Wildlife Field
Wildlife meadow review 2024
The year was characterised by a cool and showery spring and a disappointing summer but our resident butterflies turned up, a week or two later than expected and the one species not seen, the Brown Hairstreak, betrayed her presence by egg laying on the several stands of blackthorn - sloe - the tiny, sea urchin like eggs being found in October. Nationally the picture was much gloomier with 2024 being the poorest overall for butterflies for several decades.
The three adjacent meadows, each with its own characteristics, took full advantage of a cool and wet year and, after looking splendid and colourful through to late July, the lush and lanky growth rather collapsed by August and looked rather tired and sad. Mowing the three meadows during October and November took rather longer to cut given the greater bulk of material.
For me the highlights have been the progress made in our woodland belt behind the Hall to the boundary with the hospital car park. The small whips planted 10 years ago are now large shrubs of hazel with buckthorn and field maple with an understorey of sloe which was there at the outset. Some specimen trees have been bought and planted including a golden Norway maple, a stunning magnolia and Cornus Kousa, a large, flowered dogwood.
In the wetter middle of the central meadow - a broken land drain - a swamp cypress has been planted which provides an impressive focal point to complement the three white barked birches in the drier east meadow.
The annual heavy meadow cut where, in parts, the ground is purposely poached, always exposes the mounds made by the yellow meadow ant and after a explosion of new anthills in the early years, the number seems to be levelling off at about 80. They are a key component of the meadows' biodiversity from which one family of butterflies, the Blues, are the special beneficiaries.
It gives me a real buzz to see a growing number of plot holders and children visiting the meadows, woods and pond area and often spending some time or even enjoying a spot of lunch in our half hectare of tranquillity.
My thanks, as ever, to the small and loyal group who work throughout the year to progress the growth of our wildlife area.
Request for help - we have an excellent lawn mower and our circular path through the meadow needs a weekly mow during April, May and June but less frequently thereafter. Our current mower, Glenn, has lost a degree of his mobility and will not be restored for the year.
Malcolm Bridge.
