Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Wirral Wildlife committee
Saturday, 23 December 2017
Friday, 22 December 2017
RHS Plants for Bugs Project
Suction sampler being used to collect insects from the plants
Since 2009 the Royal horticultural Society (RHS) has been carrying out research to find out there was any difference in abundance of animals in native only and non-native garden plots.
36 test plots were set up at RHS Garden Wisley, each with 14 plant species and managed like real gardens. The invertebrates they supported were regularly sampled.
The first report found little difference between the number of pollinators visiting native and non-native plants, in fact some exotics provided pollen later in the season.
The second study found that the more plants there were the more invertebrates were collected. Native plants were better than non-native, but not by much. Non UK northern hemisphere plants supported about 10% fewer invertebrates.
Recommendations for wildlife gardeners:
1. Put in plenty of plants and let them fill the space.
2. The more nectar rich flowers you have the more pollinators you will attract and support.
3. You will get more invertebrates if you have native British plants and related ones from the northern hemisphere.
4. Plant natives such as hemp agrimony, primrose, foxglove, honeysuckle, heather and purple loosestrife.
5. Extend the flower season for pollinators with late flowering exotic species, especially if they are densely planted and flower strongly.
Results of the 2017 Big Butterfly Count
This report is taken from the website of Butterfly Conservation:
The curse of the UK summer holiday weather struck big butterfly count 2017. For butterflies and butterfly counters, July and August were dominated by unsettled weather and above average rainfall. Overall it was one of the wettest UK summers for 100 years. And this after six months (January-June) of above average monthly temperatures, which encouraged butterflies to emerge earlier than usual.
The combined impacts of this topsy-turvy weather were to reduce the numbers of butterflies seen during big butterfly count 2017, both because the abundance of some species was reduced by the summer weather and because others had come out early and were already past their peak numbers when the count started.
Despite an amazing 550,000 individual insects of the 20 target species being spotted during big butterfly count 2017, the average number of individuals seen per 15 minute count was the lowest recorded since the project began in 2010! A mere 10.9 individuals per count were recorded, down from 12.2 in 2016. Indeed the average number of individual butterflies per count has decrease in each year of big butterfly count since 2013, when over twice as many butterflies were seen per count compared with 2017.
One of the stars of the summer was the Red Admiral. After a good year in 2016, numbers of this powerful, migratory butterfly soared during 2017, recording its best ever big butterfly count performance. Numbers of Red Admirals were up 75% compared with the 2016 Count and threefold compared with 2015. Its success wasn’t restricted to the south either, Red Admiral did well in Scotland and Northern Ireland in 2017.
Another winner was the Comma, which profited from the warm spring by producing a bumper summer generation. It bounced back strongly (up by 90%) from a relatively poor year in 2016, recording its second best big butterfly count ever.
Common Blue and Small Copper, both of which did terribly during big butterfly count 2016, increased strongly, up 109% and 62% respectively, although their populations weren’t particularly large compared with some other previous years.
The Gatekeeper was another species that did very badly in 2016, but which showed a good improvement in big butterfly count 2017, up 24% year on year. Indeed, it topped the big butterfly count chart for the third time in 2017.
It wasn’t all good news though. The three common ‘whites’ all decreased compared with 2016 and seemed thin on the ground. The Green-veined White, which was down 38% on 2016, recorded its lowest abundance in the eight years of big butterfly count. Both the Large White and Small White suffered their second worst big butterfly count performances, and numbers dropped by 38% and 37% respectively compared with 2016. Interestingly, this did not appear to be the case in Northern Ireland, where counts of both Large and Small Whites increased substantially on 2016.
There was no good news for the Small Tortoiseshell, which has been the source of much concern over the past decade or so, or the beautiful Peacock, both of which remained at low levels, very similar to those recorded during big butterfly count 2016.
The 2017 results for all 20 of the Big Butterfly Count target butterfly and moth species are shown below:
| 1 | Gatekeeper | 93171 | +24% |
| 2 | Red Admiral | 73161 | +75% |
| 3 | Meadow Brown | 69528 | -23% |
| 4 | Small White | 61812 | -37% |
| 5 | Large White | 61064 | -38% |
| 6 | Peacock | 29454 | +1% |
| 7 | Comma | 22436 | +90% |
| 8 | Small Tortoiseshell | 20267 | +4% |
| 9 | Common Blue | 19567 | +109% |
| 10 | Speckled Wood | 18639 | +15% |
| 11 | Ringlet | 18381 | -57% |
| 12 | Green-veined White | 16456 | -38% |
| 13 | Six-spot Burnet | 9517 | -28% |
| 14 | Painted Lady | 8737 | +31% |
| 15 | Large Skipper | 6579 | -49% |
| 16 | Holly Blue | 5929 | -5% |
| 17 | Small Copper | 5814 | +62% |
| 18 | Brimstone | 5281 | -7% |
| 19 | Marbled White | 4894 | -67% |
| 20 | Silver Y | 1923 | -2% |
At New Ferry Butterfly Park Annual Counts have been carried out since 2002.
The results for 2017 are shown below with 2016 numbers in brackets.
1. Speckled Wood 165 (66)
2. Large White 50 (50), Small White 50 (41)
4. Common Blue 48 (11)
5. Gatekeeper 42 (20)
6. Meadow Brown 28 (43), Orange Tip 28 (25), Brimstone 28 (35).
9. Holly Blue 22 (12)
10. Red Admiral 21 (1)
11. Comma 18 (27)
12. Small Tortoiseshell 10 (29)
13. Green- veined White 9 (26)
14. Peacock 7 (6), Small Skipper 7 (20)
16. Large Skipper 6 (0)
17. Small Copper 2 (1), Painted Lady 2 (2)
In line with Butterfly Conservation findings Red Admiral, Common Blue and Gatekeeper numbers showed an increase, but Comma and Small Copper numbers were down. Large White and Small White numbers were very similar to last year but Green-veined White numbers showed a decrease like the national picture. As found nationally, numbers of Small Tortoiseshell and Peacocks were also low.
Saturday, 9 December 2017
Bags of Help for Cleaver Heath
Great news - our Cleaver Heath Nature Reserve project has won first prize in the recent public vote in Tesco’s Bags of Help initiative! Thank you to everyone who gave us your support in the Wirral stores.
We will be using the funds to improve access and the visitor experience at the reserve with new gates, signage and footpath improvements. This reserve has stunning views over the Dee Estuary and is popular with butterflies, birds and common lizards.
The Bags of Help scheme is delivered by Groundwork and our bid was put together by our Natural Futures team who are supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.