wildlife Spring 2017 No.22 NEWS FROM YOUR LOCAL WILDLIFEma TRUST AND FROMtt AROUNDer THEs UK Brilliant butterflies How to make your garden butterfly-friendly8

>> GARDENER’S >> WORLD Explore this historic NEW! The Trust talks to TV’s reserve in Broxbourne BEEKEEPING Zephaniah Lindo 10 Woods 18 COURSE see page 2 for

details BOOKING ESSENTIAL £55 per person Introduction including

to beekeeping lunch workshop JOHN SEVERNS

Sunday 7 May 10:00am-3:00pm Orchard

An introduction to beekeeping with professional beekeeper Hannah Reeves. This one day workshop will give you an overview of the craft of beekeeping. You will spend the morning of the five hour course learning the basic theory of beekeeping, including About your tutor the equipment used and the role Hannah Reeves first gained an of the beekeeper. interest in bees when working After lunch, you will spend the as a field assistant at Rothamsted afternoon in the orchard trying Research. She then went on out your new knowledge in a to collect her first swarm and session of practical beekeeping. start keeping her own bees. Her The day will finish with the university dissertation was on a tasting of a delicious local comparison between urban and honey selection. rural beekeeping. She currently This course is suitable for works full-time as a beekeeper, beginners and protective having completed a three year beekeeping suits and gloves bee farming apprenticeship with will be provided. the Bee Farmer’s Association. Book online at www.hertswildlifetrust.org.uk contentsSpring 2017 NEWS FROM YOUR LOCAL WILDLIFE TRUST AND FROM AROUND THE UK

LOCAL NEWS CONSERVATION 4 Spotlight on the Trust Have you spotted us on TV recently? 5 Go Wild Volunteers! Passionate about local wildlife? Become a Go Wild Volunteer with training from the Trust

UK NEWS 6 Green groups unite for nature Helping Read how environmental organisations are standing together for UK’s nature garden

MY WILD LIFE butterflies

10 My Wild Life Find out how you can help Capel Manor Lecturer and Gardeners’ World presenter, these winged beauties Zephaniah Lindo, tells us how he came to be so passionate MORE ON 8

about gardens WOOD ANDEW

MICRO RESERVE FOCUS DAYS OUT HABITATS

18 Danemead 20 Nature’s Calendar 22 The nature of a bug hotel Read about the history As it warms up Tim Hill tells Find out what creatures will and habitat that makes us his best wildlife picks be your best guests! this reserve so special of the season

HERTS & MIDDLESEX WILDLIFE TRUST

Grebe House, St Michael’s Street, Summer 2017 issue Registered Charity No: 239863 St Albans, Herts AL3 4SN copy deadline: Registered in England: 816710 01727 858 901 [email protected] 28 May 2017 www.hertswildlifetrust.org.uk Cover photo: All rights reserved. No part may be Josh Kubale Editorial Team Josh Kubale reproduced without written permission and Charlotte Hussey from the editor. The publishers do not 01727 858901 x 240 necessarily identify with or hold [email protected] themselves responsible for the views [email protected] expressed by contributors, correspondents or advertisers. Membership Alan Cotterell 01727 858901 x 234 [email protected] Design TU ink www.tuink.co.uk Printed on FSC © stock

Find us on Facebook and Twitter LOCAL NEWS

From the Spotlight on the Trust Chief Executive

Welcome to the spring edition of Wildlife Matters. The last winter has been a very busy time again for our Reserves Team and volunteers with a full programme of conservation tasks such as woodland management and reedbed cutting which are vital for good habitat management. With the arrival of spring it is a great time to get out and enjoy the results of this hard work so Simon Barnes at with HMWT’s Tim Hill and Tom Day do visit our reserves and come along to our Go Wild events. Recently we were delighted We’ve had lots of opportunity to Water Vole Conservation Officer, to welcome Louise Sleeman, show off the wildlife of Martin Ketcher, and local photographer, the Trust’s new People and and Middlesex this winter with the Russell Savory, about our local voles’ Wildlife Officer, covering BBC Inside Out team visiting us behaviour. The piece is scheduled to Stocker’s Lake, Springwell not once, but twice! You may have go out in early spring. Reedbed and Hilfield Reservoir caught our Conservation Manager, Lastly, Simon Barnes, The Times as part of our partnership with Tim Hill, speaking to presenter, journalist, visited our Lemsford Springs Affinity Water. Louise will be Mike Dilger, about the impact that Nature Reserve with Tim Hill and encouraging local communities High Speed Two will have on our Tom Day, Head of Living Landscapes, to learn more about wildlife Broadwater Lake Nature Reserve. where the group were lucky enough and how they can support The piece was impactful and gave to spot Jack snipe and green sandpipers their local nature reserves. us a great opportunity to highlight among other wildlife. Simon had a Our reserves are only part our HS2 campaign. great day and wrote an article for of the picture of nature The start of the year once again The Sunday Times Magazine (published conservation across our area; brought the BBC Inside Out team to our 12th February) on how the Trust’s use gardens can be a beautiful area, this time to Tarmac’s Panshanger of habitat mapping is being used to haven for wildlife and in this Park in Hertford to speak with our successfully inform local conservation. edition of Wildlife Matters we have some fantastic tips for making your garden wildlife- friendly. We are making great improvements to our own St Albans wildlife garden wildlife garden at Grebe House in St Albans with the help of growing with the help dedicated volunteers and we look forward to welcoming of local charities you there later in the year. We’re looking forward to The wildlife garden in Verulamium Park is improving thanks to our another year of working with new partnership with local homeless charity, Emmaus, and HACRO our members, volunteers and – an organisation that assists ex-offenders. HACRO and Emmaus partners to protect wildlife will provide a team of green-fingered service users for weekly across Hertfordshire and gardening work parties. Middlesex. Thank you for your interest and support. The garden, which is outside of our Grebe House office in Verulamium Park, was extended last year with help from the Tesco ‘Bags of Help’ scheme. The new section of the garden will be created from scratch and feature plants that support birds and pollinators. The wildlife garden is open to visit Monday - Friday, 10am-5pm. The extension to the garden will be opening to visitors in summer 2017.

4 wildlifematters Spring 2017 Go Wild Volunteers

We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in securing funding for our Trust runs free Go Wild Volunteer project! Thanks to all of our supporters’ votes for us in the Aviva river habitat Community Fund we can now push forward and recruit volunteers passionate about PATRICIA RAYNER workshops nature and our reserves. Volunteers will be professionally trained to take their knowledge and communicate it effectively to engage members of the public with wildlife and nature. If you would be interested in receiving training and leading walks or attending community events on behalf of the Trust please email [email protected]

Trust welcomes new People and Wildlife Officer

We’re working with Affinity Water on a long-term project to improve important habitat for wildlife and increase community engagement around the Trust’s reserves at Stocker’s Lake, Springwell Reedbed and .

The reserves, which are owned by of habitat Affinity Water and managed by the restoration and Trust, lies at the northern end of the improvement Colne Valley Regional Park and is a works. Louise significant habitat for wetland birds. Sleeman, the Trust’s Stocker’s Lake boasts the largest new People and heron roost in the county and Wildlife Officer, will wintering ducks such as shoveler oversee community and goldeneye are common visitors Louise Sleeman engagement work in nationally important numbers. and encourage Over 60 species of breeding birds those living near the reserves to learn have been recorded here. more about their local wildlife and Last month, our Living Rivers The project will see a programme provide volunteering opportunities. Officer, David Johnson, ran a series of free workshops to give people in Hertfordshire and Middlesex the opportunity to learn the skills to carry out river habitat enhancement work.

The one day workshop taught attendees about the different tools and techniques needed to improve river habitat, with a specific focus on the skills associated with installing woody debris features such as deflectors and brash berms. The workshop was aimed at anyone working on rivers so that they could gain the knowledge and techniques to be able to replicate what they learned on the day to improve Emmaus and HACRO rivers elsewhere. volunteers in our wildlife garden

Spring 2017 wildlifematters 5 UK NEWS Green groups unite Following the vote to leave the EU, environmental organisations are asking Government to keep the EU’s existing protections, and build on them FARMING ENVIROMENT KEEP KEEP

Controls on pollution of Protection for important our rivers, soils and seas wildlife sites NICHOLAS WATTS NICHOLAS ROBERTS MATTHEW

INTRODUCE INTRODUCE

Investment to restore our soils, rivers and A world-leading Environment Act, countryside to full ecological health and map nature’s recovery MATTHEW ROBERTS MATTHEW TAYLOR UK PARLIAMENT/JESSICA

hirteen major environmental Greener UK is concerned that wildlife are asking organisations including The could be forgotten in the rush to attract Government to: Wildlife Trusts have formed a new new investment or make new trade • Bring in a world-leading Environment Tcoalition called Greener UK. Their aim deals. This might reduce the protection Act and map nature’s recovery; is twofold: first, to ensure that wildlife’s we give our most important wildlife • Invest public money in restoring fortunes improve when we leave the sites, or the vigour with which we our soils, rivers and countryside EU; and second, to persuade the UK’s control pollution. to full ecological health; Governments to seize this moment The coalition is calling on the UK • Complete the UK’s network and lead the world in nature’s recovery. Government to keep as much of the of Marine Protected Areas and The 13 organisations in the coalition EU’s environmental protection as ensure we fish sustainably. speak for almost eight million members possible when we leave, and uphold – but many more people support it into the future. It is also asking for “We have secured real, tangible and the coalition’s objectives. In a recent sustainable and effective farming positive change in the past and are YouGov poll, eight out of ten British and fisheries policies, underpinned determined to do so again,” says adults thought we needed the same by safeguards for important wildlife Stephanie Hilborne. “The people of the or stronger levels of environmental sites and species, pollution control, UK want their wildlife back. Now is protection after we leave the EU. and marine protection. the time to call for that, on behalf “This coalition is powerful because of this generation and the next.” its moment has come,” says Stephanie Hilborne, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts. “If these islands are to change Eight out of ten adults think we need the fundamentally, let’s make that change same or more environmental protection a good one.”

6 wildlifematters Spring 2017 Bumper first year for Bird Observatory for nature

The island’s gannet 180 MPs colony with – a sign of the AND COUNTING times – nests made from FISHERIES In the last issue we asked every discarded fishing nets MP to sign a pledge to help KEEP make the UK a world leader on The Alderney Bird Observatory, set up in March environmental protection and 2016 as part of the Alderney Wildlife Trust, has Momentum on banning climate change, and restore ringed 13,000 birds and recorded 180 species, five discards and moving to nature. See who signed at of them new to the island. This has already shown sustainable fishing green-alliance.org.uk/ how important Alderney is as a stop-over point for migrant birds. GreenerUK

The first year’s work is a testament to the ALDERNERY BIRD OBSERVATORY observatory’s warden John Horton and his team, who ringed 500 storm petrels and 777 gannets. Their work will allow better monitoring of the population

FISHFIGHT.NET size and trends of Alderney’s birds.

INTRODUCE

More protection for vulnerabale habitats, Pine martens back and let fish stocks recover in Shropshire Shropshire Wildlife Trust are supporting what may be the only breeding population of pine martens in England. The animals were first observed on a trail camera, and thought to be migrants from Wales passing PAUL NAYLOR PAUL through. Subsequent monitoring revealed a small population in the woodlands of the Clun Valley. Several woodland owners in the Valley have already agreed to manage their land with pine martens in mind and are working with the Trust to install over 100 den Who are the boxes. Local volunteers are helping with scat searches Greener UK coalition? to further monitor the animals.

Greener UK is a group of 13 environmental CHAPMAN DAVID With improved denning options, the Trust thinks organisations representing almost eight million the martens can become fully established in people. It includes The Wildlife Trusts, the National Shropshire. More on shropshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/ Trust and the RSPB. All of them say that leaving the pinemartenproject TERRY WHITTAKER 2020 VISION 2020 WHITTAKER TERRY EU is the moment to restore and enhance the UK’s environment. More on wildlifetrusts.org/Greener-UK

Pine martens have been absent from most of England for more than a century

Spring 2017 wildlifematters 7

CONSERVATION Helping butterflies

Butterflies are some of In his recent book, Butterflies of our most attractive and Hertfordshire and Middlesex, easy to identify insects Andrew Wood has compiled but are under threat. a comprehensive guide Butterflies are also to the butterflies found important pollinators in Hertfordshire and and a source of food Middlesex, including for birds, dragonflies their status, history, and spiders. The more ecology and conservation we can do to encourage needs. Here, Andrew them, the healthier the looks at the importance whole environment of gardens for will be. butterflies...

n individual garden may seem Lets look at some plants that are easy small and not especially to grow and attract butterflies: important as a wildlife site Abut once you consider all the gardens Marjoram: This herb is great for cooking down a street and all the gardens and is a magnet for the attractive backing on to them in the next street, gatekeeper. you start to see a bigger picture Honesty: This plant flowers purple in emerging. Even more importantly they the spring followed by oval seed pods. can form a green corridor that links The orange tip and green-veined white ANDEW WOOD ANDEW the countryside, parks, cemeteries or are attracted to its flowers and will also churchyards together. So what can lay their eggs on the plant. The orange << Large you do to make your garden an even tip’s orange eggs are easy to find at the white better place for butterflies? base of the flower and the silvery-green larva Adult butterflies need food, such caterpillars can be found eating the as nectar, and shelter at night and green seed pods.

from bad weather. Caterpillars also Nasturtium: Trailing across the ground << need food plants. What a butterfly this orange-flowered annual has  Large will not find attractive is a garden flowers and leaves that both we and white WOOD ANDEW that is dominated by decking, paving the large white will eat. Despite its or closely mown weed-killed grass notoriety as a “cabbage white” it is an or a garden that has been converted attractive butterfly. The caterpillars live into a parking space. communally and are easy to find.

8 wildlifematters Spring 2017 caterpillars feed on the flower buds. Several species of butterfly have caterpillars that eat stinging nettles, but as they generally need large patches of << Red fresh nettles in full sunshine, admiral it is not really worth trying to cultivate butterflies such a patch in all but the largest

P gardens. Many A U L of the brown T H and skipper R

U S species have H caterpillars that feed on common grasses, but again you need an area rather larger than most gardens would support, or most gardeners would want to cultivate. Trying to get such areas in local parks is probably much more likely to encourage breeding than trying to create pocket patches in your garden. However, many of these species will << Brimstone visit the garden as adults if you provide the nectar sources. In the spring, fruit tree blossom is attractive as is the rotting fruit in the autumn. Through the summer and autumn, marigolds Michaelmas daisies, buddleia, blackberry, hemp agrimony and lavender will all JOSH KUBALE attract butterflies to their flowers. Common weeds such as dandelions are not what you might want to Alder Buckthorn: This is a small encourage but their flowers are also

<< Peacock shrub, but importantly it is one of attractive to butterflies. the caterpillar foodplants for the Whether your garden is big or small, brimstone butterfly which will lay you can help attract butterflies by its eggs on the leaves where you providing them with the right habitat. will hopefully be able watch the You can get further advice from Butterfly caterpillar’s growth. Conservation, the national charity Ivy: Many gardeners are unhappy to devoted to saving butterflies and moths find ivy growing up a fence or wall – butterfly-conservation.org – and but it has many uses for butterflies. its local branch in Hertfordshire and The adult brimstone will use its Middlesex – hertsmiddx-butterflies.org.uk shelter to hibernate through the winter. The flowers are one of the best nectar sources in the autumn and will attract many species, Andrew’s book particularly the red admiral and Butterflies of Hertfordshire comma. Dozens of red admirals will and Middlesex is available from gorge themselves on the flowers, Hertfordshire Natural History especially if they are in a sunny and Society at for only £19.99 sheltered position. The first brood at hnhs.org of the holly blue butterfly lays its JOSH KUBALE eggs on ivy and the hatched

Spring 2017 wildlifematters 9

MY WILD LIFE

My Wild Life CHARLOTTE HUSSEY CHARLOTTE

Zephaniah Lindo, What does the role of lecturer at protection and conservation; the Capel Manor College involve? majority have a garden and want Horticulture and I teach college aged students, some of it to look beautiful while still being who I am introducing to gardens and of value to the environment. Landscaping Lecturer wildlife for the first time as they live To both these groups I have a at Enfield’s Capel on urban estates and have never had a responsibility to promote good garden; they know that there is a ‘great management of the environment, Manor and Gardeners’ outdoors’ but don’t know how to access rather than simply focusing on the it – or that it needs to be managed. aesthetic. To own a garden is to own a World presenter, tells On the other end of the scale I also tiny piece of the planet and it’s amazing teach older students, ranging from how quickly good management can Charlotte Hussey, the 25 to 60. These individuals are often spread through the community and Trust’s Communication highly focussed on ecological change, create something really special. Officer, what got him passionate about gardens and how he is getting other people excited too! CHARLOTTE HUSSEY CHARLOTTE

10 wildlifematters Spring 2017 RACHE L SCO PES

One of your jobs before gardens thrive is a reward becoming a lecturer was a I get every day. gardener – what to you is Other highlights of my so special about gardening career would be my medal that drove you to where winning show gardens at you are now? Chelsea Flower Show and On a sunny day why wouldn’t being invited to present you want to be outside every on BBC Gardeners’ World day? To me even the days where – funnily enough when everything goes wrong and it rains I first came to Capel Manor

are still better than a normal day in << as a student I was asked where an office. People work all year to have Ladybird I’d like to be in the future and just two weeks outside relaxing – that’s flippantly replied ‘I want to present my day every day – the great outdoors on Gardeners’ World!’ is my office. It’s that old saying “choose a job you love, and you will never have And lastly what is your best wildlife spot? to work a day in your life” and it’s so I have wanted to see a kingfisher for the true. We all need a connection with What would your advice be to people last 30 odd years and finally I saw one the soil, with animals; it gives a sense wanting to work outside in nature? on a canal in Berkhamstead recently! of wellbeing and makes balancing the Go for it – just do it! Some days will be The Butterfly Ball and Grasshopper’s pressures of modern living much easier rainy and miserable but not every day Feast was my favourite book as a child – being in nature is a fundamental and the good days vastly outweigh and the kingfisher illustration really need. This sort of job also gives a lot of the bad. You will meet interesting captured my imagination so I was satisfaction, you can work all day and and passionate people, you will learn thrilled to finally spot one! My Wild Life really see the impact you are having. science, history, ecology, conservation, My mum’s garden in St Albans was design, art and practical conservation just a simple suburban 1920s terraced We encourage people to garden skills. The work is varied – no two house but she turned half the garden with wildlife in mind – do you have days will ever be the same. Even if you into a pond which really encouraged any tips around this? are weeding a border you will see a wildlife. We had great crested newts Understand that the number one result for your hard work and have and a whole range of other aquatics. thing you can do is look after your job satisfaction. She had a Dracunculus vulgaris – also soil. Managing soil and ensuring A lot of young people are concerned known as the voodoo lily among that it’s healthy will give you a solid with being famous and leaving a mark other names – and this provided foundation on which to build the rest – there is no better way of leaving a my inspiration for our piece in the of your garden. It is the basis of the food mark than making a little bit of the Chelsea Flower Show. chain for both us and other animals. If planet a more beautiful place. you have healthy soil then the rest will Lastly, go and get training so you take care of itself – don’t and you can can go into the industry with some plant the best flowers but they won’t understanding gained from an JOSH KU thrive. You can do this by mulching and apprenticeship or course. If you don’t BA LE composting (using your own compost have the time then even a couple of so that you are putting locally removed hours of volunteering will be of nutrients back into the ground and not huge benefit. Once you start, forcing a new recipe on nature). you’ll catch the bug – you Secondly, don’t be too tidy. Wildlife might not want to turn it won’t thrive in a perfectly manicured into a career but you’ll garden. Remember that nature is a have a lifelong passion. living thing, don’t try and control it so much. Do you have a And finally – don’t be picky with particular highlight nature! Too many people want to in your gardening attract only a certain type of wildlife career? but it’s all part of the food chain and A real highlight is everything has a place in the garden. seeing students If you want nice aphid eating wildlife who come in

then accept that you need aphids interested in the << present. Allow nature to balance itself subject and then, Kingfisher and don’t be too precious. Remember with training, turn that we’ve borrowed from nature into successful in the first place and it knows how gardeners. Seeing to look after itself! my students and

CONSERVATION

Six tips to keep your garden

After a long, dark winter now is the time that your garden will start to spring back to life

so it’s a great time HOPKINSROB to start thinking about how you can make your garden more wildlife friendly. Whether your garden is big or small, here are our top tips on making it a haven for local wildlife.

Build a pond During the past century nearly 70% of ponds have been lost from the UK countryside so including one in your garden can make a real difference Wildlife homes Choose the right plants to wildlife. Ponds are essential for There are plenty of ways to provide Ornamental plants such as amphibians like frogs and toads and a home for wildlife from bird and buddleia, ice-plant, lavender and offer a bath and drinking water for bat boxes to log piles, and enjoy honeysuckle will attract butterflies, birds. Lots of invertebrates breed in seeing the likes of blue tits and moths, bees and hoverflies but be water and birds and bats may feed robins raising their young. See page sure to select the best, most from insects at the water’s surface. 22 for how to set up a bug hotel. nectar-rich varieties.

12 wildlifematters Spring 2017 Six tips to keep your gardenSix tips to keep your

naturething until spring! doits garden, your put feet upandlet you want ahealthy, wildlife friendly garden isahaven for wildlife. Soif to some, abusy, but untouched mayto shelter!It lookmessy insects winter weeds are agreat place for stems,while plant deadleaves and treat fortasty seedeating birds, seedheadswillprovideUncut a tidy upover Don’t autumn TIM HILL wildlife friendly gardentoo! piles orahedgehog homeinyour fromthis soconsider including log level! benefit Hedgehogs particularly a few smallholesinfences ground at canopenup forhabitat wildlife with would besurprised how muchextra –you inotherwise to get be able wouldn’tthat to animals accessible Make your surethat garden is Create awildlife corridor here: www.vinehousefarm.co.uk You more orbuy canfindout food to takings their The Wildlife Trusts. birdof foodthey donate and 5%of beneficial –allbirds love them. aresuch assunflower most hearts feeding iscrucial–highcalorie food the scarcity food of the cold and so birds vulnerable areto most due they moult. as energy Winter iswhen birdssources needextra andadult younger from birds easy benefit food young.of time when Summer isa successful breedingthe rearing and to help time spring beingagreat our feathered friends. inyourout garden canreally help scarce duringwinter soputtingfood Natural food sources become very Feedthe birds Vine HouseFarms doagreat range Birds canbefed year round with Spring 2017 wildlifematters 13

PHILIP PRECEY

TIM HILL YOUR WILDLIFE TRUST

THANK YOU In memory of wildlife One of our life members, Peter King, enthusiast: Bob Hutton very kindly left a legacy to the Trust. Bob was born in 1941 in Daventry, but shortly It was very thoughtful of him to have returned with his mother to Shoreditch remembered the Trust in this special where he grew up in the bombed ruins of the East End. Bob’s love of wildlife way and we are very grateful for began from a very young age; he took great pleasure in observing all his all the support he has given to the surroundings, often taking in sick and injured animals to look after them. Trust over the years, making such Bob’s particular wildlife passion were birds; one of his favourite things to a valuable contribution to our do was to sit and relax in his garden and watch all the wild birds that visited. conservation work. He very much enjoyed sharing his love of nature with his family, spending Thank you for the kind donations much of their time together in the countryside and visiting country fairs, the Trust received in memory of where he loved talking to his children and grandchildren all about local wildlife. Thomas Kittle, Rose Chamberlin and Bob will be sadly missed by his family and friends, but he leaves a lasting Bob Hutton. These gifts will help us legacy: his love of wildlife will live on through the passion for nature he has continue our work protecting the passed onto his grandchildren and through the kind donations made to the rich heritage of habitats and wildlife Trust in his memory. across the two counties ensuring their memories live on, providing a healthy, vibrant and diverse natural world for future generations to enjoy. Our thanks and condolences go to The Mayor of Hertford’s Mayor Linda all family and friends of Peter, Thomas, Charity Quiz Night Radford and Rose and Bob. Legacies and donations Andy Brown made in this memorable way make a Our thanks to the Mayor of Hertford, Dr Linda Radford, valuable contribution to our work by for choosing Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust as one safeguarding local wildlife and their of her two selected charities to benefit from the Mayor habitats, thank you. of Hertford’s Appeal Fund during her term of office. Over the course of the past year, the Mayor has kindly hosted a number of fundraising activities and events to raise awareness and donations for each charity. A team from the Trust even went along to the Charity Quiz Night in January.

Thank you to the Mayor of Hertford for supporting us. HUSSEY CHARLOTTE

ideas, encouragement and Random Acts of Wildness. You’ll also receive a wallchart to track your progress, a wild badge, and regular blasts of inspiration Do we have your email address? Email is a cost effective way for us throughout June to to keep in touch with you. If you have help you make nature an email address and you are happy for part of your life. us to communicate with you we would love to send you the Trust’s e-newsletter What is a Random and other updates. Act of Wildness? A Random Act of Gift Aid Wildness is anything Gift Aiding your membership and other Wild Days that you can do in an average working donations means we reclaim your tax day to bring a little nature into your – at least 25p for every £1 you give us. Make room for nature this June – no life. They can take a few seconds, a If you are eligible for Gift Aid, or your matter where you are or how busy few minutes, or if you lose yourself tax circumstances change, please your life! When you sign up to the completely, a few hours! Sign up at let us know by contacting challenge, we’ll send you a pack full of mywildlife.org.uk/30dayswild

STAYING IN TOUCH STAYING [email protected]

14 wildlifematters Spring 2017 Keeping our supporters safe You may have noticed recent national press coverage highlighting issues around charity fundraising and suggested improvements to its regulation and governance. Here at HMWT we are keeping a close eye on these developments to ensure we continue to work well within regulations and best practice in this area. We are proud to be a member of the Institute Volunteer Awards of Fundraising and registered with the new Fundraising Regulator. We therefore In October the Trust said a big thank you to all of its hard-working volunteers follow the Code of Fundraising Practice at an event in Tewin. In 2015-16, volunteers worked over 10,000 hours in and have signed up to the Fundraising support of local wildlife. Jon Fish, West Herts volunteer, and office volunteer Promise, outlining our commitment to Carol Newman were presented volunteer awards for their hard work and ensure our fundraising activities are dedication to the Trust. legal, open, honest and respectful. You can see full details of our Fundraising Promise on our website.

Membership rates increase Where The Wild Things Are The work of the Trust is largely funded by subscriptions from Are you in interested in of the Trust. We have members. However, the cost of how your local wildlife a team of excellent developing and delivering our is faring? Finding volunteer community day-to-day conservation and public out answers to speakers eager to engagement activities has increased questions such visit and deliver considerably in the last three years as ‘What’s so these popular and is expected to continue to do so. special about talks to community The Trust will therefore be increasing chalk streams?’, groups across ‘Why do species Hertfordshire the minimum membership T H and habitats need IG and Middlesex. subscription rates for single and joint BR DAIR memberships by a small amount protecting?’, ‘ ALAS Are you part of a from April 2017. Family memberships What conservation community group that will see no change. The majority of projects happen near you?’, would like to learn more about our members already pay above the and ‘How you can help protect your local wildlife? If so, this is the minimum subscription rate and will your natural heritage?’ talk for you! For more information be unaffected, but those that are The Trust has just launched on how to book and find out Where will be contacted directly before the our new and updated community The Wild Things Are, please visit: change comes into effect. We are talk, Where The Wild Things hertswildlifetrust.org.uk/talks, hugely grateful to all our members Are, which discusses these contact Wendy Hartnell for the support you give through questions, conservation for on [email protected] your regular donations and we the 21st century and the work or call 01727 858901. look forward to continuing to work with you for the benefit for our local wildlife. Are you an experienced public speaker? We are currently recruiting volunteer speakers to deliver our wildlife talk to community groups in North, South and West Hertfordshire. If you’re passionate about local wildlife and interested in volunteering your time We’d love to hear from you. with HMWT, please visit our website at hertswildlifetrust.org.uk/ Get in touch with us at volunteeropps for more details on how to apply. [email protected]

Spring 2017 wildlifematters 15 WORKING FORWILDLIFE Working for wildlife Local businesses show their support for wildlife

The Grove

We went to see our newest Gold corporate member, -based hotel, spa and golf resort The Grove, to present staff members with their Corporate Membership certificate. The Trust has some exciting things planned with The Grove this year – watch this space!

Bertie with Sarah Rutherford, Val Fowler and Tom Perry

John Lewis and Watford, to help spread some Christmas spirit and promote the The Wildlife Trusts were delighted partnership. to be John Lewis’ charity campaign partner at the end of last year. We Local branches hope you all got to see its 2016 John Lewis Welwyn: The Trust Christmas advert which celebrated was nominated for John Lewis’ Natasha Geldenhuys, David Roberts, the joy of wild encounters and Community Matters charitable Michael Helling, Mike Master, Sarah featured some well-loved British giving scheme from August to Rutherford and Nico Geldenhuys wildlife species. These special October last year, from which visitors to ‘Buster’s Garden’ were we received £900 – and a giant also made into a collection of cuddly cheque too! toys from which 10% of sales were John Lewis Watford: Beauty kindly donated to The Wildlife Trusts. students from West Herts College Johnson Matthey Our very own Bertie the Badger attended the My John Lewis account even had the chance to visit our holder event in December to give local Hertfordshire stores before customers mini manicures raising We were pleased to visit North Christmas, in Welwyn Garden City donations of £100! Hertfordshire company, Johnson Matthey, that will be continuing its vital support for local wildlife as they continue their Gold corporate membership of the Trust. Staff are delighted to have a couple of Conservation volunteering our sites right on their doorstep The support the Trust receives from teams of staff from local businesses on our – we look forward to taking the nature reserves is amazing. We’ve had teams from Bourne Leisure and UK Power company’s staff out to see the Networks, both Platinum corporate members of the Trust, working for wildlife across Pasque flowers at Heath Hertfordshire in the autumn. this spring. While staff from the popular holiday company helped with some much-needed scrub clearance at , on the same day over at Tewin Orchard, staff from the power company helped with our annual fruit picking, which by all accounts was hugely successful. “The UKPN team did a fantastic job! All the fruit you picked was taken straight the presser and made into juice, which went down a storm at our Apple Day event and sold out completely!” – Laura, Senior Reserves Officer Staff from both teams gave us great enthusiasm, commitment and hours of, hard work which has made a real contribution to the amount of habitat management work we have been able to achieve for local wildlife, thank you. Max Finney, Deborah McGarrity, Visit hertswildlifetrust.org.uk/workparty to organise a Working for Wildlife Day for Mike Master and John Gourd your business team. Alternatively, contact Sarah Rutherford on 01727 858901 ext. 242 or email [email protected] to discuss your requirements.

16 wildlifematters Spring 2017 CONSERVATION White Local businesses show their support for wildlife Admiral appeal update

White admiral butterflies are spreading their wings once again in Herts and Middlesex ite wh ad r m u i r TONY COX o

a

l s The support you have given to our recent fundraising appeal will benefit our white is making a very real, immediate difference to our white admiral butterflies and a r g admiral butterflies, thank you. many other local woodland e n d ri species for years to come. isappea Once a common sight across the two counties, these We have managed to open spectacular woodland butterflies have really suffered over up the pathways and clear large the last 20 years with white admiral populations heavily openings on our woodland reserves, impacted by the decline of their ancient woodland homes. including and , the result Thankfully, with the help of our members, volunteers and of which means more sunlight will be able to stream into partners, Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust has been the woodland floor which will in time allow many nectar-rich determinedly restoring the important woodland habitats plants to flourish. they rely on locally for food and shelter. Collectively, our At Gobions Wood we’ve coppiced 40m of old, over-mature efforts have seen a resurgence of this spectacular butterfly. hawthorn hedge along the woodland edge and replanted But as you know, we needed additional funding to achieve gaps with mixed hedgerow species, and at Hilfield Park even more. Reservoir we’ve coppiced along the woodland rides and Your generous support to our white admiral appeal layered blackthorn scrub. These changes will improve, over the past few months has raised nearly lengthen and diversify woodland-edge habitats, which £10,000 with Gift Aid, which has enabled will accommodate a greater range of wildlife species and our vital woodland work to continue. support the white admiral throughout its lifecycle. We’ve As you can imagine, our Reserves also cleared holly at Fir & Pond Woods, conducted woodland Team has been very busy this thinning at Danemead, coppiced hazel at winter, delivering the habitat and completed more glade creation work at Cassiobury restoration work which Park, all to help improve the light levels and control the spread of invasive plants in our local woodlands. Additionally the appeal has also raised the funds needed to cover the ongoing training and surveying costs for our Reserve Officers and volunteers to monitor white admiral populations and effectively manage our woodland sites to provide these iconic butterflies with all that they need to flourish.

Thank you to everyone who has kindly donated to this appeal. You have given the white admiral the opportunity to once again become well established in Hertfordshire and Middlesex. PETE ROSE PETE

Spring 2017 wildlifematters 17 RESERVE FOCUS Danemead

Danemead Nature Reserve is an area of important oak hornbeam woodland where broad-leaved helleborines and butterflies thrive. A reserve

PA surrounded by history, this site is a U L TH RU wonderful area of wood pasture that SH forms part of Broxbourne Woods. << Devil’s-bit History merchants. Sadly scabious Danemead is surrounded by rich history most of this large and archeology – the site is bounded complex was << Meadowsweet by Ermine Street and by the north end destroyed for conifer of Martin’s Green. Ermine Street was plantation in the mid- a major Roman Road that ran from 1960 and the reserve is riverbanks. From London to Lincoln and York. The Old one of the few remnants June to September, English name was Earninga Straete, so that survive. meadowsweet produces named after a tribe called the Earningas, spays of tiny creamy-white who inhabited land around Royston. Meadow flowers standing atop tall stems. Devil’s- If you park in Martin Green’s car park, There is a meadow at the centre bit scabious is much prettier than its you can walk a short way down Ermine of the reserve which is typical of name would suggest, with rounded, Street to access the reserve on the left. wood pasture, as grazing and tree nodding purple-blue flower heads. It management opened up areas of the blooms between July and October, its Wood Pasture woodland. Habitat such as this with pincushion-like flower heads attracting Europe has historically managed land open grassland in close proximity to a wide variety of butterflies and bees. using a wood pasture system – open woodland provides high botanical woodland would provide shelter and diversity and provides great habitat for Grazing forage for grazing animals, as well as invertebrates. Butterflies are abundant It is harder to maintain open wood woodland products. Danemead is a in the summer and benefit from large pasture nowadays due to the decline fine example of this in Hertfordshire. open sunny areas which are still close in traditional farming methods. Broxbourne Woods, of which Danemead to food plants and shelter of the However, the Trust works hard to is a part, was largely managed in this woodland edge. maintain the site, grazing it using way before around 1963. This large The damp meadow supports a red poll cattle every year for two area was dominated by many large rich variety of wildflowers, including months from mid-July. old hornbeam and some oak pollards, meadowsweet and devil’s-bit scabious. The red polls are a gentle, hardy with extensive areas of bracken and Meadowsweet is a member of the breed of cattle who are not picky birch/willow scrub. The pollards were rose family that favours wet habitats and happily browse on Danemead’s historically cut for fuel by local firewood such as ditches, damp meadows and varied grassland.

Reserves Roundup white helleborines which will be flowering in May and June. Amwell – Scrub has been removed from the reed beds and a mix of Stocker’s Lake and Hilfield Park hedgerow species have been planted Reservoir – We have been carrying near the James hide. The konik ponies out important winter habitat work have also been grazing at the reserve at Stocker’s Lake and Hilfield Reservoir over winter. including coppicing trees and scrub clearance. – The paths around the reserve have been edged using felled Lemsford Springs – The Tesco Bags of Help sycamore in order to help protect the at Lemsford is almost complete; we have << White

Helborine MICHAEL STALLWOOD MICHAEL

18 wildlifematters Spring 2017 PA U L TH RU SH << Danemead hornbeams

<< Purple emperor

Last year we received funding from shady woodlands,

the Veolia Environmental Trust to clearings and rides N E W install new fencing on the reserve in late summer. The ER SH for grazing sheep, so that we could purple emperor is a NY EN reintroduce cattle and ensure robust large butterfly that can J fencing around the reserve. only been found for a short period during late summer – Wildlife bring your binoculars as Danemead attracts a large array of this butterfly spends much of its butterflies including the white admiral time in the tree canopy where it feeds and purple emperor. The white on aphid honeydew. admiral is a distinctive woodland Danemead is one of only three known butterfly with a striking white band sites in Hertfordshire for the fragrant across its black wings. agrimony; a plant with a long spike of The white admiral can be found in brilliant, star-shaped, yellow flower.

filled holes in the lagoon bed with pollards and we have thinned gravel, pollarded willows and begun some of the woodland with the to construct a compost toilet. help of volunteer work parties.

Fir & Pond Woods – We have continued – We have been with holly clearance in Pond Wood, and mowing and scalloping rides in are exploring options to graze cattle for the wood and cleared two new the first time in the wet pasture to the rides – one large and one small – south later in the year. with the help of volunteers and contractors. The contractor work Danemead – Contractors have been was completed using a Tesco re-pollarding some of the old hornbeam Bags of Help grant. << Fragrant Agrimony TIM HILLTIM

Spring 2017 wildlifematters 19 DAYS OUT

Tim Hill, the Trust’s Conservation Manager, highlights some of his favourite seasonal wildlife and makes suggestions for places to go, things to look out for and do through the months ahead... calendar

MARCH

Rise and shine The slow worm despite it’s name and appearance is neither a worm nor a snake. It’s a limbless lizard, the giveaway identification features being eyelids D and visible ear cavities which snakes don’t have. N LA RT I much prefer its scientific name, Anguis fragilis, Slow HO E S the ‘fragile snake’, a name based on an ability to worms BUC shed its tail to escape predation. In March these habitually reptiles will be coming out of hibernation which seek out warm may have started as long ago as last October. For places to raise their any animal that’s been holed-up for up to five temperatures to enable them to become active. months, the first thing on its mind is to find food. A favourite place is below flat materials which Emergence is timed carefully to coincide with absorb the warmth of sunlight such as sheets of prey becoming active again. Slow worms feed wood or metal. I find it difficult to walk past such on slugs, worms, snails and other invertebrates materials without having a quick shufti below. that move slowly enough to be caught. They Not only do slow worms love these places but will spend the next couple of months feeding so do grass snakes, mice and voles. In fact, these

nature’s and getting in good condition for the mating places are so reliable that surveys for slow worms season in May. Mating is rarely witnessed but and other reptiles make use of artificial refuges it’s a typically chaotic affair whereby the male like this. In my experience the most successful bites the female at the back of the head in a less material being corrugated tin or roofing felt. than romantic manner. If mating is successful, the female will give birth to eight live young in August or September. Slow worms are long-lived if they escape predation and are only fully grown Record your sighting! after eight years or so, measuring up to 50 cm. If you do spot a slow worm or any The oldest known individual lived for 54 years. other reptiles of mammals, please Spotting slow worms in the wild is a submit your records to the Hertfordshire challenging business but once you know where Natural History Society for inclusion in to look, they can be found. Being ectotherms, a new atlas of mammals, amphibians these animals rely on their environment to warm Tim is Conservation and reptiles – www.hnhs.org Manager for Herts and their body. Knowing this helps in knowing where Middlesex Wildlife Trust to search for them.

20 wildlifematters Spring 2017 APRIL

Damsel in a red dress For odonaters (dragonfly watchers) which are perfectly suited to observing like me, April is anticipated greatly as these creatures. Choose a warm, ideally it’s the month when these insects take sunny day, select a good vantage point to the wing once more. In our counties, and scan slowly through the waterside the first species to be encountered is vegetation. I would recommend the usually the large red damselfly Pyrrhosoma dragonfly trails at Amwell or Panshanger nymphula. The large red is our only red Park where special viewing places have been damselfly and can be seen throughout the spring constructed. With patience you should be treated until mid-summer. We do have red dragonflies – the to great views. Spend time watching closely as the males common and ruddy darters, which fly from high summer but search for a mate and eventually you will see pairs in tandem these are larger insects and when perched, hold their wings – the males grasp the female by the back of the neck and she outstretched rather than along the body like damselflies. will attach the tip of her abdomen to the male’s genitalia, Large reds can be found almost anywhere around ponds, creating a distinctive ‘wheel’ structure. The pair may even lake and slow moving water courses. Given their colour, they remain in tandem during egg laying – this is a good ploy can be surprisingly difficult to spot when perched – there is for the male as it prevents the female from mating with a surprising amount of red within the shades of the natural others. Eggs are laid into submerged vegetation from which world. If you go in search of these insects the best tool to nymphs hatch. It may take up to two years for these nymphs take is a pair of binoculars which focus closely, have a wide to grow and mature, feeding on smaller insects and fish field of view and a good depth of field to the image – a 7x or fry, before emerging as adults to begin the life

BUCE SHORTLAND 8x magnification is ideal and there are some 6x instruments cycle once more.

D A N IE L

J MAY JUNE O L

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V

E T

Lilac shine Nature is art There is no more Look carefully at Sir magnificent John Everett Millais’ a spectacle in painting Ophelia. It D N May than the shows a beautiful young LA RT HO lilac loveliness woman lying in a brook. E S BUC of thousands Above her, a pollarded willow tree of water violet and along her sides, below the water, swathes of

OLIVIER PICHARD flowers reaching a plant with white buttercup-like flowers. This is out of the Manifold Ophelia, a character from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ditch at King’s singing before eventually drowning in a river in Meads, between Hertford and Ware. However, it was not always so. Denmark. The reality is that Millais used the Water violet is one of our county’s rarest plants. In the Flora of River Hogsmill in Ewell, a chalk stream, as Hertfordshire (James, 2009) it was found in only 3% of tetrads. So why is inspiration. The plant is water crowfoot it now so abundant at King’s Meads? The short answer – a lot of hard, Ranunculus aquatilis – the classic and most targeted work. We were very fortunate that a Hertford resident and indicative plant of this globally rare habitat. naturalist, Alan Reynolds had ‘adopted’ King’s Meads and was spending Late June is when water crowfoot is at its much of his time recording the biodiversity of the site. The information that peak and the best place to see it is in the River Alan collected enabled us to clearly identify the priorities for conservation Mimram at or Panshanger Park. The with a management plan. One of these priorities was the water violet, leaves are the ‘crow’s foot’ but this is difficult which was present but in small numbers. Based on experience elsewhere, a to see in flowing water, where the leaves are course of action was identified – the sensitive restoration of ditches through stretched out by the current. The plant forms the removal of silt which had accumulated over decades, smothering the a vital part of the ecology of chalk streams. The wetland plants. Once the management plan was agreed, the next challenge leaves provide habitat and cover for invertebrates was how to pay for the restoration. We were fortunate that the Environment and fish. As it grows it forms dense swathes. As Agency were able to support the work and over the course of a few years the gin clear spring water flows, it forces channels the Manifold Ditch and others were sensitively de-silted with the help of to open up where flow is greater, scouring silt a 13 tonne excavator. Our Reserves Officer Andy Brown and Alan Reynolds off the gravel base of the river creating perfect supervised the work extremely closely, ensuring that no habitats of spawning grounds for brown trout and habitat existing value were lost along the way. The results of the restoration for mayfly nymphs. At this time of year, the white were extraordinary. In 2004, prior to the work Alan Reynolds counted and yellow flowers almost sparkle like stars in just 220 water violet flower spikes; in 2007 the number was 2,000 and a bottle green sky, moved constantly by the by 2009 there were 8,400! ebb and flow of the current below.

Spring 2017 wildlifematters 21 MICRO HABITATS

THE NATURE OF... a bug hotel

Bug hotels are a great way to attract insects into your garden; the structure frogs and newts that need cool and will benefit the creatures you are providing a home for as well as the damp areas that can remain frost free biodiversity and health of your garden. over winter. Frogs will also help eat slugs, another bonus for your garden. To add even more value to your Every bug hotel is different; there are and millipedes break down woody plant garden, include some corrugated many types catering to the needs of material and so play an important part cardboard in a dry part of your hotel, different insects. Lots try to appeal to as of a garden’s lifecycle. as the narrow tubes will attract many creatures as possible by providing Different sized holes, made by lacewings which are fantastic at keeping differing habitat in the same structure. drilling into wood or inserting things pests, including aphids, under control. Usually starting as a tower of pallets, like bamboo cane or hollow stems into When planning your hotel, include a people then fill the gaps with a mix gaps, make for fantastic solitary bee sheltered wooden box at ground level, of natural and man-made materials. nest sites. Attracting bees will also with leaf ‘bedding’ to give hedgehogs Charlotte Hussey, The Trust’s benefit your garden with their help a safe place to hibernate over the winter Communications Officer, looks at what of pollination. and tempt them away from temporary insects and materials you might find Dry and wet leaves mimic litter log-piles elsewhere. in a typical garden bug hotel and how on the forest floor and are great for If you make a bug hotel, remember this can help your garden. invertebrates and hibernating ladybirds to try and provide a diverse habitat. Dead Wood is essential for beetles – an insect you will want sticking Place the hotel somewhere where and their larvae and also supports fungi around due to its large appetite for parts providing shelter to things like which breaks down the woody material. pesky aphids! beetles and frogs can remain cool Other small insects can be found under Straw and hay provide a cosy place and damp, while other areas are bark crevices such as centipedes and to burrow and hibernate over winter. able to face sunlight for insects woodlice. Rotting wood also attracts Materials like stone and pebbles are best that prefer warmer conditions, these insects, as well as spiders. Woodlice placed in shady low areas to support such as bees.

22 wildlifematters Spring 2017 SOCIAL MEDIA Tweets from the field... The delights of nature have certainly delivered over winter – here are some highlights.

Bertie made an appearance at SuStAinable StAlbans Week – The next SuStAinable StAlbans Week will be 21-29 April 2018

This fantastic kingfisher image was taken by Giles Smith, in Verulamium Park

Ian Harris snapped this pretty reed bunting at our Amwell Nature Reserve

@paulhdigiman took this photo of the elusive bittern This gorgeous sunset was taken near Stocker’s trying its hand at iceskating over at Lake on New Years Eve by @penny561helen

We love seeing your pictures from our reserves and hearing about your wildlife experiences in Hertfordshire and Middlesex. Get involved with the conversation on Twitter@HMWTBadger or Facebook facebook.com/hertswildlifetrust.

Spring 2017 wildlifematters 23 Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust and Herts Natural History Society are proud to present

FREE family wildlife festival!

Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 July 10:00am - 4:00pm, Panshanger Park

Join us at the beautiful Panshanger Park for a weekend of walks, talks and family activities to celebrate the wildlife of Hertfordshire and Middlesex FIND OUT MORE AT HERTSWILDLIFETRUST.ORG.UK/FESTIVAL

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