Ecological Surveying in Herefordshire

Over the past month I've been doing work experience with Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, taking part in a lot of ecological surveys in my home county of Herefordshire. Its been mostly botanical, although bird and invertebrate species are featured as well.

One of the first sites was a woodland in the south west of the county which hadn't been managed for many years, making for a very interesting habitat.

Woodland left unmanaged can sometimes turn into dense bramble and thick scrub with a lack of biodiversity. Here though, the woodland's natural management was working well; where trees had fallen, glades opened up, allowing light to penetrate through. 

The ground flora was very diverse, with marsh-loving plants springing up in the wet flushes, ferns pinging out all over the place and Wild Garlic and Bluebells in with stands of Ash, whilst most of the ground flora was made up of ancient woodland indicator species. 

The predominantly Ash and Oak canopy held quite a few singing male Pied Flycatcher, whilst many Tree Pipits and Redstarts on the edge of the woodland.

Another day, another woodland! This time it was in the far north-west of the county, very close to the Welsh border. One of the most striking things about this woodland was it's lack of diversity in the ground flora and dominated by Wood Sorrel and Dog Violet, whilst the trees were mostly Sessile Oak and Downy Birch with the odd Hazel coppice mixed in. This is thought to be an example of W11 type woodland (a classification created by the National Vegetation Classification) a very distinctive 'upland fringe' type. 

The woodland directly adjoining the previous one was very different indeed. You can see the lack of any understory and the ground flora was dominated by grasses and mosses. At first glance it looked like a very poor woodland and lacking in diversity. However, it is the scarcely found W17 type and is possibly a remnant of Atlantic rainforest, a very rare habitat in Britain. 

As well as woodland, I've been learning how to survey grasslands. One site I visited was a disused gravel pit, slowly turning into a species-rich brownfield site. Due to the unique geology caused by the old gravel extraction, the ground flora includes indicator species from both acidic and calcareous grassland.

Despite it's industrial past, the site is turning into to a great grassland habitat, with lots of potential to be improved even further with a little bit of management. This photo is of Heath Speedwell, an abundant species throughout the site, which was often intermingled with species such as Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Yellow-wort, Fairy Flax, Bird's Foot Trefoil, Wild Strawberry, Parsley-piert and Changing Forget-me-not.

Another grassland was an upland acid grassland, closely grazed by sheep. The ground flora was made up of acid grassland indicator species, such as Tormentil, Sheep's Sorrel, Harebell, Heath Speedwell, Heath Bedstraw, Parsley-piert and Little White Bird's Foot. 

I was very pleased to discover a small population of Green Hairstreak butterflies in a small dingle, I counted 7 in total. A very rare butterfly in Herefordshire, the Green Hairstreak was only previously known from one other site in the whole county, so to find a previously unknown thriving 'new' population of them was very rewarding. 

Also at this site were large numbers of breeding Linnet and Yellowhammer, a very welcome sight in this current time of national farmland bird declines.

One of the largest sites surveyed had a small meadow with many ant-hills, each one with its own mini-ecosystem. Some were covered in Bird's Foot Trefoil or Germander Speedwell, others with a mix of Rough Hawkbit, Large Thyme and Wild Thyme.

In a corner of a meadow was a patch of neutral grassland (MG5 type), carpeted with 3 species of buttercup, many grasses, sedges and rushes, Meadowsweet, Lady's Bedstraw, Meadow Vetchling, Bird's Foot Trefoil, Tufted Vetch, Common and Heath Spotted Orchid, Autumn Crocus and, a crucial indicator species for neutral grassland, lots of Knapweed.

In one fairly small field close by there were over 150 Adder's-tongue Fern! A rare species, Herefordshire is the one of the best counties to see them in and at good sites, they can be abundant. 

As well as the flora, the invertebrates make these grassland habitats special too. One of my highlights was this Dingy Skipper butterfly, one of Herefordshire's rarest butterflies, which, until I found this one, was known only from one other site.

Other notable invertebrates include Rosel's Bush Cricket, Lesser Marsh Grasshopper, Speedwell Longhorn moth, Mother Shipton moth, Little Thorn moth and Little Nomad bee.

Although not one of the ecological surveys that I've mentioned so far, I helped with a community wildlife survey at Coed Llanandras local nature reserve in Presteigne. I found a small but thriving population of the Green-socks Peacock ground beetle, mostly hunting around the margins of a small pond. An absolutely stunning beetle, the photo really doesn't do it's beautiful markings and intense green-purple sheen justice!

I've not had that much time to get out birding in my local area, although over the past month I've managed to see Crane, Avocet, Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, Turnstone and Greenshank on the small scrapes at my local wetland, Wheatear and Redstart on my patch at Marcle Ridge, breeding Nightingale at a nearby farmland site and, the absolute highlight, a very unexpected Honey Buzzard which flew over my garden!

It's such a fantastic time of year to be out!