Winkleigh Biodiversity: October 2019

Nuts and berries for the birds

On visiting the Biodiversity Area today, I could see that many of the trees now have ripe berries for birds and small mammals. One of the packs of trees donated by the Woodland Trust was specifically chosen for this purpose. We have rose-hips, dogwood berries, rowan berries, hazelnuts and whitebeam berries.

Dog Rose

Rowan

Hazel

In turn the mice which eats these fruits and nuts build nests which will be used by future bumblebee queens, and are in turn eaten by owls.

Dogwood

Haven for pollinating insects and butterflies

In early August, on a warm sunny afternoon I went to carry out a count of butterfly species for the Big Butterfly Count. The main grassland species Meadow Brown, Ringlet and Gatekeeper were present, but in smaller numbers than earlier in the year, due to the warm summer they had emerged early. I also saw Small Copper, Large and Small Whites and several Small Skippers.


Large White on Common Knapweed

There were also a lot of bumblebees, feeding on the Knapweed. There were a lot of Red-tailed, Common Carder and White or Buff-tailed Bumblebees. I saw at least one Queen Red-tailed and several males.

White-tailed

Red-tailed Male

White-tailed Bumblebee


Red-tailed Female (Queen)

I also found the colourful Cinnabar Moth caterpillars.

There were other pollinators too, including this Soldier Fly.

On July 13th, I went to visit the area and found that there were lots of wild flowers in bloom. As we are only topping the grass once or twice per year, and we do not have the possibility of raking the grass cuttings, it is heartening to see the development of so many flowering species, thriving in competition with the grasses.