our species are in long-term decline. It was the worst year, since counting began, for nine species, including the Small Tortoiseshell, and the second worst year for some of the butterflies of the wider countryside, like the Common Blue and Gatekeeper.

So, is there anything we can do personally to help the plight of our butterflies? Well, research shows that if you have a garden, leaving some of it to grow wild with long grass can increase butterfly numbers by up to 93%. Avoid mowing between April and September to allow adults to shelter, drink nectar from flowers, breed, lay eggs, and for their caterpillars to feed. Nectar rich flowers, either in your beds or in pots, will attract whatever butterflies may be in the area, and if you have an unmown patch with the right food plants, they may stop to breed. Long grass and nectar sources will benefit other species of wildlife as well, and multiplied up across many gardens in towns and villages, can help species which are struggling in the wider countryside.

I shall be keeping my fingers crossed for the wonderful Small Tortoiseshell. It is not a specialist butterfly restricted to nature reserves; we should be seeing it everywhere. An 86% decline since 1976 reminds us that when people talk about a biodiversity crisis, it is not just happening in the Amazon rainforest, it is here at home, and all around us.

​Andrew Graham