Wimbledon and Putney Commons ECOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING REPORT 2018 Contents Page Context 1 A. Systematic Recording 7 Results 9 Reflections and Recommendations 35 B. BioBlitz 38 Reflections and Recommendations 43 C. References 44 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 The Location of The Plain on Wimbledon and Putney Commons 4 Figure 2 Notice requesting public cooperation with Temporary Restricted Access across the 11 Conservation Zone of The Plain Figure 3a Standing water on the Recreation Zone of The Plain close to Inner Windmill Road 12 12th April 2018 Figure 3b Vista of The Plain showing patchy waterlogging in the foreground and along the 12 central pathway through the Conservation Zone 12th April 2018 Figure 4a Bulbous Buttercup - The Plain 9th May 2018 14 Figure 4b Common Field Speedwell in the Sward- The Plain, 9th May 2018 14 Figure 5 The Bed of Bluegate Gravel Pit Pond - 11th September 2018 showing Marsh 16 Cudweed and Marsh Pennywort with stems of Trifid Bur-marigold (top right) Figure 6 Red Kite 17 Figure 7 The Four Standard Bird Walks at Wimbledon Common (after Dawson 2009) Figure 8 19 Figure 8 Blue Tit - the Most Frequently Observed Bird Species on the Standard Walks 21 Figure 9 Purple Hairstreak 24 Figure 10 Keeled Skimmer at Farm Bog 2018 26 Figure 11a Italian Tubic (Metalampra italica) a Species new to Wimbledon and Putney 27 Commons in 2018 Figure 11b Sprawler (Asteroscopus sphinx) Another new Species found at Wimbledon and 27 Putney Commons in 2018 Figure 11c Striped Wainscot (Mythimna pudorina) 28 Figure 12a Frog Spawn at Bluegate Gravel Pit 12th March 2018 30 Figure 12b Heathland Depression Near the Junction of Ladies Mile and Inner Park Ride 30 12th March 2018 Figure 13 Russula amoenolens (Camembert Brittlegill) on Wimbledon Common 16th 32 September 2018 Figure 13a General vista showing distinguishing pruinose cap Figure 13b Highlighting the distinctive pink stem base Figure 14 Hedgehog Captured on a Night Camera at Putney Lower Common, 10th April 2018 34 Figure 15 Buzz at the Base Camp - Bioblitz 2018 38 Figure 16 Preparing the Small Mammal Traps 39 Figure 17 Heron 40 Figure 18 The BioBlitz Walk Route 40 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Mowing Dates for the Conservation Zone of the Plain 2008-2017 5 Table 2 Summary of Systematic Recording in 2018 and Recent Years 8 Table 3 Recording Effort and Overall Plant Species Counts on The Plain 2014-18 15 Table 4 The Habitat Patches 15 Table 5 A Summary of Bird Sightings for The Plain 2018 - Extracted from the Bi-monthly 17 Reports of Amateur Observers Used to Compile the Annual Report Table 6 Bird Standard Walk Data - The Most Frequently Observed Species and Some Target 20 Species of Special Conservation Interest for WPCC Table 7a Re-established Long-term Transect (After Gay Carr and Now Including Plateau Sites 23 including The Plain) Table 7b New Transect Wimbledon Common SW and Fishponds Wood 23 Table 8 Dragonflies and Damselflies – Diversity at the Main Recording Locations 2018 26 Table 9 Summary of Common Lizard sightings reported in 2018 29 Table 10 Mammals Sighted or Evident from Other Signs -Wimbledon and Putney Commons 31 2018 Table 11 The Fauna detected at Putney Lower Common and Barnes Common during the 34 Night Camera Survey (extracted from Carbone and Cates, 2018) Table 12 Winter-Early Spring and Spring and Summer Rainfall at Raynes Park (SW20) 2018 35 Table 13 Summary of BioBlitz Sightings 2018 42 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1 The Wildlife and Conservation Forum and Volunteer Recorders 45 Appendix 2 Wildlife and Conservation Events at Wimbledon and Putney Commons 46 Appendix 3a Floral Records for The Plain-2018 47 Appendix 3b Wider Bioblitz communities, Habitat Patches 53 Appendix 4a Standard Bird Transect Walk A 55 Appendix 4b Standard Bird Transect Walk B 57 Appendix 4c Standard Bird Transect Walk C 59 Appendix 4d Standard Bird Transect Walk D 61 Appendix 5a Butterflies on the Long-established Route on Wimbledon Common 63 Appendix 5b Butterflies - Woodland Transect - Wimbledon Common and Fishponds Wood 64 Appendix 6 Dragonflies and Damselflies of Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath 65 Appendix 7 Moths Recorded at 1 Thatched Cottage Wimbledon Common, Jan-Dec 2018 71 Appendix 8 Wimbledon Common Fungi 2018 83 Appendix 9a Putney Lower Common – Monthly Walk-About Records from the Conservation and 85 Engagement Officer Appendix 9b W&C Forum Walk-About at Putney Lower Common 87 Appendix 10 Rainfall Figures 2018 89 Appendix 11a Bioblitz Fauna 2018 90 Appendix11b Bioblitz Moths 96 THANKS ARE DUE TO EVERYONE WHO HAS CONTRIBUTED RECORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THIS REPORT; TO THE WILLING VOLUNTEERS; FOR THE SUPPORT OF WILDLIFE AND CONSERVATION FORUM MEMBERS; AND FOR THE RECIPROCAL ENTHUSIASM OF WIMBLEDON AND PUTNEY COMMONS STAFF. A SPECIAL THANK YOU GOES TO ANGELA EVANS-HILL FOR HER HELP WITH PROOF READING, CHASING MISSING DATA AND ASSISTANCE WITH THE FINAL FORMATTING, COMPILATION AND PRINTING OF THE REPORT. Wimbledon and Putney Commons ECOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AT WIMBLEDON AND PUTNEY COMMONS 2018 CONTEXT 2018 was a year of climatic contrasts. Extreme winter cold was followed by a heat wave summer across Britain and Europe. Prolonged dry and exceptionally warm weather set in from mid-May until August with just a short showery interlude in late July. Meteorological Office records report 50 days without rain at recording stations from around Britain (National Climate Information Centre, 2018). The extreme heat and drought of summer 2018 equalled the previous outstanding heat-wave summer of 1976. February saw a period of intense cold and snow, in the popular jargon at the time, termed the ‘Beast from the East’. The cold and snowy weather was repeated to a lesser degree in mid-March when similar meteorological conditions temporarily brought a return of sub-zero day- time temperatures and snow, the so-called ‘Mini-beast’. These early cold periods led to a delayed spring but were then followed by a brief warm spell in April with a return to cooler weather in late April and early May. From mid-May onwards intense heat and dry conditions set in and across the Commons ponds gradually shrank. By late summer it was possible to walk across the bed of Bluegate Gravel Pit pond and terrestrial plants were spreading across the exposed bed while Bog Mosses (Sphagnum spp.) turned crispy. Though the Commons’ spring-fed ponds had largely recovered by the end of the year, the solely rainwater-fed sites remained only patchily filled (Bluegate) or with lower than usual water levels e.g. Hookhamslade, Rushmere. Water levels at 7- post pond, which also receives road runoff, did however seem fully restored by January 2019. What, if anything, will be the longer term implications of these weather extremes for habitats and wildlife remains to be seen (Harvey, 2018). Impacts on the periodicity of flowering and synchronicity between different organism groups, such as bud-burst with emergence of pollinators were a concern. Regionally impacts were noted on some early flowering vegetable crops and nationally the poor quality and reduced volume of potato crops, reflecting the dry summer conditions, were widely reported. At Wimbledon Common the hay harvest from The Plain at 58 bales was the least in recent times, contrasting with the peak harvest of 80 bales in 2016. Year-to-year unpredictability seems to be a current feature of Britain’s weather defying the expected seasonal traits (Bullock, 2018; Morris, 2018). In common with observers across the country Wimbledon bird recorders saw some unusual migrants possibly reflecting the atypical conditions countrywide and beyond, e.g. Arctic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus) seen overhead in April. In 2018 the ‘bird standard walk’ recorders reconvened and re-established a full set of standard walk records from all 4 long-term routes. This information is additional to the adhoc information from occasional amateur observers and these data are included in this monitoring report for the first 1 time. A regular annual meeting of the standard walkers group has now been established to help with data exchange, maintain motivation, and to promote discussion about changes noted. An updated bird trends report using the work of this group is proposed for 2020/21 to coincide with the 150th anniversary celebrations of WPCC. There is much information to retrieve from the 10 years since the first trends report by Dave Dawson (DD) in 2009 and this work is now in progress. The new bird song work shop established in 2018 proved popular as did the programme of more frequent bird walks which each typically attracted around 25 participants. However, the search for new volunteer observers to boost the bird records and especially the monitoring of the key target area of The Plain continues. Getting the regular commitment which would enable scientifically consistent records including abundance estimates is proving very challenging and we are still lacking updates of the valuable bird data set for The Plain which Dave Wills (DW) instigated as part of The Plain’s monitoring programme. A new appeal will be launched in 2019. The inclusion of butterfly, dragonfly and damselfly records within annual the Bird Report as trialled in 2017 was liked and the new 2018 edition now proudly advertises itself as the Birds, Butterflies, and Dragonflies of Wimbledon and Putney Commons. It must, however, be noted that the birds listed in the annual report are the records of occasional observers, the keen ‘twitchers’, which is the long-established Wimbledon tradition for the Annual Bird Report, whereas the butterfly, dragonfly and damselfly records mainly reflect the regular transect walks (butterflies) and site spot visits (dragonflies and damselflies) of our expert volunteer recorders. The Wildlife and Conservation Forum (W&C Forum) again convened a Winter Talk in February.