Our resident nature expert Phil Armshaw keeps a close eye on the plethora of wildlife and plant species that choose to inhabit the meadow, lakes and hedgerows that make up Clandon Wood. His regular blog updates provide a seasonal journey through the year highlighting the ever changing environment and diverse habitat that Clandon Wood provides. We hope you gain some pleasure and a little knowledge too from reading them.
Closely related to its seaside cousins, the land winkle is an interesting snail to find at Clandon Wood. It occurs in high chalk areas preferring friable soils thriving in deep leaf litter.
It is widespread In the south, south-west, and here in the south-east of England, especially in the chalk hills of the North and South Downs. However, in Northern & Eastern England it is in serious decline.
Part of the reason for its decline is due to the use of fertilizers, herbicides, and fungicides in farming, but also because these snails are incredibly slow crawlers meaning they cannot easily escape disturbed areas or migrate to find new habitats. They rely entirely on undisturbed leaf litter and topsoil.
So with our organic approach to weed control and Clandon Wood's approach of creating connective wildlife habitats we are a ‘safe island’ refuge for this little fellow.
As ever I find myself thinking about my next blog, this time pondering what the weather will be like come the autumn equinox. Will it be a continuation of this prolonged hot, dry spell, or will the much-needed rains have finally arrived?
I've now experienced three summers in the South East of England and all have been hot and dry. Is this becoming the new norm? And how will this year's Super El Niño influence our weather patterns?
Global climate trends can seem far removed from our daily lives but at Clandon Wood this year's weather has had a significant impact on the site, its wildlife and the staff who care for it.
Having planted new orchard trees and applied a thick mulch to conserve soil moisture and reduce weed competition the grounds team has nevertheless been watering weekly since May. During the hottest spells that has increased to twice a week whenever time has allowed. I've planted over half a million trees during my career and have never had to water as much as I have this year.
The warm, dry weather has been a boon for many invertebrates with the meadows alive with bees, butterflies, grasshoppers and crickets, all of which suffered population declines during previous wet summers. My only concern is that as nectar-rich meadow flowers bloom and set seed earlier insect populations may struggle to adapt to this changing nectar window. We'll have to wait and see how these long-term trends develop.
Meanwhile we continue to look for ways to mitigate some of these effects through subtle changes in how we manage Clandon Wood's reserve habitats. One of my guiding principles is the concept of island biogeography and habitat connectivity. I think I instinctively understood the idea long before I was introduced to the science of it through both my formal studies and postgraduate reading. As I've said before I'm a bit of a plant nerd.
If you'd like to delve deeper into island biogeography and biodiversity The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen is an excellent place to start. It's a fascinating if occasionally weighty read.
So how does this influence the way we manage Clandon Wood? The answer is in many ways:
Within the reserve projects such as expanding the orchards increase the size of these habitat islands. And creating new refuge areas within the meadows establishes additional islands for insects and small mammals to colonise.
Hedge laying links areas of woodland and grassland providing safe corridors for insects, mammals and birds to move between habitats.
The resulting abundance of insects within our meadows provides a vital food source for local bats and birds while also sustaining house martins, swallows and swifts on their remarkable international journeys.
Mowing and retaining long strips of rough grass on a three-year rotation also improves connectivity. By placing log, brush and grass piles within these corridors we create additional opportunities for nesting and hibernation. In future years I expect to see larger populations of slow worms, grass snakes, common lizards, field voles, bank voles and wood mice. And maintaining a healthy small mammal population will support kestrels and owls across the wider landscape.
Looking beyond our boundaries Clandon Wood itself is a small 31-acre island. By managing it to maximise biodiversity we become an important stepping stone for many species.
And finally and very specifically by ensuring we have kidney vetch Clandon Wood will continue to support small blue butterflies as they move between the North and South Downs.
In ecology bigger and older habitats tend towards higher biodiversity but where we are left with small islands, due to human activity, enhancing the connections between them is just as important.
Even your own garden can play a part in creating these stepping stones for wildlife. Something as simple as leaving a gap beneath a fence allows hedgehogs to move freely between gardens. Better still replace a fence with a native hedge. Small wins are better than no wins.
In one of my previous blogs I asked if there was anything you wanted me to write about. Well, I’ve been asked about my favourite flowers. For me, that’s a bit like asking which of your children is your favourite child. As we all know, we have one — we’re just diplomatic when asked.
With around 400,000 recognised flowering plants in the world and roughly 1,500 in the UK you’ll be relieved to hear I’m restricting myself to the traditional top ten.
Obviously a top ten of flowers immediately rules out ferns, mosses and lichens, which seems a little harsh as some of those would certainly have made it into my vascular plant top ten.
Down two places this week..
10. Wild daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus)
Though immortalised by Wordsworth they make my top ten for a far more personal reason. The first time I saw them in the wild I was walking with my best friend and every sighting since has carried that memory with it.
A non mover for the second week at..
9. Crested dogstail (Cynosurus cristatus)
Our volunteers know just how excited I get about meadow grasses and this one is among the best. Elegant and an essential part of a healthy meadow.
Down two places ..
8. Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)
A surprising number eight, perhaps, as my relationship with blackthorn is very much love-hate. The scratches and cuts it inflicts during hedge laying can make me cuss it soundly but all is forgiven in early spring when the hedges erupt into frothy clouds of white blossom.
Up one place..
7. Hay rattle (Rhinanthus minor)
Not only is yellow rattle a vital tool in creating and maintaining botanically diverse meadows — a habitat that has declined by 98% — it also evokes powerful memories. Each spring I still get excited seeing the seedlings emerge and I remember the dry rattle of ripe seed pods as I cut the hay. A sound somehow louder than the reciprocating cutter bar and still audible through ear defenders.
Another non mover at..
6. Common broomrape (Orobanche minor)
The second parasitic plant in my top ten — hay rattle being the first — so perhaps I have a fascination with parasitic plants. Their pale brown flower spikes entirely devoid of green chlorophyll stand out beautifully amongst the meadow grasses at Clandon Wood.
Straight in at..
5. Grass vetchling (Lathyrus nissolia)
For me this fascination is born of obscurity. It sits on the very edge of its natural range in the Midlands and is absent further north and in the Highlands where I spent most of my first 61 years. So discovering its gorgeous scarlet pea flowers dancing on slender grass-like stems here at Clandon Wood felt like an unexpected gift.
The top four have been static for a record breaking 30 years..
4. Common water crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis)
The green ribbons swaying in crystal clear water currents and the masses of white flowers always take me back to childhood days fishing the River Blythe in Staffordshire with my dad and his mate Brian.
3. Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris)
For some people it’s bluebells or wild garlic that signal the abundance of late spring. For me it’s the frothy exuberance of cow parsley lining country lanes. On a dewy morning even the scent feels like a feast for the olfactory organs.
2. Heather (Calluna vulgaris)
Hailing from the heathlands of the Midlands, and having worked restoring a degraded heath transforming it to a condition befitting of its Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) status, heather is truly in my blood. I am in every sense a heathen — a dweller of heathland.
These great open landscapes have declined by 75% since the 1700s and are now home to some of the UK’s rarest wildlife. Beyond their ecological importance heathland and heather are woven deeply into our culture: from the works of Thomas Hardy, Emily Brontë and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to place names, traditional brushes and the thatched roofs of Scottish blackhouses.
So it may come as a surprise that heather only reaches number two.
And still unmoved at number one…
Bee orchid (Ophrys apifera)
For me, one of our most beautiful wildflowers - and mimicking a bee it has a fascinating reproductive story built on deceit, and lust.
Bird's-foot trefoil, (Lotus corniculatus) a low-growing perennial belongs to the pea family (Fabaceae), is easy to spot by its clusters of bright yellow flowers often tinged with orange-red as they mature. It's these colours that give it one of its common names - eggs and bacon.
The word trefoil means "three leaves" although the plant appears to have five leaflets because two large stipules at the base of each leaf resemble extra leaflets. Both the leaves and seed pods resemble a birds foot (see below). Whilst the scientific name ‘lotus’ refers to the low growing pea family herbs and ‘corniculatus’ means horn bearing, which refers to hornlike seed pods.
Bird's-foot trefoil is a favourite among pollinators. Bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects flock to its nectar-rich blooms throughout the summer, making it an important part of healthy meadows and roadside grasslands. Like other legumes it enriches poor soils by fixing atmospheric nitrogen through a partnership with bacteria in its root nodules.
People have long valued this cheerful wildflower. Farmers grow it as nutritious forage because it is rich in protein and contains tannins that help reduce the risk of bloating in grazing livestock. Gardeners welcome it for attracting wildlife and conservationists sow it in wildflower restoration projects to boost biodiversity.
In traditional herbal medicine infusions of the flowering tops were sometimes taken as mild calming teas to ease anxiety or encourage restful sleep. Although the plant contains naturally occurring biologically active compounds they haven't been widely studied by Western allopathic medicine.
You may have noticed a new feature in one of the mowing refuges in West Meadow. Inspired by the work of the Worcester Wildlife Trust our grounds staff and volunteers have created a replica veteran tree.
The fenced area provides a degree of public safety but its main purpose is to allow other plants to develop around the ‘tree’ leading to a more natural and even richer habitat.
So why have we created a “fake” tree when Clandon Wood already has plenty of trees? The answer is that all of our trees are still young. While they provide their own wildlife benefits, they lack the unique features of ancient and veteran trees that make them home to thousands of species not attracted to young trees.
What is an ancient tree?
‘The exact age at which you’d call a tree ancient depends on the species and other factors including the type of site where it’s growing. A birch tree could be considered ancient at around 150 years old, for example, whereas an oak tree would not be classed as ancient until it is at least 400 years old. Yew trees can live for thousands of years and are not usually defined as ancient until they are around 800 years old. It is often difficult to estimate the age of an ancient tree so this is usually done alongside assessing its physical characteristics.’
— Ancient Tree Forum
What is a veteran tree?
‘Unlike an ancient tree a veteran tree can be of any age. It is defined by its features rather than its years showing characteristics typically associated with old age. These features may arise not only through natural ageing but also as a result of damage, management, or environmental conditions.’
— Ancient Tree Forum
What makes ancient and veteran trees so valuable for wildlife?
Quite simply, it’s their defining features. Although characteristics vary depending on species and growing conditions ancient trees typically share three key traits:
These features are largely absent from our young trees and it could take many decades—if not centuries—for them to develop naturally. Our replica tree has been carefully designed to mimic these characteristics allowing wildlife to benefit now rather than waiting 150–800 years.
We look forward to seeing how this feature becomes part of the landscape and how it is gradually colonised by wildlife.
I was unsure about this blog but instead of prolonged procrastination I decided to grasp the nettle.
All of us know that nettles sting, some of us know that in spring the young leaves are full of iron and make great tea, soup and even pesto but how many of us would wear a nettle shirt?
Today most people pull up stinging nettles in the garden with gloves on and toss them in the compost without a second thought, even though nettles are a fantastic food source for many lepidoptera, more commonly referred to as butterflies and moths. But as they do sting we remove them where they grow on or near graves and burial plots.
However, for our Bronze Age forebears’ nettles filled their bellies in spring and were once a main type of clothing fibre across northern Europe.
Long before domesticated sheep, fields of flax and imported cotton, people were making thread from wild nettles that grew practically everywhere. Bronze Age communities across Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Britain were spinning nettle fibre into linen-like yarn and weaving it into clothing for whole populations.
The process was surprisingly sophisticated.
People harvested the stems in late summer when the fibres were strongest. After cutting, the sting faded quickly as the chemicals in the tiny hairs dried out. The stems were bundled and placed in running water, streams were best, where bacteria slowly break down the pectin holding the fibers to the woody core. This step known as retting took about two weeks.
Flax fibres are still retted today in the process of linen making.
Knowing when it was ready was learned by experience. You’d pull out a stem, bend it, and feel whether the woody shell snapped cleanly away from the pale fibre bundle inside. When it separated just right the fibre was ready.
After that the fibres were dried, combed through wooden hackles to align them and spun on a drop spindle. The result was a thread that modern testing shows can be just as strong, sometimes stronger, than traditional flax linen.
Archaeologists studying Bronze Age textiles from Danish bog sites like Huldremose, Borum Eshø, and Egtved have found nettle fibres preserved for over 3,000 years. Under a microscope you can still see the fibre cells from threads spun by hand in the Bronze Age.
And yet the knowledge almost vanished.
By the early 1900s hardly anyone remembered how to process nettle fibre. During World War I, when cotton and flax were scarce, German textile workers actually had to reconstruct the technique from archaeological research. Even long stem flax is an uncommon crop, it's labour intensive to harvest and process which is why linen clothes carry a notable premium compared to other natural fibres and oil based man-made fibres.
Meanwhile the same plant is probably growing along your fence line right now. Left to grow it's a good food plant for butterflies and is also highly nutritious and most palatable as a soup, in pesto or as a simple tea.
It’s strange to think that something we treat as a nuisance weed once clothed and fed entire societies. It shows how far removed from the interconnected natural world humans have become and how organised these early societies were.
Have you ever tried spinning thread or working with wild plant fibres? I’m curious who’s experimented with stuff like this.
Over the past year there have been many positive changes across the site.
The willow coppice behind West pond has been brought back into active management. Over the summer it was a mass of flowers enjoying the light for the first time in many years. We used material to build wattle fences by the entrance and around the office flower beds. The coppice will continue to provide us with sustainable resources for hedge laying and wattle fencing.
The beech hedge by the compost area was laid this past winter and already looks fantastic, even after its first summer. Meanwhile the beechgrove in the East meadow received a much-needed dramatic haircut.
In general our hedges are now being managed into an ‘A’ shape – better for healthy growth and ideal for the wildlife that calls them home. In addition the hedges are only having one side cut alternating years to maximise their biodiversity benefit.
One of the year’s highlights was the launch of the Clandon Conservation Volunteers in January last year. Since then they’ve generously given over 1,000 hours of their time to help deliver our work programme – a much appreciated contribution.
If you’ve walked around the site recently you may have noticed the appearance of some additional information boards adding further insights into the many and varied facets of the natural world within the grounds. Each board has been thoughtfully located in order to inform visitors without distracting from the natural beauty of Clandon Wood.
During the site safety audits it became clear that the decking by the West Meadow Pond needed replacement; a practical project that the ground staff were proud to deliver.
Having surveyed the West pond for amphibians in spring we have a sound knowledge of the species and population size. This information is vital to informing the process of marginal vegetation management that is being carried out this winter while the amphibians are hibernating away from the pond which has been confirmed by hibernacula surveys.
Of course not everything went to plan. The seeding of annual cornfield plants didn’t meet expectations due largely to the long spring and summer drought that affected germination.
That said the year has also brought joy – especially in discovering meadow species that were either new to me or that I hadn’t seen in years. Lying in the grass to photograph common broomrape certainly revealed my inner plant nerd to the volunteers!
The response to my blog posts has been heartening. I simply write what’s on my mind, drawing on my experience of life and work. I hope to continue informing and inspiring in future blogs. If there's a topic you'd like me to explore please do get in touch.
Over this New year and subsequent years it will be interesting to observe how wildlife and visitors alike react to the changes introduced.
And come spring keep an eye out for a burst of colour as the 3,000 bulbs planted by our volunteers push their way into bloom.
As summer draws to a close at Clandon Wood and I prepare for autumn and the seasonal woodland work with grounds staff and volunteers, it's time for a short pause.
The perfect balance of night and day on the equinox is nature's fleeting moment of stillness. Just like in ballroom dancing balance isn’t static, it’s a moment of poise, an inhale and exhale, harmony, and a gentle new beginning.
After the heat and drought of summer many of the trees are showing early signs of autumn colour heightened by the longer nights and cooler temperatures.
Nature is full of these moments of balance and patterns that, when you're paying attention, start to reveal themselves.
Many of these patterns can be understood through the Fibonacci sequence, an endlessly growing numerical pattern where each number is the sum of the two before it: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21... and so on. It might not sound very natural but these patterns emerge from the most efficient use of space and resources in biological growth. Walk around Clandon Wood and take a closer look and you’ll see it in pine cones, fern fronds, the spiral of snail shells, and the number of petals on a flower. It’s as though nature is following this ancient rhythm, growing and expanding in ways that are not only efficient but deeply beautiful.
The spiral pattern of this fern frond and snail shell approximate the Fibronacci spiral, a drawing made of quarter circular arcs where each arc is inscribed within a square whose side length corresponds to a number in the Fibonacci sequence. This spiral known as the golden spiral is found in many natural phenomena.
It makes me wonder; how much of life is quietly following some hidden pattern, a slow dance of balance and growth?
Autumn is one of the most visual reminders of this. The leaves don’t just fall randomly they tumble in spirals, float down in slow motion, and land in perfect disarray. The trees, once lush and loud with life, begin to strip down to bare essentials conserving energy.
There’s a rhythm to it all. A Fibonacci flow.
Maybe that’s why the autumn equinox feels so grounding. It just happens each year, a reminder to pause. To look at what we’re holding onto and what we’re ready to let go of. To take stock. To find our own spiral back to centre.
In a world that can seem chaotic, fast and overwhelming, that quiet moment of balance between light and dark, growth and rest feels similar to a warm hug or like watching a world class Rumba. It's a kindly nudge from nature to trust, to be gentle with ourselves and to remember that things unfold in their own time. Messy, beautiful, balanced.
If I’ve inspired you to delve deeper…
Livio, M. (2002). The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number. Broadway Books.
This book explores how the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio appear throughout nature, art, and architecture—offering insights into the hidden order that shapes the world around us.
Jean, R. V. (1994). Phyllotaxis: A Systemic Study in Plant Morphogenesis. Cambridge University Press.
A comprehensive scientific study on how Fibonacci-based mathematical patterns guide the arrangement of leaves, seeds, and plant structures—revealing the deep connection between maths and biology.
Looking in the mirror I can see by my ‘farmers tan’ that spring and summer have so far been sunnier and drier than is normal for our maritime climate. Researching the Met Office data shows that for the SE of the UK it was 144% sunnier with only 56% of expected rainfall. June continued in the same vein being even warmer on average than the famous summer of 1976. Summer school holidays seemed to last forever, touring the Highlands of Scotland and spending days on the silver sands beaches, even the music was better……. But I digress, this is after all meant to be a nature blog!
Walking around Clandon Wood I notice the different way that plants have evolved to cope with extremes of sun and drought and I hope the photographs I have taken also help illustrate how the flora at Clandon Wood is adapted to deal with both the heat and a lack of rainfall that is so apparent this year.
The first thing many people notice is that shallow rooted lawn grasses appear to die as the regularly cut leaves lose a lot of water. However they soon green up again once the rains come as grasses have many dormant buds beneath the surface. Longer grasses and meadow flowers break into flower and go to seed more rapidly as this saves moisture.
Last year in late August the meadows were white with ox eye daisies. This year they finished flowering in the second week of June. Specially adapted leaves help some plants conserve water. As plants breathe and photosynthesise they transpire through pores on the underside of their leaves. Drought tolerant plants have evolved different ways to combat water loss through transpiration. Gorse leaves are curled so tightly back on themselves that they appear to be prickly spines.
Yew trees are not alone in having needle like leaves with waxy outer layers that resist water loss. Although not needle leaves Holly and Ivy also have shiny waxy leaves.
Plants such as verbascum have evolved grey leaves that reflect some of the sun and are hairy to collect and rain or dew. Plants without these specialist adaptions have other coping strategies for dealing with water availability. They begin to shed them going into an early autumn state. Though this conserves water it also reduces overall growth and health of a tree and can over repeated years cause the tree to die. Dramatically trees can also shed whole branches as their vascular system contracts with tragic consequences for trees in public spaces. As dramatic and tragic this can be it does allow the tree to conserve water with the chance of recovery over its long lifespan.
As you walk around Clandon Wood why not see how many of these clever survival strategies you can identify.
I'm really enjoying my first journey through the seasons at Clandon Wood. Spring brought a wonderful transformation as the birch, oak, lime, hornbeam, and beech unfurled their vibrant green leaves.
In the meadow colours emerged in gentle waves — from the early cowslips and buttercups to bird’s-foot trefoil, oxeye daisies and sorrels.
But it’s not just the flowers that steal the show. The many grass species are just as captivating. Sweet vernal grass is the first to flower, lending hay its famously sweet scent that lingers even through winter. Around the meadow's edges cocksfoot stands tall in shaggy tussocks favoured by the ringlet butterfly. The soft purple flowers of Yorkshire fog sway in the breeze, rippling in unison like waves on water.
The trees too are thriving whether coppiced, pollarded, or laid as hedges — all bursting back into life rejuvenated by traditional management practices.
And it’s not only plants that are growing and flourishing. The conservation volunteer group which began on a cold rainy Friday this January has blossomed into a warm and welcoming team. Watching their skills and confidence grow has been truly heartwarming. I’m sure you’ll agree they’ve undertaken some transformational projects across Clandon Wood — with impressive results.
My personal highlights are seeing species that I have rarely seen. Quaking oat grass (briza media) - my favourite summer flowering native grass and grass vetchling (lathyrus nissolia) are two such beauties. It made me wonder if others have a favourite grass. Let me know if you have by contacting me at philip.armshaw@nbuk.org .
Hello everyone,
In my spring blog, I briefly mentioned the work of the Clandon Wood conservation volunteers. This post is dedicated to them—the friendly, kind, supportive (and often very funny) group of people who give their time to help care for our beautiful nature reserve and natural burial site.
People volunteer for all sorts of reasons. My own journey into conservation volunteering began back in 1985 while I was studying for a B.Sc. in Environmental Studies. Having a relevant degree was only part of the puzzle in securing a career in countryside management; practical skills were just as essential. Volunteering gave me the hands-on experience I needed—and having been a volunteer myself, I’m very mindful of what makes for a rewarding and safe volunteering experience.
When I started as Senior Groundsperson at Clandon Wood in November 2024, one of my first projects was to develop a volunteering programme that would help connect us more deeply with the wider community. After consulting via social media, we decided that Fridays would be our volunteer day, and I set about planning a series of tasks running from January through March.
To ensure proper supervision, training, and safety, I limited the group to 10 volunteers per session and asked people to email me to book a spot. On the first Friday, just two people signed up—but numbers quickly grew, and before long we were averaging around seven volunteers per week. If everyone came on the same day, I’d be over my self-imposed limit!
Although the last few Fridays in March have been warm and sunny, the earlier months weren’t quite so kind. Hats, coats, and gloves were far more common than sunglasses! Despite the cold, many volunteers came back week after week—which I take as a good sign. Maybe it’s the tea, coffee, and biscuits at lunchtime? Tina, who travels in every Friday from Richmond, even said, “It’s worth braving the M25 for!” High praise indeed, especially with the ongoing roadworks on the A3 and Junction 10.
I’m genuinely grateful to everyone who’s joined the group. In a short space of time, we’ve built a community that’s supportive, hard-working, and full of good humour.
Take a look at the photos to see what we’ve been up to over the past few months—and check out our programme on Facebook to see what’s coming up next. You’re very welcome to join us (just make sure to book your spot by emailing me at philip.armshaw@nbuk.org). No previous experience is necessary—I’ll guide you through everything you need to know.
I hope you enjoyed my last blog post. It was lovely to hear from some of you with messages of welcome and support, as well as requests for more information. It’s always a pleasure to know my writing is being read and it makes putting these posts together all the more rewarding.
As we approach the spring equinox it feels like the perfect time to reflect on the changing seasons. Daylight and darkness are finally in balance and spring has officially begun.
In my last post I mentioned the start of willow coppicing behind the West Meadow Pond and the exciting launch of our new conservation volunteer programme. Since then our dedicated volunteers and the ground staff have been busy putting the coppiced willow to good use. They’ve built and replaced wattle fencing around Clandon Wood, brightening up the entrance and enhancing the welcoming atmosphere for visitors.
The legacy of Dutch elm disease has kept our ground staff busy too. They’ve been felling dead and dying wych elm (ulmus glabra) along the footpath boundaries of the East and West meadows. Although these trees are affected by the disease, they will regrow from their roots. In about 12 years, when their bark reaches the right stage, the beetle that carries the virus will return, and the cycle will continue. This serves as a powerful reminder of why we’re so meticulous about sourcing seeds and plants around the reserve to limit the risk of diseases being spread and so protecting the health and longevity of our ecosystem.
It's always a joy to witness the reserve waking up from its winter rest. Seeing the fresh green leaves emerge is an uplifting sight. The meadows are already adorned with blooming primroses and cowslips, and our annual seedlings, like the hay rattle (rhinanthus minor) are sprouting. This plant is vital to maintaining our hay meadows’ wildflower richness and is a wonderful sign of the health of our landscape.
Cowslip (primula veris) and primrose (primula vulgaris) in the meadow
Turning our attention to the wildlife it’s an exciting time for our birdwatchers. The resident kestrels have been spotted mating and making use of the nest box in the car park. Over the next few months you’ll be able to follow their journey live on our kestrel located in the nesting box.
Our resident Kestrels (falco tinnunculus)
The West pond will soon be a chorus of sounds as frogs and toads make their way to breed. I’m always amazed by the instinctive drive of these little creatures sometimes traveling up to a mile to reach their breeding grounds. While frogs(rana temporaria) and toads (bufo bufo) vocalize to attract mates, newts take a more reserved approach, setting up territories and impressing potential partners with elaborate displays of tail-waving, usually in the early morning or at dusk.
As Spring unfurls, our slow worms, which are technically lizards, and snakes will be emerging from hibernation. You may spot them basking in the sun on paths or in bare patches of earth. Please be mindful not to disturb them as they expend important energy evading contact. The female adder, typically brown, will also be carrying her young which always adds an extra layer of wonder to their springtime activity.
It’s shaping up to be another vibrant season in Clandon Wood, full of life and transformation. I look forward to sharing more with you as the months unfold. Until then enjoy the sights and sounds of spring in its full glory.
Hi, I’m Phil Armshaw. I started as senior groundsperson in November and this is my first nature blog for Clandon Wood. Starting anew I’m conscious of the many cycles of nature at Clandon Wood, whether it’s the progression of planet Earth around the Sun, the falling of leaves and swelling of new buds, or as was so important to our distant ancestors, the annual cycles of the Summer and Winter solstices. For me beginning my new cycle with Clandon Wood follows a several decades long environmental career and gives me the opportunity to apply and also pass on knowledge and skills acquired over the years
I was interested to learn that Neolithic artifacts had been discovered at Clandon Wood during its conversion into a natural burial ground and nature reserve back in 2012, as this evidence of an ancient historic local link between people, place and the use of nature around them, known as Ethnobotany, is a subject which fascinates me. Pollen records from 4000 years ago suggest that the UK was lightly wooded and that the trees provided people and animals with both shelter and food. The trees at Clandon Wood are being strategically managed to create a similar light woodland environment and although still in its relative infancy the careful and considered management of the woodland now will help guide the natural evolution of the landscape in the coming decades and centuries.
Many of the young trees have had their lower branches removed allowing access for the mini-digger and for hand digging, but also providing a clear and open view of Clandon Wood’s grounds. The crown lifted appearance mimics the action of grazing animals to form the rare ‘wood pasture’ habitat.
As part of Clandon Wood’s arboreal risk management some trees have been pollarded (the top being cut off) below damaged or weak areas of the tree which will allow new branches to grow in the Spring. This allows us to keep the tree and begins a cycle that provides specialist types of habitat for the many animals that frequent the reserve and that can last for hundreds of years.
We have also recently coppiced the willows near the pond in the west meadow to provide both an improved habitat and material for hedge laying and fencing onsite.
Here are a few things to look out for at Clandon Wood over the Winter months:
New for 2025 – Nature reserve volunteers programme
If you would like to become more involved with wildlife conservation at Clandon Wood check out our new volunteer programme, details of which will be announced in the first week of January on our website. We plan to begin on Friday 10th January and there will be a selection of skills you can learn and tasks to get involved with. To sign up just e-mail me at philip.armshaw@nbuk.org . It’s a great way to meet new people, get some exercise in the open air and connect with nature’s cycles.
Wishing everyone a very happy New Year.
Philip Armshaw
It’s easy to miss the changing of the seasons as the months drift by but this year has been particularly mild. Whilst we did have a few cold spells we didn’t experience the prolonged grip of winter weather.
Why am I talking about Winter in my Spring/Summer blog I hear you ask? Well. A lot of the flora and fauna of the UK are tuned into the changes of the season but if these are not self-evident then all of nature’s cycles are disrupted or can even be stopped altogether! Plants are susceptible to climactic change and a lot of our native species rely on environmental triggers to set off their growing cycle. Think bluebells. We didn’t get a prolonged period of cold temps until later in January/February which caused our bluebells to bloom late, in June, when they would ordinarily be out between March and May.
We have also noticed a downturn in pollinators this summer, again due to late blooming, which provides all our insects with the energy they need coming straight out of hibernation. We are working closely with the Butterfly Conservation Trust and the early result from their butterfly transects (monitoring walks) isn’t the best of starts we were hoping for.
However, as the year has progressed, we have been blessed, yet again, with an abundance of colour across both meadows as you can see below.
More Skylarks have now begun nesting in the West Meadow as well as the East this year.
We are extremely happy to see foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) appearing in a couple of locations both east and west!
We are enjoying a real multitude of wild flowers in our meadows as we enter the summer months, which you can enjoy by visiting our nature reserve. And to give you a taste here is a selection of the flora recently photographed at Clandon Wood
Well, it’s been an interesting few months! Many of us who are of a certain (ah hem) age can look back and recall, with clarity, the passing of the seasons, they were well defined climactic changes. Autumn would herald the reds, browns and orange colour changes to the landscape accompanied with the nights getting darker and the moisture in the air becoming increasingly chilled as October passed to November passed to December.
In recent years however we have seen the increasing blurring of these lines and it’s not just us humans too! Our plants have continued to grow into the winter months and it hasn’t been until January that we experienced our first extended ground frosts. This is usually the trigger required by plants to enter their dormant cycle storing up energy ready for Spring. We have had some of our summer plant varieties still in full flower as late as November and in case of the oxeye daisies and marigolds here at Clandon Wood, December!
Following on from the end of summer and the big event of the year, the annual meadow cut, we have made significant improvements to Clandon Wood by increasing habitat diversity and focusing on improvements specific to those habitats in order to benefit species which are reliant on them. Please keep a close eye on our website and our social media accounts as we will be announcing more on this very soon!!
There are continued works from last winter we need to finish including the laying of the hedge which divides both West and East meadows as well as a couple of further improvements to the woodland area in the south east end of the West meadow.
As a result of the hard work put in by the team this Winter we are really looking forward to Spring season to showcase all this effort.
As we came to the end of summer 2023, I put together a few photos which have been a reflection of this season. In particular, the diversity of plants found in the meadow and the spectrum of abundant colour which we have been blessed with. In addition to those established meadow flowers, we have been busy looking to the future and increasing the seasonal colour pallet whilst maintaining the Clandon Wood ethos of natural & native. With this in mind, we have elected to seed all new graves with a mix of 100% native meadow wildflowers, namely, Corn Chamomile, Corn Cockle, Cornflower, Corn Marigold and Common Poppy. These are available from our supplier and are on the permitted planting list for Clandon Wood. Please see an example below of a recent burial which has been seeded following topping up process.
As we have had an abundance of wildflowers this season, we have, in turn, had an increased number of pollinator insects taking full advantage. Examples shown below are Honeybee, Cinnabar Moth and Small Blues. Following The Butterfly Conservation Trust walking transects, and site visits it has been confirmed that we have a breeding colony again this year which is great news for this, Britain's smallest butterfly!
As with the life cycle of the natural environment where there are insects there are creatures which prey on them! One of the UK’s most impressive arachnids (in my opinion) is the relatively new naturalised visitor from mainland Europe, the Wasp Spider. Aptly named due to its distinctive colouration the female hangs upside down in a large orb web waiting for its prey. Harmless to humans but not so to the hapless male who, if not quick enough, will be devoured after mating with a female.
To allow us to share with visitors and to take time to appreciate Clandon Wood in all its finery we have introduced additional seating areas and benches. You may have noticed these around the West and East ponds and elsewhere around the reserve. Over time these will blend into the landscape and become characterful additions and points of interest for the future.
I will leave you with a few more snapshots taken over the summer months of what has been a very productive season!
Enjoy...
Spring has sprung relatively early this year with the recent warm weather at the beginning of February. This has triggered a few to wake from dormancy and create a bit of a buzz with the grounds staff. Bumble Bees, fruit flies and even a Red Admiral (Vanessa Atalanta) ……. Maybe just passing through but a visitor, nonetheless.
One less welcome emergence has been the return of the dreaded Horse Fly or "cleg[g]", "gleg" or "clag”, dependant on which part of the country you are from. Interestingly the male horse fly doesn’t feed on blood but only the female. This evolutionary divergence is due to the need for the female to tap into mammal blood as a high source of protein which increases egg production and fertility. Nice to know!
We recently posted pictures on our Facebook page of some of our more exotic planting of local to the area flora here at Clandon Wood, such as the Japanese Flowering Cherry.
A beautiful addition to the Orchard in the West Meadow. However, look a bit closer and we can see the emergence of the primrose (Primula Vulgaris), snowdrops (Galanthus (gala, "milk") + (Anthos, "flower")), are on the CITES list of plants that are potentially endangered) and even the odd Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)!
If you are a recent visitor to Clandon Wood, you may have noticed the log piles and clearance work at the end of the track in West Meadow. We have created a glade along this pathway to open the area to some sunlight and to encourage these native woodland flowers which are in decline. Log piles will decay over time and encourage fungi, beetles, amphibians, and other woodland birds to feed, nest or hibernate next winter.
In other news…… our resident Kestrels and wandering Red Kites are enjoying the warmer weather and keep us inspired in maintaining and enhancing this valuable habitat.
Field Fare, Bearded Tit (identified by their “sonar ping” call), Green Woodpeckers, Egyptian Geese are just some of avian visitors we get here at Clandon Wood. Come along and if you like share what you find by sending your pictures to info@clandonwood.com.
Well, what a strange spring it’s been so far. April has proved to be one of the driest in memory, with frosts almost every night and an often chilly north-easterly wind. The tree and meadow growth have been delayed as a result and are now a good fortnight or more behind but are starting to wake up as I write this.
Despite this, spring has been doing its utmost to spring. Birdsong has been steadily increasing, as migrant species arrive and resident species get on with nesting. We have at least one pair of Skylarks back in the East Meadow now and a pair of Kestrels have again taken up residence in our nest box.
The first Swallows have been seen hawking over the ponds and meadows, while migrant warblers such as Blackcaps and Whitethroats have again returned to make their summer homes in our hedgerows and bramble patches.
One summer species it’s always a delight to see return is the Wheatear. Although it no longer breeds anywhere in this part of the country, this species, not much bigger than a Robin, is one of the first migrant species to return in early spring and also one of the furthest travelled. Many of the ones that drop in for a pit stop at Clandon Wood will be carrying on to the north of England, Scotland, the Western Isles or even as far as Greenland, having left sub-Saharan Africa several weeks ago.
The name Wheatear was given to the species by naturalists in the 1800 who felt that the Old English name ‘White Arse’ was a little too crude, although it perfectly describes the first impression of the bird, as its most noticeable feature is often the white rump catching the light as it flies up from the ground in front of you.
Another migratory bird species we’ve seen recently here is also one with an interesting name. It also happens to be one of my favourite birds. The Hobby is a dashing falcon, both in terms of speed and looks, and is the only breeding falcon species in the UK to migrate to and from Africa each year. It looks a little like a skinny Peregrine with its dark back and hood but can be told from that species by its longer, more scythe-like wings, shorter tail and bright red feathering around its legs. The Hobby is a very agile bird, able to catch dragonflies, other flying insects and even Swallows, Martins and Swifts which it eats on the wing.
The scientific name is Falco subbuteo, which is where the interesting name bit I mentioned earlier comes in. When Peter Adolph, the creator of the tabletop football game, came to trademarking his creation he wanted to call it ‘The Hobby’ but this was refused, so he instead opted for ‘Subbuteo’, in honour of his favourite bird. ‘Subbuteo’ actually translates as ‘smaller than a Buzzard’, so has nothing to do with football at all. A useful one to remember for a pub quiz!
A new year and, indeed, a new decade dawns at Clandon Wood, and the unseasonably mild winter weather continues. Walking around the meadows in early January, Gareth and I have come across quite a number of ‘spring’ indicators already in evidence – Primrose and Hazel in flower, the first Buff-tailed Bumbleebees and Marmalade Hoverfly of the year and a discernible increase in the volume and diversity of bird song, as species such as Song Thrush, Dunnock and Mistle Thrush proclaim their territories.
We even saw a butterfly on 30th December, sailing over the tops of the young trees in the West Meadow, but sadly weren’t able to identify which species, though it will certainly have been one of the species which hibernates as an adult; most likely Peacock or Red Admiral. Great Spotted Woodpeckers are now regularly to be heard drumming in the trees around the edge of the meadows, and we’ve seen Mallards, Moorhens, Egyptian Geese and a Coot returning to the ponds – some of which we hope will breed here in the coming months.
Ravens are becoming an increasingly frequent sight flying over or through the site – sometimes quite low – loudly ‘cronking’ as they go. It’s great to see this species doing so well and spreading their range across this part of the country after historically being pushed to the far south-west of England, Wales and Scotland by persecution.
I’m pleased to report that the sheep arrived in early January and are now munching their way through the lush growth that the mild weather has produced in the West Meadow. They will be with us for a couple of months, helping to get keep the grasses and other dominant plants in check, enabling other more delicate plants to grow in the sward. The other benefit of the sheep is that they attract birds and other wildlife to follow them around in the hope of tasty morsels in their droppings or turned up from the ground by their hooves. As is usual for this time of year, flocks of migratory Fieldfares, Redwings and Starlings are beginning to build in number to feed in the meadows ahead of their return journey back across the North Sea.
As is customary for the time of year, Gareth and I recently carried out our annual count of Brown Hairstreak eggs. The last butterfly species to emerge in the summer, they can be notoriously tricky to track down as adults, so the easiest way to monitor a local population is to look for eggs in winter when the twigs of their preferred Blackthorn are leafless. We managed to find 36 eggs this time which equals our record from two years ago. The number of eggs found is likely to be less than half the true number present so it’s very encouraging to see them doing so well here. As the species prefers to lay its eggs on youngish growth it benefits from our sensitive hedgerow management, unlike a lot of modern farm hedges which are flailed back to the old growth every year.
Talking of hedges, we’re busy working through our programme of winter works which will include laying the remaining sections of the main hedgerow between the two meadows, ensuring that the whole boundary is stockproof (eliminating the need for the unsightly plastic electric fencing) and encouraging young growth from the base of the plants, improving the wildlife value of the hedge.
As it’s dark and drizzly outside as I write this in late November, it’s fair to say autumn has just about run its course and we are heading towards winter.
Butterflies and most of the other summer insects have largely gone now that we’ve had the first frosts; with those lepidopteran species that overwinter as adults now tucked up in their hibernating spots until the spring. We were still seeing the odd Small Copper and Red Admiral on warmer days in October though and even occasional dragonflies and bumblebees into November.
The autumn migration season delivered some avian treats, including our first site records of Black Redstart and Dartford Warbler. The Black Redstart was around the pavilion area as we locked up on the evening of 23rd October – a day which saw hundreds of these birds arriving across the southeast, carried across from the near continent on easterly winds. Only around a hundred pairs of this relative of the Robin breed in the UK but many more than that come to spend the winter in the UK or drop in on migration to mainland Europe. The Dartford Warbler is a heathland specialist so the one I found in the main hedge between the meadows early on 4th October will have likely left one of the nearby heaths to spend the winter in a slightly more hospitable landscape.
One thing we’ve been noticing a lot more of at Clandon Wood recently is fungi. Whilst it does seem to have been a particularly good year for fungi everywhere, it’s still encouraging to see more of it popping up here as it means the conditions are becoming more favourable; with more in the way of organic matter to feed on such as fallen leaves, rotting wood and leftover thatch from the hay cut. Year on year we hope to see our fungi list growing. New species we have discovered here recently include plenty of Blackening Waxcaps near the Pavilion (which turn from bright red to black as they age) and a couple of Rosy Bonnets among the leaf litter on the edge of the West Meadow.
Another interesting find recently was an egg sac of a Wasp Spider in the West Meadow. The Wasp Spider was first recorded in the UK on the East Sussex coast in 1922 but in more recent years has spread across south-eastern counties as the climate warms. The species gets its name from its wasp-like colouring, designed to ward off predators. The female does the bulk of the legwork (no pun intended) and builds this egg sac once she has mated with and eaten her mate.
Now much of the vegetation has died down for the winter and the leaves are falling off the trees we’ve again started noticing Roe Deer lurking around the place, usually near the wetland area of the West Meadow. We had a suspicion it was deer eating some of the cut flowers on graves and were able to prove this using our motion sensor trail camera and a small sacrificial bunch of roses!
It’s been an incredibly busy few weeks here at Clandon Wood since my previous blog post. The meadows have been cut and baled now and there’s lots of nature news to report.
The most exciting sighting by far has to be the Death’s-head Hawkmoth caterpillar which I stumbled ‘across near the office early in August. This species doesn’t generally breed in the UK but rather is a scarce migrant from southern Europe and Africa. Indeed, this is the first one I’ve ever seen and represented only the fourth 2019 record of the species in the UK at the time.
The caterpillar (or larva) can grow up to 12cm in length, at which time they wander away from their food plant in search of a suitable spot to burrow under the soil to pupate. A few moth expert friends suggested I try putting it in a bucket of soil so as to give it a safe place to pupate, which I did, and after around a fortnight I unearthed the amazing reddish-brown pupa.
I then placed this in another container where it remained for another couple of weeks before the adult moth emerged and I released it back at Clandon Wood. Hopefully, given the prolonged warm and settled in weather in September, it may now have crossed the Channel and be somewhere in mainland Europe by now.
As you’ve probably guessed, the moth gets its name from the skull-like pattern on its thorax. This, combined with their large size and habit of squeaking loudly when startled, led to them being a rather feared creature in years gone by. Indeed, one of the supposed first sightings in Britain was around the time of King Charles I, although rationale would suggest this is due to the arrival of potatoes in the country a few decades before – potato plants are one of the larvae’s preferred food plants.
Other lepidopteran highlights recently have included the rather belated first Clouded Yellow of the year whizzing through the West Meadow on 18th September, a couple of Brown Hairstreaks and reasonable numbers of Painted Ladies and Red Admirals powering their way south, making the most of the late fine weather to migrate back to the continent.
Talking of migration, August-October is the peak time for the summer birds heading south to warmer climes for the winter. We’ve seen a number of Wheatears and Whinchats and the odd Tree Pipit dropping in to the meadows for a pit stop, while late September saw the usual streams of House Martins and Swallows racing south overhead; at least five hundred of the former flew over on 26th September, while 30th September proved to be the big day for southward Meadow Pipit movement, with hundreds flying south.
Other species we’ve seen here which don’t fly quite so far but still move around the UK and perhaps into the near continent include a few Stonechats and couple of flyover Marsh Harriers – the latter the first records of this species at Clandon Wood. Where I live down in the Arun Valley in West Sussex they’re becoming an increasingly common sight but are still a scarcity in Surrey.
As the summer species leave us behind, soon we will be seeing the winter birds coming in and flocks of Redwings, Fieldfares and Starlings will again be running around in the meadows, chasing the sheep which we hope will be arriving soon.
Gareth and I have both been trying to expand our knowledge of bees this year and have discovered a number of interesting species new for Clandon Wood, including Orange-vented Mason Bee and Grey-patched Mining Bee. As our patches of Ivy are now in full flower as I write this, we’ve also seen the Ivy Bees out in force – look out for them either on Ivy flowers or flying around their colony on the bank by the office if you’re visiting us soon.
Just before the meadows were mowed we discovered a Wasp Spider on her nest near the West Pond. These colourful creatures have only been in Britain a few years but are now a relatively common sight in the southeast.
So, as ever, there’s much to see here at Clandon Wood – do let us know what you see if you visit and also look out for our new nature reserve interpretation board on the edge of the car park.
Well, there’s an amazing amount of things to talk about since my last blog post – it’s certainly been an action-packed few weeks at Clandon Wood!
First up, I’m pleased to report that all five Kestrel chicks have grown strong and healthy enough to leave the nest box. It’s been great fun watching them learning to hunt and fly around the car park area recently or sometimes all perched in a line on the roof of the new shepherd’s hut. You might still see them around this area for a little while yet but as they gradually extend their horizons they will start to blend into the landscape a little more and by the end of the summer will most likely have dispersed to other locations. As ever, the licensed bird ringer who installed the nest box has fitted the youngsters with coloured leg rings so we can keep tabs on their movements. I was chatting to another ringer the other day who said he’d caught one of last year’s juveniles just up the road in Ripley a few months back, and of course the year before that one turned up in Essex!
We again are pretty sure we have a pair of Skylarks nesting in the East Meadow. Unlike last year, they seemed to give it a miss earlier in the summer as the grass was a little slower to get growing but, as is the case with many bird species, they will sometimes try for a later brood as and when the conditions are more suitable – as we hope as happened at Clandon Wood. Please remember to keep all dogs on a short lead when onsite as these ground-nesting birds are particularly vulnerable to disturbance.
On the Lady Pond in the East Meadow a pair of Moorhens have successfully reared five chicks which have now half grown into black powder puffs on stilts, squeaking constantly as they pester their parents for food. You can get good views of them from behind the willow hide which Gareth and I built earlier this year. Sadly, not such good news for the Coots on the West Pond which have failed to breed successfully for the first time in the four summers I’ve been working here. The adult birds have now left but hopefully they or another pair will be back next year.
The butterfly season is in full swing now. We had one of our best ever springs for Small Blues with several adults seen in early June and a number of eggs found on the patches of Kidney Vetch around the site – the larval food plant of choice for this species. The Small Blue’s flight period is over for now (there’s another shorter one in late summer) but one of our other flagship species, the White-letter Hairstreak, is now out and about. Look out for the males furiously duelling above any of the Elm trees around the edge of the site, particularly near Lady Pond, or if you’re very lucky you may find one nectaring on a nearby thistle or hogweed.
The other big bit of butterfly news this summer has been the amazing invasion of Painted Ladies. Thousands upon thousands of them have been seen in coastal areas and some of these made it to us at Clandon towards the end of June with at last 75 seen in a single tour of the site on the 24th. The most migratory butterfly in the world, Painted Ladies fly from Africa up to Northern Europe and back in successive generations, in effect chasing the summer weather and the suitable breeding conditions that go with it.
Another far-flung migrant lepidopteran species is the Hummingbird Hawk-moth and we’ve also started seeing a few of these around the site as I write this in early July. These extraordinary insects look something like a cross between a giant bumblebee and a hummingbird as they whizz around looking for nectar sources which they then hover at as they feed. Their larval food plant of choice is the bedstraws, which is lucky as we have masses of Lady’s Bedstraw and Hedge Bedstraw in the meadows at Clandon Wood. If you visit soon you can’t help but notice the wonderful clouds of yellow and white around the place and smell their honey-scented fragrance. We were really lucky to stumble across two Hummingbird Hawk-moth caterpillars on a Lady’s Bedstraw just this morning; not something I’ve seen here before.
Talking of plants, the meadows really are looking their best now. Particularly of note this year have been the best ever displays from the various orchid species. Just three years ago we discovered our first Bee Orchids on the verge by the front gate; this year we have found at least sixty around the meadows. Similarly, we have at least five Pyramidal Orchids in the East Meadow compared to just two last year, and we’ve also found our first truly wild Common Spotted Orchid near the West Meadow (as opposed to any that have been planted on graves). By continuing our annual cycle of cutting and removing the hay in late summer we’ll reduce the fertility of the soil year on year which should mean species like this continue to thrive and spread, and hopefully new species will move in too.
There’s always so much to see at this time of year that it’s sometimes hard to know where to look, but a good tip if you’re a little overwhelmed by it all is to start small and concentrate on one thing. By that I mean either one particular group of animals, plants or insects, or rather just have a look at what’s living on one plant or small area of grass. As an example, we have a good amount of White Bryony at Clandon Wood and there’s a particularly good clump of it by the gate that cuts through from the West Meadow to the Pavilion area. I spent a few minutes looking at this the other morning and enjoyed watching several Bryony Mining Bees visiting the flowers, and also found adults and a pupa of the Bryony Ladybird. As their respective names suggest, both these species spend most of their lives on this one plant. If that plant goes, so do all the insects and other species which rely on it. Isn’t nature amazing?
Early May at Clandon Wood. The meadows are growing apace, many resident and migrant birds are singing and the air is scented with Hawthorn blossom.
Spring has been rather a protracted season this year, especially given the exceptionally warm spell we had in February. What it has meant is that everything has felt quite relaxed and every plant has had its turn in flowering, unlike some years where it seems as though everything happens in a flash! The early whites and yellows of Blackthorn, Grey Willow and a fabulous display from the drought-tolerant Dandelions – which clearly did well after last year’s dry summer – gave way to similarly spectacular showings from White and Red Dead-nettles, Field and Germander Speedwells and Ground-ivy. All these early-flowering species are so important as sources of nectar for spring pollinators such as Bee-flies and various Bumblebee species, which we’ve seen many of already this year; many insects also emerged early this year due to the February heatwave.
By this time of year most bird species are already well into their breeding cycle and some may already have young chicks. Species we’ve seen gathering food for hungry mouths recently include Starling and Blackbird. Our Kestrel pair seem to be settled in to the nest box and all the signs are that they will breed successfully again this year. On the West Pond we have a pair of Coots while a pair of Moorhens have again moved in to Lady Pond in the East Meadow. We are fairly confident we also have a pair of Skylarks nesting in the middle of the East Meadow again but as usual they are proving decidedly elusive!
The hedgerows and bramble patches are playing host to at least three pairs of Common Whitethroats and, as was the case last spring, a singing male Lesser Whitethroat has recently arrived in the roadside hedge which has now grown to a height and density to be to its liking. It’s always incredible to think of these 10-15 gram birds making the journey to Africa and back to Surrey every year and reminds us how important it is that they have suitable and secure places to nest when they do return.
Speaking of hedges, we have now finished laying the main section of hedgerow between the two meadows and it’s already greening up and flowering nicely. In a year or two it will have regrown and be entirely stockproof and an ideal corridor and nesting space for a variety of birds and small mammals.
The butterfly season is now underway although has been a bit stop/start thanks to the unsettled end to April and beginning of May. Nonetheless, we’ve so far managed to carry out two surveys during which we’ve recorded some of the classic hibernating and early emerging spring species such as Brimstone, Peacock, Green-veined White, Orange-tip, Holly Blue and Green Hairstreak; we’ve seen particularly good numbers of the latter lately which is encouraging as we had a good spring for them last year too, so it seems they are doing well here at Clandon Wood.
Although it may seem hard to believe as I write this on a wild, wet and windy day in the middle of March, the start of April marks the beginning of the butterfly survey season, which seems an appropriate time to reflect on last year.
Out of the 120 sites in Surrey where weekly transects were walked between April and September I’m pleased to report that, in 2018, Clandon Wood came joint sixth in terms of the number of species recorded. A total of thirty species were recorded including the first confirmed site records of Dingy Skipper and Dark Green Fritillary.
In addition, we were one of only eleven transect sites in the county where White-letter Hairstreaks were recorded. The rarest of the four Hairstreak species found in the UK, we are very lucky to have White-letters here at Clandon Wood and are doing our best to help them by planting Elm trees around the site; the tree of choice for these butterflies to lay their eggs on, with the caterpillars then emerging in early spring to feed on the flower buds. The Elms we have planted are all Dutch Elm disease-resistant varieties such as ‘Lutece’, unlike the English Elms around our boundaries which sadly now only grow to around 5-10 metres before they succumb to the disease.
The 2019 butterfly season got off to an unusually early start due to the unprecedented warm spell in the second half of February but, as the weather has turned rather more inclement, the hibernating species have returned to their winter hiding places for now. It won’t be long though before they re-emerge along with the first generations of early hatching species such as Orange-tip and Speckled Wood. As the different habitat structures at Clandon Wood develop over the years and with careful management, including introducing larval foodplants for specialist species, we are hopeful we will see the number of butterflies here increase.
As has been the trend in recent years the second half of this winter is proving to be the coldest part of the year with the first proper frosts and snow of the season coming in the latter part of January into early February. Such cold weather may seem cruel when it comes to wildlife and it’s certainly true that many animals will struggle to survive in prolonged spells of freezing temperatures. On the plus side it does have the advantage of suppressing overwintering parasites and pathogens which can be detrimental to insects and plants in the growing season. As such, it’s often the case that summers after a very cold winter can be good for butterflies – as was the case in 2018.
Talking of butterflies, we have recently been carrying out our annual search for Brown Hairstreak eggs in the various patches of Blackthorn around the site. The last butterfly to emerge in the summer (usually flies mid-late July-September), the adults can be quite elusive so looking for the eggs in winter when the Blackthorn twigs are bare is the best way to gauge the health of the population in a given area. This winter I’m pleased to say we found 28 eggs dotted around the place; slightly down on last year’s 36 but still a good number and, in contrast to most butterfly species, it seems Brown Hairstreak had a generally rather poor year in 2018 so this slight reduction is not too much to worry about.
Even more excitingly we have also confirmed our first White-letter Hairstreak eggs on a couple of the Wych Elms along the western boundary of the site – thanks to the help of Bill Downey from Butterfly Conservation. As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, the White-letter Hairstreak is one of the scarcest butterflies in the UK now owing to its dependence on Elm on which to lay its eggs, mature specimens of which are now much harder to find thanks to the arrival of Dutch Elm Disease in the 20th Century – many millions of trees in Britain had succumbed to the disease by 1980.
We have recently seen some signs of birds responding to the cold weather, as happened early last year. A few Lapwings have been seen flying south overhead while in the hedgerows numbers of species such as Fieldfare and Goldcrest have noticeably increased. The ponds have been frozen for several days as I write this in early February so our resident wetland species such as Coot and Mallard have had to move on in search of unfrozen water. For when the birds do return after the thaw we have created a woven willow hide by Lady Pond and a wooden viewing platform by the West Pond to help visitors get a good view without disturbing them. It’s important to not approach too close to the edge of any water body as birds and other wildlife get very alarmed when they see a human shape approaching over the skyline and can easily abandon nests or young in the process.
Our resident pair of Kestrels are already noisily defending their nest box so we’re hopeful that they will again go on to rear their young in it this summer. We recently heard news that one of last year’s chicks was seen not far away in Ripley; not quite as far from home as the one that turned up in Essex last year but good to know it’s doing well.
It can seem at this time of year as if the meadows are looking very bare and lifeless but look a little closer and you’ll be amazed what you can see. We’re really excited to have found at least a dozen Bee Orchid leaf rosettes in the short grass quite near the Pavilion; an encouraging increase from just a couple in previous years. Hopefully they will continue spreading around the site.
Mammals can be particularly tricky to find at this time of year as many of them partially or fully hibernate. We have a regular trio of Roe Deer that are frequenting the area at the northern end of the site, they can quite often be seen in the field just to the north of West Pond. Snowy weather offers another means of finding out which animals have been active onsite as they leave tell-tale tracks around the place. We have recently found Badger, Fox, various birds and possibly Hedgehog footprints in the snow here.
Despite the icy weather of late, there’s no denying the amount of daylight is now noticeably increasing and with it the amount of birdsong. We’ve also started hearing Great Spotted Woodpeckers drumming on sunny days lately; a sure sign that spring can’t be too far away!
Autumn has well and truly run its course, the leaves have all turned and mostly fallen and the days are getting very short. Winter has arrived at Clandon Wood. As usual at this time of year, a small flock of sheep have arrived to help keep the grass short. They’ve had a few weeks’ grazing in the West Meadow and will soon be moved into a fenced-off section in the East Meadow. There may only be seven of them but we’re already seeing the effects of their presence; the sward is looking lightly munched and birds are beginning to follow the flock around to forage for worms and insects disturbed by their hooves.
In October we saw the first Redwings and Fieldfares arrive from Scandinavia, with many hundreds flying over on some days. Starlings, too, have been building in number, as migrant birds fly in to spend the winter here, bulking up the flocks of more local birds. Our hedgerows are a vital source of food for hungry birds at this time of year, particularly the migrant thrushes, which drop in to happily gobble up the berries. Unlike a lot of farmland hedges ours are not flailed but laid cyclically, meaning they are allowed to grow freely, flower and fruit for several years before laying. Each time the hedge is laid it gets denser and more vigorous, providing more food and shelter for all sorts of wildlife but also negating the need for any fencing to keep livestock in the fields.
Another bird that is often seen in large numbers at this time of year is the humble Woodpigeon. It’s not uncommon on clear and crisp mornings in late October and November to see many hundreds or even thousands of them on the move overhead. It’s thought that these are mostly British birds simply flocking together to find good feeding areas but, as is the case with most of our resident species, they are probably joined by some birds from overseas.
It’s tempting to feel at this time of year that, as the meadows have been cut and the autumn colours on the trees have gone, that the landscape is now drab and devoid of colour. This couldn’t be further from the truth as the dramatic skyscapes of winter bring out the greens and browns in the meadows against the inky blue of the clouds. Look closer around the meadows and you will find there is still much in flower, from Knapweeds to Stork’s-bills. In one of our recently created ‘groves’ (the fenced-off areas you may have seen in the meadows) a young Gorse bush is in bloom as I write this. Their coconut-scented golden flowers add a wonderful dash of colour to even the dullest of days. Although the main flowering season is in spring, Gorse can and does flower at any time of year, hence the old country saying ‘when gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of fashion’.
A glance at either of the ponds at Clandon Wood may lead you to think that things are rather quiet at present, but there is still lots going on. We saw Common Darters egg-laying well into November and the larvae of many other dragonfly species will already be active under the water, feeding up ready to emerge next spring and summer. In terms of water birds the West Pond is still playing host to a single Little Grebe and we’ve had occasional visits from a Mute Swan or two, though the summer drought means the water level may still be a little low for them.
We’ve continued to capture footage of a Water Rail skulking around the edges of West Pond, though I’ve still yet to see it in the flesh. All attempts by a licensed bird ringer to try and catch this bird and ring it have failed, unfortunately, but it’s great to know it’s stuck around for a while now – clearly the habitat is to its liking. Another revelation from the trail camera here has been small numbers of Teal visiting during the night. The smallest of the dabbling ducks, this is another species that breeds in the UK in small numbers but the population is massively boosted in the winter by immigrants from Scandinavia, Siberia, Iceland and the near continent.
We are still seeing our little local gang of Roe Deer from time to time, often along the northern boundary of the site, and have also found footprints in some of the muddier areas of the site.
It’s getting rather late in the year now for the majority of insects but in November we still saw the odd Buff-tailed Bumblebee or butterfly including a Painted Lady on the 2nd. Even as we enter the depths of winter a mild, calm day and a bit of sunshine can be all it takes to coax a Red Admiral or one of the other overwintering species out of their winter hiding place. I have even seen one on New Year’s Eve before!
Year on year, the benefits of our more sensitive style of land management here at Clandon Wood should become apparent. There can be few better indicators of this than our fungi population which I have certainly seen increase in just the three years I’ve been working here. Fungi perform a variety of vital roles in any ecosystem, from helping transfer nutrients from the soil to plants, to breaking down all sorts of organic matter. They are all around us in the soil and plants though only become visible when they produce fruiting bodies, some of which we know as mushrooms or toadstools, although fungi fruiting bodies can take on many forms. New species we have seen this autumn include White Dapperling and Meadow Puffball while regular favourites such as Shaggy Inkcap and Yellow Fieldcap have also been much in evidence.
Early autumn is a time of plenty in the natural world as plants and trees are heavy with nuts, seeds and fruits. One species that benefits from the glut of nuts at this time of year is the Jay, the most colourful member of the crow family, which relies on acorns for the bulk of its diet. They are often more conspicuous in autumn as they roam about in search of oaks. It was particularly encouraging recently to see some harvesting acorns from some of our young oak trees in the East Meadow, which are mature enough to be producing fruit now.
The shortening days and lengthening nights around the Autumnal Equinox are the trigger for many birds to leave our shores and, as was the case last autumn, we saw some impressive numbers of Swallows and House Martins on the move recently, with as many as six or seven hundred of the latter flying over on 11th September, some coming down to feed over our ponds and meadows for a while before continuing on their journey. Most of these will be well on their way across Europe now, heading to Africa for the winter, but it’s nice to know that the landscape of Clandon Wood played a small part in their epic expedition.
Yellow Wagtails seem to have had a good year in their breeding areas as we’ve seen more than usual dropping in or flying over recently. Particularly impressive was a flock of at least sixteen which dropped down for a short time at the West Pond on 20th September. The drought this summer means both our ponds are lower than usual for this time of year and this is particularly beneficial to wetland birds or any other wildlife that likes to feed on exposed mud.
In addition to the Yellow Wagtails we’ve seen Meadows Pipits, Yellowhammers, Stock Doves, Green Sandpipers, Snipe and various small mammals visiting this area lately, either to bathe in the shallow water or feed in the mud. Of particular interest in early October was our first site record of Water Rail, with one captured on our trail camera running across the mud in this area. This elusive bird spends much of its time skulking away in reedbeds and marshy areas, its presence often only betrayed by its pig-like squealing call. They’re fairly scarce as a breeding species in Surrey so this bird is probably a migrant that has dropped in on its way elsewhere, or if we’re lucky it may stay and spend the winter here. With all this life going on at the ponds please remember not to approach too close to the water’s edge and keep dogs under close control at all times.
Another unusual migrant bird seen recently was an Osprey which flew south early on 18th September. This fish-eating raptor which comes to us from West Africa every year is really increasing in number now after a sharp decline in the 19th Century. It now has breeding strongholds in Scotland, Wales and parts of Northern England.
Another season of butterfly transect walks has now come to an end and early indications suggest it’s been a bumper year for many species. Scarcer species such as White-letter Hairstreak, Purple Hairstreak, Brown Argus and Small Copper seem to have done particularly well and this has been reflected in our records here. Only time will tell if the dry conditions have a detrimental knock-on effect on other species, as happened in 1977 after the famously hot summer of ‘76. Species such as Small Tortoiseshell are already in decline and could do without another setback such as this. Nice to see on 18th September was our first Clouded Yellow of the year, one of the species which migrates to our shores from Africa and southern Europe. Species such as Speckled Wood, Red Admiral, Peacock and Brimstone can be seen on the wing on sunny days almost until the end of the year and some of them will hibernate and emerge again in the spring – so look out for them if you’re visiting Clandon Wood in the coming weeks.
The main meadows were mowed in early September and we are now busy cutting half of the grass in the treed areas of the site. It’s tempting to think that there is a dearth of flowers at Clandon Wood at this time of year, but as any of you who attended Gareth’s recent plant safari will know there is still much to see. Plants such as Field Scabious, Musk Mallow, Yarrow, Toadflax and Greater and Common Knapweed are putting on a great late display of flowers, helped along by the prolonged dominance of fine weather we’ve been enjoying at the tail end of one of the hottest summers in living memory combined with the cool nights and dewy mornings of early autumn.
Of particular value at this time of year is Common Ivy, the rather unusual-looking flowers of which provide a late source of nectar for butterflies, wasps and hornets and the Ivy Bee; a colonial species which was only recorded in the UK in the early part of this century but which now appears to be thriving in the south of England. Its flight season is perfectly timed to coincide with the flowering period of Ivy (September-November) as it relies almost exclusively on this plant as a source of pollen. As they are one of the mining bees they make their homes in holes in south-facing areas of exposed sandy soil and we have discovered we have a busy colony near the Wildlife Garden.
Despite some rather cooler, wetter conditions in the second week of August, the hot weather has continued largely unabated since my last blog post and the meadows here at Clandon Wood are now ready for harvest. As the wild flowers have all but gone to seed and the fruits are ripening in the hedges, so too the birds, butterflies and many other animals are completing their breeding cycles and beginning their preparations for autumn and winter.
The Swifts have largely all flown south now and the hedgerows at Clandon Wood are busy with Whitethroats and Blackcaps fattening themselves up on elderberries and blackberries ahead of their own long journeys. Juvenile birds abound with young Goldfinches and Pheasants in the meadows, rather unsteady Buzzards whining overhead and the usual Little Grebe, Coot and Moorhen families on the ponds. Some of our resident Kestrel family are still around, often seen perched in the young trees or flying low over the meadows, not to be confused with the black and white scythe-winged, short-tailed Hobby which we’ve seen quite a bit of recently. One of my favourite birds, these dashing migratory falcons feed on dragonflies and birds such as Swallows and Swifts which they are agile enough to catch and sometimes eat in the air. A late breeder, they will now be feeding themselves and their young up ahead of their return to Africa in the coming weeks.
As I mentioned, dragonflies are a staple of the Hobby’s diet and at this time of year there are lots around, particularly near the ponds here at Clandon Wood. One of the most numerous species around now is the Common Darter; look out for the red-bodied males and golden females hawking around low over the meadows.
Butterfly numbers are starting to tail off a little, with the high summer species such as Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper coming to the end of their flight seasons now. The second generation of Common Blue – one of our most numerous butterflies here – seems particularly good this year with just under two hundred logged in a single transect walk on 7th August. In good years species such as Dingy Skipper will have a second brood which has indeed happened here this year – this is great news as we only recorded the species for the first time here in the spring. Other species we’ve been seeing more of than usual lately include Brown Argus and Small Heath. One of the last butterfly species to emerge in the year and as such one of the true heralds of autumn approaching, we have seen a few Brown Hairstreaks at Clandon Wood recently. As regular readers of this blog will know we have a fairly good population of this species here although the adult butterflies are considerably harder to find than their eggs which we look for in our Blackthorn hedges in the winter months.
I’ve been running my moth trap fairly regularly through the summer months with some good results, including many new species we’ve not recorded here before. One of the most colourful was the Rosy-striped Knothorn (Oncocera semirubella), a tiny micro moth – just an inch long and coloured like a rhubarb and custard sweet. This species lives on Bird’s-foot Trefoil in chalk grassland and is confined to southern counties in the UK.
The micro moths are a fascinating and often overlooked group. They make up the lion’s share of moths in Britain with over 1,600 species compared to only around 800 of the larger or ‘macro moth’ species. Due to their often tiny size many micros have adapted to fill some very inconspicuous niches. It’s tempting to think that, as the flowers and grasses in meadows such as here at Clandon Wood fade in late summer, so the wildlife value of the habitat diminishes but in fact it is then that many species such as Little Conch, Cocksfoot Moth and Teasel Marble begin the next stage of their life cycles as their larvae feed inside the seed heads of plants such as Ragwort, Sow-thistle, Cocksfoot and Teasel – not to mention the hosts of butterfly larvae which will be emerging in the coming weeks to feed on herbaceous growth of many plants and grasses. So, while it’s tempting to see the transition from summer to autumn as an ending, in many ways it is just a new beginning. There’s a palpable feeling of change in the natural world at this time of year and I for one absolutely love it.
It’s been an exciting few weeks here at Clandon Wood as we’ve transitioned into high summer, with new species seemingly being added to our site list almost daily.
The meadows have progressed quickly after the slow start to spring and there are now many plants in flower. Thanks to the prolonged dry spell, however, the grasses in particular have already gone over and turned the pale straw colour of late summer. Indeed, it’s hard to believe it’s only mid-July as I write this. It feels more like August already and we may be looking at a somewhat earlier hay cut this year, if the weather continues as it is. It’s certainly been a strange year.
In terms of new additions to our plant list the best find recently was a small troop of Pyramidal Orchids in the East Meadow. We’ve also noticed Bee Orchids appearing in several places around the site too after we recorded them last year for the first time here growing near the front entrance. The little caged-off patch near the Pavilion is one which we’re allowing to set seed as it’s in an area that we usually mow fairly regularly. Both these Orchids favour dry chalk grassland and rely on fungi in the soil to survive, so provide an excellent indicator that we are making the soil here more hospitable by not ploughing or spraying, etc.
Other new species we’ve found this year include Quaking-grass, Water Speedwell, Wild Parsnip and Meadow Fescue. It’s really encouraging to see existing species increasing too; Kidney Vetch in particular has given a great showing this year which will hopefully benefit the scarce Small Blue butterfly, the caterpillars of which feed exclusively on this chalk-loving plant. We recently had a visit from Bill Downey and Gail Jeffcoate from Butterfly Conservation who were particularly interested in looking for eggs of this species. They unfortunately weren’t able to find any on this occasion but were confident that the amount of Kidney Vetch onsite would in time support a small population.
We’ve been seeing Roe Deer here more regularly of late; most excitingly was seeing a female with two young fawns in the wetland area in the West Meadow on 24th May and we managed to capture footage of the three of them on our wildlife camera in this area. The parents will likely leave the fawns in the long grass during the day so do remember to keep dogs on a short lead at all times when out in the meadows.
You may have seen on social media that we discovered a pair of Treecreepers nesting in one of the trees on the edge of the site. I’m pleased to report that after a sterling feeding effort from the adult birds three youngsters fledged early on 24th May. Many other birds have successfully bred here already this summer including Whitethroat, Green Woodpecker, Pheasant, Little Grebe and Coot. The West Pond currently has several youngsters of the latter two species in situ, while House Martins, Swallows and Swifts can often be seen feeding on insects overhead or occasionally sipping water from the pond itself.
Following on from their leg ring fitting in the middle of June, the four young Kestrels have all now fledged the nest box and can be seen out and about, often in the trees near the box or sometimes perched on the Pavilion or the office. Look (or listen!) out for them when you next visit.
During a couple of our regular butterfly surveys recently we were very pleased to record our 29th and 30th butterfly species – Dingy Skipper and Dark Green Fritillary. Both of these grassland species were ones we’d hoped to see move in in due course as there are populations at nearby Newlands Corner and Sheepleas, so these records are really encouraging. Other grassland specialist butterflies we’ve seen recently include the first Marbled Whites, Ringlets, Small and Essex Skippers of the year. On the Elms dotted around the edges of the site, particularly near the two ponds, we have again been recording White-letter Hairstreaks as their 2018 flight season got underway in mid-June. This is the scarcest butterfly we are lucky enough to have resident at Clandon Wood and is therefore attracting quite a bit of attention – in fact the Surrey branch of Butterfly Conservation recently had a field trip here specifically to see them.
All in all, I must say this spring and early summer has seen the site looking the best I’ve seen it in this my third summer working at Clandon Wood, and it’s really great to hear so much positive feedback from customers and visitors. Please do continue to enjoy the wealth of wildlife we have here and don’t forget to share your sightings with us!
The licensed bird ringer who installed the Kestrel nest box at Clandon Wood last year recently came in to fit leg rings on this year’s four chicks.
Ringing is in no way harmful to birds and provides us with a very valuable insight into their movements. One of last year’s youngsters was later found in Essex, you may remember! The advantage of the large coloured rings fitted to the Kestrels is they can be read from some distance away, so hopefully someone may see one of ours chicks in years to come. If you see a ringed bird you can report it at http://www.ring.ac/
The chicks have now grown up quite a bit since these photos were taken and have started leaving the box and flying around although they will likely linger in the area for a little while yet before they start to disperse.
It feels rather like I’ve started every blog post recently talking about the weather but it really has turned into one of the most turbulent springs we’ve seen in recent years. Aside from the brief settled spell in mid-April and the May Bank Holiday heatwave we’ve had just about every type of weather imaginable, which is unfortunately not great news for wildlife. After a shaky start though it does at last feel as though the season has stuttered into gear, although the lasting effects of such unpredictable conditions may take time to show.
Butterflies will have doubtless struggled this spring, with so little in the way of clement weather for them to fly, feed and find a mate. Indeed, we are seven weeks into the transect survey season and have only managed to carry out three walks so far, and many of the classic early species have been emerging later than usual. On days when the sun has shone here at Clandon Wood we have at least seen a few bits out and about including the first Orange-tips, Holly Blues and Whites (Large, Small and Green-veined) of the year, along with the more numerous Brimstones, Peacocks and Commas. One species which is bucking the trend and does seem to be having a good year so far is Green Hairstreak. We are lucky to have all four of the Hairstreak species found in Surrey here at Clandon Wood, and although Green is the most common of the four it is still rather localised in its distribution. On our transect walk last week, Green Hairstreak was in fact the most numerous species, with eight recorded. Hopefully our efforts to increase the availability of their larval food plants such as Gorse will mean they continue to do well here.
Migrating birds, too, have been held up by the unsettled spring but it’s reassuring to see a few coming through at last. One of the sights birdwatchers eagerly look out for in March and April is the first Wheatear, the smart bandit mask-wearing birds that return to Europe from sub-Saharan Africa every year and undertake one of the most remarkable migration journeys. We’ve recorded two at Clandon Wood so far this spring, with one near the pavilion on 9th April and a second male favouring the log bench in the middle of the East Meadow on the 18th. Wheatears are not the only visitors from the south to have arrived recently as we’ve seen several Swallows, Swifts and House Martins along with most of the common warbler species. More notable was a singing male Lesser Whitethroat in the roadside hedge which arrived on 19th April and has been heard on a few occasions since. We’ve only recorded this species once on site before, a non-singing bird in the main hedgerow last August. Even if it doesn’t hang around all summer it’s still an encouraging sign as this species favours dense hedgerows so clearly ours are now to their liking.
The ponds have been proving popular recently too, particularly West Pond which is now playing host to pairs of Coot and Little Grebe, both on nests, as well as occasional Moorhen, Mallard and Canada Geese. Rather more unusual was the male Tufted Duck which visited on a couple of days recently. This diving duck would usually favour larger, deeper water bodies, although we have recorded it once before with a small number discovered to be visiting during the night thanks to our motion sensor wildlife camera.
The resident Kestrel pair have again taken up residence in our nest box, so fingers crossed they’ll be successful in their breeding attempt again this year – the licensed bird ringer who installed the box will be checking on their progress soon so I’ll keep you updated in the next blog post. A recent addition to our bird species list was the first sighting of a Barn Owl hunting along the roadside edge of the West Meadow, seen by George over the Bank Holiday weekend, followed by another sighting of one flying over the Pavilion on the 14th, reported by Simon. This is really encouraging news, partly because it means we’re providing good habitat for rodents for them to hunt, but also because they are a species that is very vulnerable to poor weather, so for one to be out now means it has endured the very worst that the British climate can throw at it and will hopefully go on to breed nearby. We have considered installing a nest box for them on site but the proximity to the road is a worry – Owls tend to fly quite low and slow which makes them vulnerable to being hit by cars, so a nest box would ideally need to be further away from the road than the size of our site allows.
As the days grow longer the meadows are now really bursting into life. As I type this the East Meadow is taking on a yellow haze thanks to the abundant Lesser Trefoil, particularly around the Pavilion. These will soon be followed by the richer gold of Bird’s-foot Trefoil – one of our most numerous plants here. As I’ve said in a previous blog post we really are discovering new species all the time, and recent additions to our plant list include Bulbous Buttercup, Field Wood-rush, Spiked Sedge and Cyperus Sedge. After last year’s reasonably settled and very dry spring gave us a tremendous floral display from drought-loving species such as Lady’s Bedstraw it will be interesting to see what the results will be of the completely different start to the growing season this year.
Well, what a strange few weeks it’s been! First the ‘Beast from The East’ blasted us into meteorological spring with blizzards and biting winds at the start of March before a second, albeit rather short-lived, wave of arctic weather arrived mid-month. In between there were some reasonably pleasant days with the temperature rising towards the mid-teens Celsius.
Such cold snaps at this time of year can be very hard for wildlife, particularly those species that have already started breeding or returning to their breeding areas. Birds, at least, have the advantage of being able to swiftly escape the onset of hard weather and such extremes of cold as we have seen recently can lead to some extraordinary movements of birds flying away from ice and snow in search of more clement conditions.
At Clandon Wood the most notable such movements were seen on 28th February just as ‘The Beast’ began to take hold. On that day we saw some extraordinary counts of some rather unusual bird species. The species worst affected by very cold weather are wetland birds such as waders which find it impossible to feed when water bodies and wetlands are frozen. As such, there was a remarkable movement of Lapwing and Golden Plover across Surrey trying to evade the worst of the weather. Here at Clandon Wood we recorded over two hundred Lapwing and forty Golden Plover on that day, mostly streaming through in a southerly direction, but a few dropping in to the meadows to rest or look for food. I stumbled across a group of six Lapwings in the overflow car park at one point and a little later three briefly came down on Gentle Down in the West Meadow.
Such movements carried on for much of the week but not with quite the same intensity as that memorable day. Another memorable moment, also on the 28th, came during one of our regular bird surveys when I was lucky enough to see two Mediterranean Gulls flying overhead, gleaming white in the sunlight reflecting off the snow. This species now breeds in increasing numbers along the south coast of Britain but is still a relatively unusual sight inland.
The second bout of snow delivered another new species for the site bird list when a Woodlark flew low over the car park while I was salting the front entrance early on 19th March – it was so low I suspect it may even have flown up from somewhere onsite. Like the aforementioned waders, this largely ground-dwelling bird is one that would very quickly starve were it to remain in an area where the ground is covered in snow, so is forced to gamble and expend energy in flying to look for clear areas in which to feed. The importance of putting food out in your own garden for birds is never more obvious than in such conditions when all manner of unusual species from Fieldfares to Reed Buntings and more can turn up in even relatively suburban gardens.
Despite winter throwing its worst at us just as spring is trying to awaken, it’s incredible how quickly nature can bounce back after a cold snap as within just a couple of days of the snow thawing the birds were singing again and Woodpeckers were drumming. In fact, even during the snow just the other day I watched a female Blackbird gathering nesting material in my garden at home.
Hawfinches are still with us with up to six or seven recorded at times recently, though usually flying over – the odd one or two occasionally perches up in the trees behind the west pond. How much longer they stick around and whether any will stay to boost our very small breeding population remains to be seen but it’s certainly been a remarkable winter for these chunky finches.
I’m pleased to report the local Skylarks are in fine voice again now and we have on several occasions recently seen one come down to land in the East Meadow. Remember this red-listed ground-nesting species is very vulnerable to disturbance, particularly from dogs, so do please keep your dog on a short lead at all times when in the meadows.
The warmer sunshine (when it has made an appearance) at this time of year has started to stir some invertebrates and before the second ‘mini Beast’ we saw several Buff-tailed Bumblebee queens out looking for nest sites, as well as the odd 7-spot Ladybird and a Red Admiral butterfly.
Talking of butterflies, we have recently been sent the statistics from last summer’s transect surveys carried out at various sites across Surrey. We recorded twenty-five butterfly species here during the year which puts us in the top thirty transect sites in the county. Most exciting of all though, Clandon Wood is one of just six of the 105 Surrey transect sites at which White-letter Hairstreak was recorded. As such, the Butterfly Conservation Surrey & SW London branch have decided to have a field trip here in late June in the hope of seeing one of these rare and elusive butterflies.
On the grounds maintenance side of things I’m pleased to report Gareth and I have finished laying this winter’s section of the main hedgerow between the two meadows. We won’t be doing any more this year now as we’re into bird nesting season but come next winter we will be laying another fifty metres or so.
In other news, if you’re visiting Clandon Wood soon and want to get more up-to-date news on what wildlife has been seen recently then look out for our new wildlife sightings board near the office door.close
As we all shed the thermal layers and return to more seasonal weather after the ferocious ‘Beast From The East’ that paid us an unsolicited visit last week, Gareth and I have been busy finishing off our winter work programme here at Clandon Wood. It’s a common misconception that winter is a quiet time in grounds maintenance, when in fact there is still much to do.
The most visible task we have just completed is laying a fifty-metre section of the main hedgerow between the two meadows. Hedge laying is a traditional technique in which the hedgerow plants are cut at the base in such a way that they can be folded over almost to the horizontal and are then held firmly in place with stakes and long flexible stems (usually Hazel) known as ‘binders’.
The result is a hedge which puts as much of its energy into thickening out as it does growing vertically, creating a stock-proof barrier far stronger than any fence. It’s also excellent for wildlife as, unlike, a modern tractor-flailed hedge it provides a far more extensive corridor for birds and small mammals to move around in and carry out their life cycles. Indeed, birds such as Nightingales will spend most of their time in a dense hedge such as this, only occasionally coming out towards the top to sing.
Other jobs we have been carrying out in the past few weeks include turning over the flowerbeds in the Wildlife Garden ready for sowing again with wild flowers in the spring, as well as sprucing up the Bug Hotel. In the East Meadow between Lady Pond and the recently created ‘Patchwork Hill’ area we have also turned over a strip of the sward which we will soon be sowing with a seed mix that will hopefully benefit declining farmland bird species such as Linnet and Yellowhammer – maybe even a Turtle Dove if we’re very lucky.
Winter has really bared its teeth in the past few weeks with a smorgasbord of wind, rain, frost, sleet and snow since Christmas. In the breaks in between, when the sun does appear even for a brief while, it’s always comforting to notice the days gradually lengthening and the sun getting that bit higher in the sky. There are other signs of the approach of spring too, if you look and listen closely. Later in the year it is perhaps the first Swallow or the song of the Cuckoo (sadly an increasingly rare sound these days) that lifts the spirits, but as winter slowly draws to an end we must look for more subtle hints at the stirrings of life beneath the frozen surface. The early spring flowers such as Dog-violets, Lesser Celandine and Colt’s-foot bring cheer to frigid days, and at the first sign of warming sunshine the first bumblebees and butterflies begin to emerge.
The first butterfly seen at Clandon Wood this year was a Red Admiral on 30th January. This individual will have overwintered in a shed or similar hidey hole somewhere as an adult – one of five butterfly species to do so in this country – although may yet still perish before the spring if the weather turns very cold. Luckily the next generation will already be lurking in the nettles here as eggs and larvae, ready to emerge later in the year.
The Hazel catkins are now lengthening and shining lemon yellow in the sunshine, the birdsong is gradually increasing, with the Song Thrush and Great Tit in particularly fine voice now. Our local Skylarks have recently resumed singing and at least one pair have started to linger over the meadows. Hopefully they will attempt to breed here again this summer.
The Hawfinch invasion continues with numbers seemingly building up here towards the end of January. On the morning of the 26th eleven flew from the trees just northwest of the West Pond, perhaps part of a larger feeding flock of over fifty seen at nearby Newlands Corner later the same day. Whatever the reason for their arrival it’s clear there are thousands of these enigmatic finches around locally this winter, so do get out and try and see some for yourself – you may never have a better chance!
The sheep will be coming back for a short stay towards the end of the winter and we plan to pen them in in an area where the grass needs trimming back, otherwise we await the new growth and flowers of spring. It’s been pleasing to see some of the plants we planted last year establishing themselves in our ‘groves’ out in the meadows. The young Gorse bushes look particularly settled and are already giving their first show of flower; a heart-warming sight in the depths of winter. As the old saying goes ‘When Gorse is out of blossom, kissing is out of fashion’.
As I write this, Gareth and I have just finished our last Brown Hairstreak egg hunt of the season, and we can now confirm that we’ve found a total of 36 eggs onsite here this year which is a new record! As always, the adult butterflies are tricky to spot but it’s heartening to know that our nurturing of the Blackthorns around the edges of the meadows and along the main hedgerow is providing optimum egg-laying conditions for the females. I’m soon going to start moth trapping at Clandon Wood and look forward to keeping you updated on what I discover. In fact, following on from my butterfly talk towards the end of last year, for my next wildlife talk at the end of April I’m planning to talk a bit about the moths we have here at Clandon Wood and hopefully run my moth trap the night before, so I can show you some of them for real!
We’ve been busy catching up on the last of the winter jobs here recently, including turning over the flowerbeds in the Wildlife Garden ready for sowing again next year, as well as sprucing up the Bug Hotel. In the East Meadow down towards the pond we have turned over a strip of the sward which we’re planning to sow with a seed mix that will hopefully benefit various farmland birds – maybe even a Turtle Dove if we’re very lucky.
An interesting bit of news regarding our Kestrels from last year. You may remember that a pair quickly moved into the nest box we had installed in February and went on the rear four chicks in the summer. The licensed ringer who installed the box then also ringed the young birds so we could keep a track on their movements. Well, one of the youngsters was indeed found recently, at Rainham Marshes in Essex! Sadly, it was injured and later died but it’s still amazing to think that a bird that only lived for seven months made it so far, and the data recovered on its movements will go towards ongoing research into migration of this species. I’m pleased to say that a pair of Kestrels have recently been seen visiting the nest box so hopefully we’ll see them breed here again this year.
Since my last blog post autumn has drawn to a close and we are approaching midwinter and the end of the year. The last of the leaves have been frosted and blown from the trees and the hedgerows at Clandon Wood are bustling with hungry Redwings and Fieldfares, as well as Blackbirds and Song Thrushes from far-flung lands, busy hoovering up the berries. Even many of the familiar Robins, Chaffinches and Starlings you may see here or in your garden at this time of year will be long-distance travellers that have flown here across the North Sea to escape the harsher winter weather of the north and east.
A rather more unusual visitor this year has been the normally highly elusive Hawfinch. This heavy-set, colourful finch – which uses its enormous bill to crush open fruits and seeds with almost the same pressure as a human jaw – breeds in Britain in small numbers and occasionally irrupts in numbers from further afield. In countries like Poland, for example, they are far more numerous. This autumn, for reasons as yet unknown, huge numbers of this species have descended on our shores and some extraordinary counts have been recorded across the country, with a particular bias towards the south where this woodland specialist is clearly finding much to eat, particularly in the Surrey – the most wooded county in England.
To put this invasion into perspective, in an ordinary year, even as a very keen birdwatcher, I’m lucky if I see one or two of these secretive birds. Since 18th October this year I have recorded them at Clandon Wood on twenty-nine days, with potentially over a hundred individuals involved if one assumes each sighting has been of a different bird. Many of these have been just flying over, including a single flock of a dozen on 7th November, but as the autumn has progressed I’m noticing more of them flying up from the trees and hedges around the edge of the meadows here – presumably ones that have now settled into a local feeding and roosting routine rather than just migrating over on their way elsewhere. If you’d like to try and see one yourself if you’re visiting, the trees in north-west corner of the West Meadow behind the pond seems to be one of their favourite spots to perch. Listen out for their sneezy whistling call, or sometimes a loud ‘tick’ rather like a Robin.
Despite the indisputable transition to winter (and the wind is particularly bitter as I write this!) we still enjoyed some pleasantly mild days through to almost the end of November which brought out the odd Red Admiral – a heart-warming sight so late in the year. This familiar butterfly which most of you will have seen in your gardens is now regarded as a partial migrant meaning some individuals still migrate south to escape the winter weather but many others now choose to hibernate in sheds, outbuildings and dense hedges. For this reason they are often the first and last butterfly seen in any given year as the slightest hint of warm sunshine can coax them out of their winter hiding place in search of a source of nectar. In the late autumn and very early spring you might see one on late or early flowering plants or even fallen fruit.
As the leaves have now all but fallen one of the things we always look forward to at this time of year is looking for Brown Hairstreak eggs. As I mentioned in my previous blog post this scarce butterfly likes to lay its eggs on fresh Blackthorn shoots, tucked in close to a junction of a shoot or thorn. As they are less than a millimetre across they can be very tricky to find but on the bare dark brown stems the white eggs stand out quite well in the winter. In addition to the two I discovered on our new Blackthorn memorial space in the East Meadow a while back we’ve since found several more around the site and are now into double figures with some popular spots yet to be checked – and this will likely still only be a small percentage of the true number as many will remain hidden from us – and hopefully hungry Blue Tits!
On the grounds management side of things Gareth and I are now getting close to the end of cutting this year’s allotted areas of grass around the edges of the meadows and among the trees. As usual we will be leaving around 10-15% of the grass uncut to provide areas for wildlife to spend the winter. You may also notice some piles of grass cuttings which we leave dotted about around the margins, again to provide refuge for wildlife such as Frogs, Toads, Grass Snakes and small mammals. This winter we’ll also be refreshing our Wildlife Garden near the toilets by digging over and reseeding the flowerbeds, and hopefully starting to lay some of the main hedge between the two meadows. Hedge laying is a traditional technique in which the hedge plants are cut at the base in such a way that they can be folded over almost to the horizontal and are then bound together with stakes and long flexible stems (usually Hazel) known as ‘binders’. The result is a hedge which puts as much of its energy into thickening out as it does growing vertically, creating a stock-proof barrier far better than any fence.
Talking of livestock, if you’ve visited us recently you will have very likely noticed that our sheep have gone away for their Christmas holiday. They’ve been doing a great job of keeping the sward short in the West Meadow for the past three months or so and they will be coming back in January until the end of the winter to continue their valuable work! As the West Meadow has more luxuriant grass growth their nibbling means the wild flowers will have a head start come next spring. And in case you are feeling that spring seems an awfully long way away, take heart from the fact that at Clandon Wood we have already started hearing Song Thrushes, Mistle Thrushes and Great Tits beginning to sing again and a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming occasionally. On mild days in January and February the odd bumblebee and butterfly can even be seen taking to the wing – so don’t despair, even in the depths of winter spring is already brewing!
In my last blog post I speculated about the early onset of autumn, and there can now be no doubt as we go into October that the season is well and truly upon us. The meadows here at Clandon Wood are now all cut and baled, the sheep have arrived and are enjoying the regrowth in the West Meadow, and the hawthorn berries have been glowing bright red in the hedgerows for several weeks, awaiting the arrival of the winter migrant bird species to feast upon them.
The weather so far in meteorological autumn has been a mixed bag, though the regular bouts of squally Atlantic fronts have only added to the sense that we missed out September altogether and skipped fast forward to October. It’s far from doom and gloom though, and as ever there has been much to see and admire in the changing natural landscape in recent weeks.
A particularly impressive feature of the last week or so of September at Clandon Wood was the spectacle of hundreds upon hundreds of House Martins and Swallows flying over, sometimes quite high but at other times dashing through the meadow at speed just inches above the ground – in fact at one point I noticed one almost fly underneath our buggy! In my opinion there can be fewer more enthralling sights in the natural world than this – literally migration in action. It’s incredible to consider that, as I write this, these same birds will now likely be somewhere over the European mainland and will soon be crossing the mountains and deserts of Africa and spending the Northern Hemisphere winter flying around above elephants, big cats and giraffes, reaping the benefits of living in an everlasting summer. Unfortunately they are rather too fast for my camera skills but visiting birdwatcher Dave Carlsson got some wonderful photos of one of the local Red Kites recently.
Other migrant birds we have seen in or over the site of late include good numbers of Whinchats, a couple of Wheatears and several Yellow Wagtails. None of these species breed in Surrey any longer so it’s certain that these individuals have travelled some distance before choosing Clandon Wood to drop in for a pit stop. The Wheatears will have likely come furthest of all, as members of the leucorhoa sub-race of this species carry out the remarkable journey from Canada and Greenland to Southern Africa and back every year. Another long distant migrant we saw flying over recently was an Osprey, the fish-eating bird of prey that breeds in Scotland, Wales and in more northerly parts of England, and is thankfully now increasing in numbers again having approached the brink of extinction in the early 20th century. This individual will now likely be well on its way to its wintering grounds in West Africa.
The main task we on the grounds team have been concentrating on recently is cutting the grass in the areas the tractors cannot reach, in particular around the trees. The longer grass is too much for the sheep to eat and by removing a total of 85% of the cuttings from the meadows each year we ensure that coarse grasses and scrub do not encroach into the grassland, thereby keeping the wild flower diversity as high as possible – as they are not having to compete for nutrients with the more vigorous plant species – which is beneficial for a whole host of invertebrates, particularly bees and butterflies.
Talking of butterflies, the butterfly transect season has now come to a close. It’s been great to be involved with this project for the first time at Clandon Wood this year and add our data to that from over 2000 sites nationwide. In total we recorded 2467 individuals of 26 species on our 17 transect walks, which just goes to prove how valuable our 12 hectares is in the greater scheme of things! Improvements we plan to make to the site in the winter months which should benefit butterflies include sowing more wild flower seed, in particular Kidney Vetch which attracts the Small Blue – one of the more unusual species we have here, and, as ever, leaving around 15% of the marginal grass areas uncut to provide overwintering habitat for larvae, pupae and eggs of various species.
Just to prove how quickly beneficial planting can reap rewards, while recently checking the Blackthorns in the new East Meadow memorial space we planted earlier this year I found a couple of Brown Hairstreak eggs on one of the plants. This is one of the more unusual butterfly species we have here at Clandon Wood and, as Blackthorn is its larval food plant, it’s really great to see something we have done produce such a quick result.
It’s also heartening to see, even as winter approaches, plenty of flowers still in bloom in the meadows, including Field Scabious, Meadow Buttercup, Bird’s-foot Trefoil and both Red and White Campions. Also late flowering species such as Ivy have come into bloom, providing a valuable extra source of nectar for all sorts of insects, including Ivy Bees which, as their name suggests, specialise in feeding on this plant.
One last bit of nature news for this edition of the blog is the discovery of a new species at Clandon Wood; in fact one never recorded in Surrey before! Local entomologist Andrew Halstead visited us here last summer and discovered two males of the rare sawfly Aprosthema melanurum. The striking feature of this tiny insect is its tuning fork-shaped antennae. It feeds on Meadow Vetchling which we have a great deal of in the meadows here so hopefully it will continue to find a home in future and be joined many more unusual species over time. Please do let us know if you see anything out of the ordinary when visiting, you may just find a new species for Clandon Wood!
Although we at last had some rain towards the end of July it has done little to change the fact that this has been one of the driest summers in recent years. The prolonged dry spell means the meadows here at Clandon Wood are rather shorter and thinner than last year and many of the seeds have already set on the plants, so we are likely to be cutting and baling the hay two to three weeks earlier than in 2016. As I mentioned in my previous blog post the drier weather has produced an interesting mix of plants in the meadows this year with certain species doing much better than we have seen before and other moisture-loving species not performing quite so well. We’re also discovering more new additions to our plant list all the time. Recent discoveries here have included Agrimony, Corn Spurrey, Narrow-leaved Pepperwort, Shaggy Soldier, Ploughman’s-spikenard and Small Toadflax.
Another upshot of this dry weather is it’s proving to be an excellent summer for butterflies with recording rates of most species up a great deal on last year. In fact, data from Butterfly Conservation show that records from butterfly transect walks in Surrey in late June and early July represent a 192% increase compared to last year’s figures from the same period. Our transect walks here at Clandon Wood – which you may remember I mentioned we have started this summer – have proved very revealing in terms of finding out more about our butterfly populations. The most notable find so far has been the discovery of a small population of White-letter Hairstreaks – one of the scarcest butterflies in the UK. Their rarity is partly due to their dependence on Elm trees which since the 1970s have been almost entirely infected by Dutch Elm Disease so tend not to grow very large or be particularly long-lived these days. This discovery means we now have all four species of Hairstreak which occur in Surrey here at Clandon Wood: Brown, Green, Purple and White-letter.
Other butterflies of note recently have included the first site record of Silver-washed Fritillary on
17th July, nectaring on Lavender near the office, reasonable numbers of Brown Argus and Small Copper and the emergence of the second generation of Small Blues; one of our flagship species here. We are currently in discussion with Butterfly Conservation to try and source some seeds of this species’ preferred larval foodplant, Kidney Vetch, which we do have in the meadows at Clandon Wood but not a great deal of. We’re also looking at bringing in more native plants which will benefit butterflies; it was pleasing to find several Brimstone butterfly caterpillars recently on the Alder Buckthorns we planted around the West Pond earlier this year. Plant it and they will come!
Another notable butterfly sighting here recently was the first Clouded Yellow of the year in the West Meadow in mid-July followed by another on 1st August. This species migrates to Britain from Southern Europe and Africa every year in variable numbers and is a distinctive feature of late summer: if you see an amber-coloured butterfly zooming through your garden or a meadow at this time of year it will almost certainly be one of these. By the end of August last year there were at least 3-4 flying around the meadows here, so it may be that there are more to come this year if the weather improves again. We’ve also seen a couple of Painted Ladies recently, another long distant migrant from the south.
Another species that performs a similarly impressive migration is the Humming-bird Hawk-moth which hovers as it feeds on plants such as Red Valerian and Buddleia, hence the Humming-bird part of its name. On 17th July we observed one laying eggs on a Lady’s Bedstraw in the East Meadow. When the larvae emerge they will feed on this plant before pupating and emerging as an adult moth. If the weather is mild enough some may even hibernate through the winter. It just goes to prove the importance of cutting our meadows relatively late in the season and leaving some areas uncut through the winter, to give incredible insects like this the opportunity to complete their life cycles.
Those of you who attended my bird talk here back in April may remember I mentioned we had installed a Kestrel nest box towards the end of the winter, and I’m very pleased to confirm that four youngsters fledged the nest recently, and we’ve been enjoying watching them flying about in the meadows and learning to hover and catch food. The chicks were ringed by a licensed bird ringer before they fledged so we will be able to keep track of them if they are seen and reported somewhere else.
On the West Pond the young Coots continue to grow while Lady Pond in the East Meadow is now home to young Moorhens and Mallards. We still have at least one Skylark hanging around which hopefully may mean they are still attempting to breed here. There’s also at least one pair of Reed Buntings which we’re regularly seeing flying out of the long grass in the West Meadow. I’m often met with surprise when I tell people that many more species of bird nest on or close to the ground rather than up in trees. For this reason it’s very important to keep to paths where possible and keep dogs under close control to avoid disturbing them unnecessarily. Other birds of note recently have included a large flock of several dozen Goldfinches attracted to the seeds on the meadow plants, a Stonechat in the West Orchard area on 18th July and a rather unseasonal Yellow Wagtail which flew over on the 13th. Yellow Wagtail is another bird species which no longer breeds in Surrey, so is usually only encountered in this area when it stops off on migration in spring and autumn. Towards the end of July we noticed Swifts flying south overhead, always one of the first bird species to leave us as autumn approaches but seemingly rather earlier than usual this year. Everything is pointing towards us having a slightly earlier autumn this year, but although the summer flowers may fade and the days grow shorter there is still a great deal of beauty and interest to be found at Clandon Wood, whatever the season.
After one of the driest Aprils on record May and early June have delivered some rain at last, although so far not anything like enough to reverse the drought conditions we’ve been experiencing. Only time will tell what kind of summer we are heading into, but what is interesting about the largely dry year we’re having is the difference in diversity of flowers in the meadow. We are seeing a lot more of certain species than we did last year, for example Lesser Stitchwort, Bugloss and Ox-eye Daisies, whereas some of the more moisture-loving plants are not doing quite so well.
In theory the better and more diverse our meadow the more adaptable it will be to whatever the weather throws at it. We have now recorded well over two hundred plant species here at Clandon Wood and are adding new species to the list all the time. Another plant that thrives in dry conditions is the Bee Orchid and we were delighted to discover a patch of them growing on site the other day; the first time they have been recorded here. These beautiful plants grow on unimproved dry grassland and have evolved to look remarkably like a bee as well as emitting a scent similar to a female bee. The particular bee species that it is looking to attract doesn’t actually occur in Britain, however, so they are self-pollinating in this part of the world. Hopefully by careful management we will encourage plants like this and other orchids to spread across our meadows.
All of the summer migrant bird species are now back in Britain and we have been seeing plenty of Swifts, Swallows and House Martins at Clandon Wood, the latter sometimes hoovering up insects low over the meadow and ponds. On occasion we have also seen a Hobby; that elegant yet fearsome migratory falcon which also spends its summers here enjoying our insects but is not averse to snatching a Swift or hirundine for a more substantial meal – one of the only birds of prey agile enough to out-fly them! The hedgerows meanwhile are ringing with the sound of Whitethroats, Blackcaps and the occasional Garden Warbler. I still hold out hope we may see a Turtle Dove drop in, even if just one passing through. This species is in a critical state now as a breeding species in Britain, having declined by 91% since just the mid-1990s, and by 78% Europe-wide since 1980. One encouraging sign has been the increase in Fumitory in our meadows this year which is one of this species’ favourite seed-producing plants.
If you’ve visted Clandon Wood recently or read my previous blog post you will know that we have built an insect hotel in our new wildlife garden. We have seen bees and other insects flying in and out of it already which is promising but the biggest surprise of all was when I noticed a pair of Robins had moved in and built a nest inside! I’m pleased to report the chicks fledged successfully.
The warmer weather has seen the first dragonflies and damselflies taking to the wing here, with Emperor, Black-tailed Skimmer, Common Blue Damselfly and Beautiful Demoiselle all seen recently. We are in the process of naming different areas of the site and as the path area south of the West Pond is so popular with these insects we have decided upon the name Dragonfly Corner. If you have any suggestions for names for other areas of the site do please let us know.
Butterflies seem to be in abundance at the moment. Recent butterfly transects we haved carried out have yielded many species including Green Hairstreak, Small Copper, Brimstone, the first Meadow Browns of the summer and impressive numbers of Common Blues, while members of Butterfly Conservation who visited on a field trip at the end of May also recorded a handful of Small Blues; one of the more scarce species we are lucky to have here. It’s pleasing to see species like Green Hairstreak occurring more frequently as the site develops. The larvae of this species like to feed on Bird’s-foot Trefoil – one of the most ubiquitous plant species at Clandon Wood – as well as Gorse, which is one of the plants we have added to our new groves out in the meadows. Near the pond we have also planted a few Alder Buckthorns which we hope will also attract more Brimstones as this is the primary food plant for their larvae. We have also introduced a few Wild Strawberry plants around the site which we hope will attract Grizzled Skippers; a butterfly we have yet to record here. By careful planning and planting we hope to make Clandon Wood a haven for all sorts of butterflies and other invertebrates.
Spring is now in full swing in the Surrey Hills and seasonal changes are much in evidence at Clandon Wood. The meadow and trees are beginning to green up and grow, the early flowers and hedgerow blossoms are blooming and the bird song is increasing.
Another sure sign of spring is the arrival of the first migrant bird species. The hedges and edges at Clandon Wood are now ringing with the sound of Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Whitethroats, interspersed with the occasional Willow Warbler passing through. We have had three Wheatears drop in to rest after their long migration from Africa. The first of these, on 10th March, was in fact the first record of this species anywhere in Surrey this year. Often regarded as the harbinger of spring, arriving as they do usually well ahead of Swallows and Cuckoos, it’s always a heart-warming sight to see one of these smart birds scurrying about in a Surrey field after a long winter. Sadly they no longer breed in this county, however, and these birds will have been on their way further north to breed once they’d had a rest and a feed.
The first Swallows and House Martins have also been seen recently, migrating overhead or skimming low over the meadows and ponds hoovering up insects, and the Swifts should be back with us any day now – those screaming symbols of high summer. We now have a pair of Skylarks in the East Meadow which is great to see. Do please remember to keep dogs on leads in the meadows at all times to ensure these increasingly scarce ground nesting birds are not disturbed.
The rate at which everything happens in spring always amazes me and this year everything seems particularly early, presumably due to the largely fine weather – although we are in desperate need of rain now! To illustrate the rate of growth here are two photos I took of the main hedge here just twenty days apart; the first on 23rd March and the second on 11th April.
There are now many insects on the wing, from bumblebees to mining bees to butterflies. Indeed, with the prolonged warm and dry weather through April the butterfly season is now well underway and species we have seen at Clandon Wood already this year include Green Hairstreak, Orange-tip (pictured below), Peacock, Brimstone, Holly Blue and Small Tortoiseshell. The latter two species in particular seem to be having a particularly good year so far with above average numbers being recorded generally. This year for the first time Clandon Wood will be part of the ongoing UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. Gareth and I will be carrying out regular surveys and adding our data to that from many hundreds of other sites around the country to help butterfly experts gain a clearer picture of the state of the British butterfly population.
If you’ve visited Clandon Wood recently hopefully you have seen our new Wildlife Garden in the area between the car park and the pavilion. We have hopefully catered for all manner of wildlife with flowerbeds planted with pollinator-friendly plants, fruit trees, bird feeders and an insect hotel. Come and have a look next time you are here!
A new year at Clandon Wood and we are already looking ahead to the spring. The first Primroses are beginning to emerge and the catkins on the Hazels are lengthening. Birdsong too seems to be increasing by the day, with the evocative ‘tea-cher tea-cher’ of the Great Tit and the far carrying melodies of the Mistle Thrush and Skylarks now resonating around the meadows. It’s worth bearing in mind that at this time of year the Skylarks will be scouting out new areas to nest so, as they are ground-nesting birds, it’s particularly important to keep dogs under control in the meadows.
The ponds were both frozen for much of January, only thawing out towards the end of the month which saw the return of a pair of Coots to the West Pond, plus occasional visits from Mallards, Canada Geese and Egyptian Geese and, more recently, a Little Grebe. The female Stonechat that has been here all winter is still with us and she has been keeping a close eye on us as we work in recent weeks, tagging along with a gang of Robins to eagerly hoover up any tasty morsels we uncover in the soil.
Although the sheep have now gone their light poaching of the ground in the West Meadow is still attracting lots of birds, including Starlings, Fieldfares and Redwings feeding up for their return migrations in the next few weeks – these in turn attracting the attentions of a male Merlin which flew low through the East Meadow on 10th January. Merlins are the smallest falcon in the UK and are seen only occasionally in Surrey when British breeding birds disperse for the winter and are joined by birds from further north. The regular squadron of Jackdaws are still around too; take a moment next time you visit to notice how they’re clearly paired up within the larger flock. Jackdaws are monogamous and generally remain in their pairs for life. The other day I saw a male feeding his mate near the pavilion; a common act of courtship in many bird species but a strikingly tender moment for Jackdaws, I thought, as they are often rather unfairly depicted as swaggering, rather bully boy-ish birds.
Gareth and I have recently found six Brown Hairstreak eggs in the Blackthorn bushes here. This is great news as it means this butterfly is again choosing our site to carry out its life cycle. It’s one of the scarcest butterflies in Britain and we’re really lucky to have them here. We hope that by nurturing our Blackthorn hedges and maintaining a constant supply of young growth we will continue to encourage them for years to come.
Rather less welcome was the discovery in the Ash trees on the edge of the West Meadow of signs of Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, more commonly known as Ash Dieback. First discovered in the UK in Buckinghamshire in 2012 this fungus is now spreading across Britain and sadly poses a major threat to our Ash trees. Gareth and I have also seen signs of the fungus on trees at nearby Sheepleas, so it seems it has well and truly arrived in the Surrey Hills.
Another thing we’ve done recently is dug a few little pools near the West Pond and lined them with some of the puddling clay we had left over from the creation of the East Pond. These will, we hope, provide some variety in the wetland habitat here and hopefully encourage more dragonflies and other invertebrates.
Hopefully some of you reading this attended the first of our wildlife talks at January’s Tea, Cake & Company event where Gareth and I gave a general introduction to the habitat management at Clandon Wood and its conservation importance in the wider landscape. The next talk will be on Sunday 30th April when we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the birds that we have here and what we are doing to encourage some more unusual species.
Now we are past the Winter Solstice it’s reassuring to remember the days will soon begin to grow perceptibly longer and here at Clandon Wood we’ve been busy making improvements for the year ahead. If you’ve visited recently you may have noticed the various fences popping up in the meadows.
We’ve been planting a few native shrubs and small trees in these to create some groves which we hope will help to enhance the landscape but also add some wildlife islands for birds and mammals looking to find shelter.
The grove nearest the West pond in particular I am hoping will attract small birds such as Dunnock and Reed Warbler which may in turn attract a Cuckoo to lay an egg in their nests. We have also erected a fence and dug a ‘ha-ha’ around the Sky Garden memorial space in the West Meadow to make it rather more sheep-proof and a place of sanctuary for families looking for somewhere safe to put their loved one’s memorial plaques when the meadow is mowed, or leave in there all year if they choose.
The sheep have been with us for a couple of months now and we’re really seeing the effects of their grazing on the meadow. Their nibbling will help to suppress the more vigorous grasses and plants which will give the small flowers a chance to grow through in the spring.
The sheep have also started to attract some birds down to forage amongst them as they lightly poach the surface. In addition to the usual squadron of Jackdaws we’ve also recently seen Pied Wagtails, Fieldfares, Starlings and the odd Black-headed Gull following the flock around. The Fieldfares have also been busy in the hedgerows along with their fellow migrant Redwings, as well as Blackbirds and Song Thrushes, hoovering up the Hawthorn berries and rosehips. Down at the pond in the West Meadow we’re still getting occasional visits from a Mute Swan plus a couple of Egyptian Geese, when the water is not frozen over of course.
Cold spells at this time of year often prompt birds to move around. On 30th November two Snipe were flying around near the west pond, clearly in search of some unfrozen ground in which to feed, while on 5th January another Snipe and two Lapwing flew over the site, again moving due to the cold weather.
We’ve been playing host to a Stonechat which has been present on and off since the middle of October. This species is a common sight on heathlands where it largely breeds but in winter birds disperse to grassland and wetland areas. It mainly favours the orchard or the area near the pond in the West Meadow so keep an eye out for it if you’re visiting.
To finish this round-up from the grounds team here are some photos I’ve taken whilst out and about on some of the beautiful sunny days we’ve been treated to in recent weeks.
Matt at Clandon 9th January 2017
Autumn is now well and truly upon us and Clandon Wood is a sea of golden hues as the meadow edges and trees assume their seasonal attire. The main meadow has put on a good deal of lush green growth since it was cut at the end of August, much to the delight of the flock of sheep which arrived recently and will stay with us for the next few months, helping to keep the grass short until the Spring.
Gareth and I are continuing to cut the grass strips between the trees and around the margins to reduce some of the volume and prevent the meadow becoming overrun by coarse grasses, dock and thistles. We will leave around 15% of the site uncut to ensure there is still plenty of shelter for small mammals and invertebrates. As we have been cutting the grass we have found many creatures such as this Field Vole.
We’ve also been finding many caterpillars in the long grass as we’ve been cutting, such as the Knot Grass and Ruby Tiger (both pictured below) which will feed on the vegetation through the winter months before moving on to their pupal stage and then emerging as adult moths next spring.
Now the grass is shorter keep an eye out for the many fungi popping up around the meadows, including such colourful species as Yellow Fieldcap and Blue Roundhead, pictured below.
It’s fair to say it’s been a pretty mild autumn so far but nonetheless we were rather surprised to stumble across a female Brown Hairstreak butterfly in the East Meadow on 20th October.
This is one of the scarcest butterflies in the UK and we are lucky to have them here at Clandon Wood. Females patrol Blackthorn hedges in late summer and autumn looking for places to lay eggs.
Gareth found eggs here last winter but this is the first sighting of an adult butterfly here to date. It’s also unusually late for this species which generally flies from late July to late September.
As summer gives way to autumn so too the summer migrant birds have left us for warmer climes for the winter.
We had a Whinchat (pictured below) drop in in mid-September, which is a species which no longer breeds in Surrey so this individual was just passing through on migration.
Similarly a flock of Golden Plover flew south over the meadows towards the end of the month.
The last Swallows were seen in the third week of October by which time many of the winter migrant birds from the north and east had begun to appear such as Redwings, Fieldfares and Meadow Pipits.
It was also nice to see some Mute Swans visiting the west lake and meadow again recently after a few months’ absence.
Hopefully this blog post goes to show that, although the weather may be growing colder and the evenings are drawing in, there is still so much to see out and about in the natural world, especially here at Clandon Wood.
Matt at Clandon 13 November 2016.
If you’ve visited Clandon Wood recently you will have almost certainly noticed that the main meadow has now been cut by local farmers and the bales have been taken away by Dan who provides Eddie the horse for towing the cart at funerals.
A freshly cut meadow always looks rather stark but just to prove that every habitat has its own niche species, we have had a couple of Wheatears drop in since the cut. The first one on 1st September was a very smart male (pictured below) which clearly appreciated the vantage point provided by the bales. Wheatears are barely bigger than a Robin yet are one of the furthest-travelling of all our migrant bird species. They don’t breed in Surrey anymore so it’s possible this individual could have flown to us from as far away as Iceland or even Alaska on its way to Africa – a remarkable feat for such a small bird. It’s nice to think that it liked the look of our meadow enough to drop in for a pit stop!
Another bird we saw lots of after the meadow was cut was Red Kite, sometimes up to five or six at a time circling lazily overhead searching for any spoils from the tractors. It wasn’t so very long ago that you had to go to Wales to see Red Kites so it’s great to see them doing so well now.
In August one of the team alerted me to a young bird they’d found out in the meadow. I was surprised to see it was a very young Little Grebe! Presumably a bird of prey or other predator had plucked it off the water and dropped it as I can’t imagine such a young bird could have got so far from the pond on its own, especially one more suited to water than land. We soon returned it to to the water and watched as it swam safely back to its mum and siblings.
As many of the meadow flowers have now either faded or been cut, other plants are just beginning to flower and these become crucial for pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies. Red Admirals are one of a number of butterflies which migrate to Britain each year and some of these are now heading south again, making late-flowering plants such as Ivy and Devil’s-bit Scabious very important sources of nectar for them
It’s not just flowers that are important to wildlife though. The hedgerows at Clandon Wood are now heaving with fruit which will provide many birds and mammals with food. In the large hedge between the two meadows I have recently noted Garden Warbler, Willow Warbler, Whitethroat amongst others, gorging themselves on berries before flying south for the winter. Where the long grass remains around the edges of the meadow we will cut some areas and leave others long over the winter to provide vital shelter for a host of insects and small mammals
Matt at Clandon 14 September 2016
Mid-August and there’s more than a hint of autumn in the air here at Clandon Wood. The meadow is golden and ripe for harvest and the hedgerows are filling up with blackberries and elderberries, attracting lots of warblers as they fatten themselves up for their long journey south. Listen for the ‘chak’ of the Blackcap or ‘huweet’ of Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers.
Overhead, most of the Swifts have already left and are now well on their way back to Africa. Incredibly, some of the young Swifts born this summer will remain permanently airborne for two or three years until they are ready to breed. Swallows and House Martins, too, are beginning to get restless and I’ve noticed some moving south over Clandon, although many will be with us for a few weeks longer yet.
As some birds leave us other new lives are only just beginning: down on the pond last week we spotted the first tiny Little Grebe chicks of the year being fed by their parents.
The farmers have been busy harvesting the barley fields across the road from us, attracting many Red Kites, Buzzards and hundreds of Mallard ducks. We have at least three Kestrels frequenting the meadows at Clandon, attracted by the many small mammals in the long grass. In late July senior groundsman Gareth and I gave some TLC to rather tired-looking Wood Mouse we found and then later released after giving it a bit of water and flapjack.
In the meadow itself the late flowering plants such as Devil’s-bit Scabious are attracting the pollinators, while some species such as Bird’s-foot Trefoil are giving a second flush of colour
Not quite as colourful but we recently discovered Rigid Hornwort in the pond in the East Meadow, the first submergent plant to find its way into the water since the pond was created last winter, a good sign that the water is clear.
The changeable weather this summer means it hasn’t been a great season for butterflies, so with the drier, finer weather so far in August it’s been nice to see a few more out and about in the meadows at Clandon Wood. Most eye-catching of all is the male Common Blue, especially when it perches on the golden flowers of Bird’s-foot Trefoil.
Rivalling the Common Blue in brightness is the Clouded Yellow, a migrant butterfly, varying numbers of which fly to Britain each summer from southern Europe and Africa. I recently spotted one near the pond in the East Meadow.
Look out too for the day-flying Six-spot Burnet moth, which are numerous here at the moment. I found this pair mating in the East Meadow the other day.
Matt at Clandon 17 August 2016
High summer at Clandon Wood and while the weather has been less than favourable of late the meadow is still teeming with wildlife as I write this in mid-July.
There are many butterflies to be seen on sunny days, including Marbled Whites, Green-veined Whites, Large and Small Skippers and Common Blues, while the ever-present Meadow Browns and Ringlets don’t seem to mind if the sun shines or not – in fact I saw one out flying during a rain shower the other day.
Unfortunately rain is something we’ve seen rather a lot of this summer – well, it wouldn’t be Wimbledon season without a few showers would it? It does mean the new pond in the East Meadow is staying nicely full of water and it’s great to see this area naturalising so quickly, currently haloed in white thanks to the mass of flowering Scentless Mayweed all around it.
The meadows at Clandon Wood are a haven for all sorts of birds. It may surprise you to learn that many of our native bird species nest on or very near the ground – relatively few nest up in trees like in cartoons! Skylarks appear to have taken up residence in the East Meadow, as do a family of Red-legged Partridges. Senior groundsman Gareth and I spotted four tiny chicks following their mum around this week.
We also have young Coots on the lake in the West Meadow, and a pair of Reed Buntings seem to have moved in, often seen or heard near the West Lake but also roaming about across the whole site; the other day the male was singing in the hedgerow that splits the two fields.
As the season progresses, so the early summer wild flowers make way for the late summer species, some of them more familiar than others. Look closely among the many knapweeds, bedstraws and meadow vetchlings and you might spot the more unusual Common Cudweed or Round-leaved Fluellen.
Matt at Clandon 17 July 2016
Flora: Our hedges are heavy with blackberries, elderberries, rosehips, and hawthorn berries. By only trimming one side each year Clandon Wood maximizes this bounty.
Foraging Mammals: Bank voles, field vole and wood mice hunt for fallen nuts and insects among the ground leaf litter in the hedgerow and our grassland corridors. Always with one eye skyward to avoid our kestrels.
Farmland & Woodland Birds: Yellowhammers, linnets, and tits feed heavily in the shrubbery, while early winter thrushes like redwings can occasionally start arriving on field margins later in the month. Pheasant, partridge, jackdaws and crows are feeding in large numbers in the cut meadows.
Insects & Butterflies: Comma and speckled wood butterflies bask along the sunny side of our hedgerow. Micro climates make a huge difference at this time of year. Flowering ivy along hedge trees provides a vital late-season nectar source for ivy blossom pollinators such as bees, hoverflies, and ivy moths.
At Clandon Wood we firmly believe that providing an environment for the bereaved is just as important as it is for those who have passed away. In this regard we hold a number of ‘aftercare’ events throughout the year for those left behind.
These include our monthly tea, cake and company drop ins which provide an opportunity for anyone who has been bereaved to be among and talk to others who share the experience of loss.
Held in our beautiful glass pavilion they take place from 11.30am to 2.30pm on the last Sunday of every month.
Simply drop in - whether or not you have a loved one at Clandon Wood, you will always be warmly welcomed with kindness, consideration and company.
