WYCOMBE WILDLIFE
\I" ./ ,,·s ,=_I/If ~ I: no.13
JANUARY1994 High Wycombe, HP11 1ax
Past Successes and ~uture C/ia[fenges The past year was busy a one, with all the activities connected with our Wildlife Garden Competition and the HEDGEROWS survey of the District boundary hedge. Now the organization is in place, we BASS Wildlife hope to repeat the Garden Competi Action Fund grant tion this year, to encourage more for Sheepridge people to garden for wildlife. development. 31
Update: We W.W. However, a new exciting opportunity continue our has arisen. Our application for a grant Survey. 32 for the development of our reserve at Sheepridge, Little Marlow has been Flora & fauna: selected, out of 85 projects, and we HEDGEROWS for shall receive sponsorship of £1000 from butterflies. 33 BASS pie, under their Wildlife Action Fund, which is administered by RSNC. Wildlife Gardening: The Sheepridge Project will be Some questions and promoted in our next Newsletter but a answers. 34-35 couple of work parties have already taken place with students from the The GREAT HEDGE Berkshire College of Agriculture. SURVEY - How Needless to say we are delighted with Vice-President of RSNC, Michael green is Wycombe's the news of this ,grant, and thank Palin (on left), shakes hands with boundary ? 36-37 BASS pie for their ,generosity. WyUWG Vice-Chairman, Angus Idle, during the presentation of the Bass Historic Another company we have to thank is Wildlife Action Fund Awards, held HEDGEROWS 38 Axa Equity and Law , who have at Carnley Street Nature Reserve, Wildlife Reports - sponsored not only the current Newsletter, but also the accompanying near King's Cross, London, on Sands Bank & Penn Spring programme sheet. We are most 11th. October 1993. Wood 39 grateful. Pat Morris Wildlife Notice Board This issue generously sponsored by AXAEQUITY & LAW - - 1 •__ l!!f_,_ · -~ - --Update---- •----~-·•- Members' meeting - surveying the problem High Wycombe, like any town, found any. It was so complicated consists of an intimate mixture of that many of us were frightened buildings, open spaces, roads, rail to attempt any surveying. Wycombe Urban Wildlife ways and footpaths, developed land Group is a voluntary or waste and derelict places. So at a recent evening meeting, at organimtion the OBJECT Because wildlife doesn't recognize which I am very pleased to report of which is to further the ecology and knowledge of any of these preceding categories, it that nearly a dozen members came the urban and fringe areas often puts down its roots in the along, we discused Biological of High Wycombe, most unlikely spots. We have had a Surveying. We still have the Buckinghamshire; to con long term plan, since the inception ambition to map all the Wildlife in serve, protect, restore and create wildlife habitats; to of the Group, to survey our town and around the town, so that if encourage colonization and and its immediate surroundings to things happen, like the possibility survival of all plant and discover what its r.======~ of the M40 being animal life in such areas wildlife consists We still have the ambition moved, or a new and to promote the educat ion of the public in matters of & where it is. to map all the Wildlife in discount ware- pertaining to urban wildlife house is planned, and its conservation. Our plan was and around the town we will know that those who beforehand what Within Wycombe District -=------=------=-wildlife is either in danger from the Group aims to: could would walk throughout the • Survey and map wildlife area and colour large scale maps to the development or could be habitats. show the location of wildlife encouraged with careful planning. • Protect important wild habitats. Unfortunately the scheme We will have to simplify the sur life sites. vey for a start to encourage more • Study wildlife sites and adopted was too ambitious. It inc their associated wildlife. luded colour codes for every con of you to take part, and come the • Manage wildlife sites and ceivable habitat type, we could spring we will organize some associated flora and fauna. even have shown the sea shore and training sessions to help you find • Stimulate public interest in wildlife & its conservation coal mine waste heaps if we had & map our wildlife. Angus Idle. • Encourage wildlife gardening. • Co-operate with other -reQti nof~ WiiatifeAn~gt)('grfo • groups with similar aims. • Promote the objectives of Ctil,t-diof En~<1na rirtt Sail.Xi. the Group. • Encourage active partic ipation in conservation of On 20th. November 1993 members of all persons and groups and There are moves afoot to restart WyUWG with parents and children provide appropriate training from the school created a wildlife area to that end the WYCOMBE WATCH group. (A detailed copy of the aims WATCH is the junior section of in the comer of the school grounds. is available on request) the Royal Society for Nature The area was planted with trees and a Conservation (RSNC) and is for wetland area was dug out, lined and Wycombe Wildlife News is refilled. One area of the trees will be published 3 times a year to youngsters between the ages of 5 coppiced, while others will be allowed promote the Group 's activ and 15. We hope to be able to to grow on as standards. ities and inform members & announce the first meeting in the A meadow area will be planted the public of its progress. next Newsletter. Those interested next year from plants grown from seed Editor: Pat Morris. should contact Elaine Tague at the by the children. Maurice. Produced by Maurice Young. Countryside Centre Printed by: on 0494 536930. ""'"'c'~";•;Hn~•;·;·;•;nm;;;;;;:m~•;·;~u;;;;~"'""]I WDC Design & Print. lHlltltlllllllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUl"IHIIIIIIHIIIIHIHttl11HHIHIIIIHHIIIJIIIIIHIIIHHIIIIIHIUl11111 Illustrations by: Pat Morris , Frances Wilding & Maurice. Views expressed in the newsletter are th~ of the authors and not necessarily those of the Group. Photo: L.P.A International For the purposes of management of the Group membership information is held on computer. Photographers. Any members who object to their membership details being held in this way should notify the Secretary .
Printed on A recycled paper "II~ - - 1 1 -•- ~ - -"' '· --- Ploraand fauna ---llllliil •-.. ...:\ 1.--•- !J-{ec[gerOUJs-good for '13uttetf{iesanrf Mot/is
or butterflies and moths the By the time the leaves are well hedgerow is an extended developed disturbing branches on a F"woodland edge" habitat with its hedge can reveal several species of varying conditions of shelter (sunshine moth, which hide there in the daytime, BUTTERFLY & shade) and diversity of vegetation. I with names like Clouded Silver, CONSERVATION will take you through the year and Twinspot Carpet, Yellow Shell and any formerly known as give you a glimpse of the insects you number of the Pug moths - there is a might encounter along a hedgerow. wealth of shape, colour and life-cycles the Moths have a much longer season to explore. British Butterfly than butterflies and many species are During midsummer a moth that Conservation Society active early and late------.. may well come to our notice is (BBC$) in the year. So our Bue~tl]orl) the Lackey, its larvae live in promotes the year starts during brown silken webs. When the January & February caterpillars have eaten all the conservation with the unusual food in one web they move on of moths as well sight of the Early~~- .- f and spin another and soon the as butterflies. Moth fluttering in \}a r unfortunate hawthorn, on our car headlights, which they are feeding, is left as we travel along Einx with no foliage at all, but is a lane bordered by 3 covered by these brown threads. hedges. Females of tl]efood plai}t of Hairstreaks are rare, possibly this species are tf7eBrimstOQ0 is overlooked butterflies, which wingless and sit /T\OSt live on mature hedgerows. The waiting on the eoQSpieuouswt,0Q Black Hairstreak can be found The local group of bushes for the males iQfruit in North Bucks on blackthorn Butterfly to come along. (sloe), whilst the similar Brown The first butterflies we notice will Hairstreak is virtually absent from this Conservation, have hibernated through the winter part of the country. A few White the Upper Thames months. Fine spring days bring Letter Hairstreaks Branch, out Brimstones, Small Tortoise- survive on elm is very active and shells & Peacocks all hungrily that has regrown last August 11their 11 looking for early flowers. following the However, they do not lay their ravages of Dutch Prestwood Picnic eggs until April or May when Elm Disease. Site was designated the leaves of their food plants Purple Hairstreaks a Local Nature begin to develop. Brimstones inhabit oak trees, Reserve search out a nondescript the caterpillars hedgerow shrub, the purging eating the leaves buckthorn, laying their large, and the adults yellow eggs on the topmost feeding on the leaves of new shoots. honeydew secreted Another welcome spring by aphids. sight is the Orange Tip butterfly In late autumn flying up and down the hedge- hedgerows may row looking for its food plant, .....,______.provide places for Anyone who wants Jack-by- the-hedge, where once again, butterflies to hibernate - Brimstones in more details of their its large orange eggs can easily be among ivy leaves and Commas down activities or is found Only one of the white among the dead leaves in the foot of interested in helping butterflies breeds in significant the hedge. with work at this site numbers along the hedgerow, this is Finally, we return to the fluttering the pretty Green-Veined White which, moths in our car headlights, long may should contact Ron as its shares the same food plants, is our hedgerow reserves remain. Beaven - see often found flying with the Orange Tip. Ron Beaven (Butterfly Conservation) WyUWG 's contacts - Ill ... llltldhfeGardening ~-
observations, however, contradict this U'dcumth/f widely held belief. In November our yellow-berried firethorn carries a heavy WILD IFE crop but follow"ing the first frosts it is attacked vigorously by several blackbirds, TO YOUR GARDENS a thrush, starlings and - this year a pair of blackcaps. By mid December, every Some answers to wildlife gardening year, there isn't a berry left ! questions we have been asked. Looking round Marlow and Wycombe just before Christmas I have seen both yellow and red-berried bushes still uestion: W c have a new trellis smothered with fruit. Is it a matter of arch in our garden. What can we position? All these bushes are in front Qgrow up it to encourage wildlife? gardens, does traffic and people going in and out of the houses deter birds from nswer: The shrub Pyracantha feeding from these 'exposed' bushes ? coooinea (firethorn) is excellent in Our blackbirds eat red berries on the A this situation. It will grow to 3 or Cotoneaster outside our kitchen window more metres high but needs support. It is and will, no doubt, have a feast from our usually grown on a wall and produces bright red, dt.x:iorative crab apple after fairly dense cover. With careful training Christmas as they begin to soften - so and pruning you could produce two they are not colourblind or prejudiced ! ------hedge-like columns to your arch Pyracanthas produCJe ncCJtar for up to lm thick then, by training butterflies and bees and berries for the the upper lateral branches fructivorous birds but few insects feed on across the top you could form it so, although Pyracantha make an ex an arch. Obviously you will cellent hedge, native shrubs are far more have to trim it regularly on the valuable for the wildlife garden hedge. inside to keep the path through &> why not - the arch open but you should only cut back outward growing shoots in early March after, hopefuHy, all the berries have been eaten by the birds. The new season's shoots will produce masses of flowers in the spring feasti~ 017yellow pyraeal]tt}a berries which bees love. The firethorn ------usually bears a heavy CJropof 149 different insects and mites feed on berries much appreciated by birds. As it hawthorn and 109 on blackthorn. I do matures and becomes more dense from not have figures for Pyracantha, but it is repeated pruning you may get the added probably under a dozen. If you want an bonus of birds nesting in it. You could impenetrable hedge around your garden add even more wildlife value to this these two, of course, are the best species Pyracantha arch by growing a honey to plant - have you ever tried to get suckle through it - the native, wild through a blackthorn or ha wthom hedge? honeysuckle for the true wildlife garden ! and, from the figures above, you can app but for the non-purist Lonicera halliana, reciate their value to wildlife. Better still, is a semi-evergreen species with a long why not plant a mixture and you will get flowering period and nicely scented a mosaic of colour, texture and leaf shape. flowers which should, like the native If you are fortunate enough to be able species, attract night-flying moths. to plant a long hedge how about including a few small standard trees like rowan or There are several varieties of firethorn whitebeam in it to add interest & expand you can choose from and those wanting the range of habitats ? Small hedges, to attract birds arc often told to get the however, are just as valuable in providing red berried forms because birds do not shelter and breeding sites for mammals, - like the yellow form - var. flava. My own birds, and invertebrates. (cont. on - p. 38) ___l!J_-- __&___ UJ,ldhfeGarden1ng ___ lJJJ_~-•-•- U'elcomea/T Now is the time WILD IFE to put up nest boxes - if you TO YOUR GARDENS need more! and clean out uestion: A hawk visits our action ! which, although individual birds any old ones. garden regularly, taking sparrows lose out, keeps the overall bird population of Qand other small birds attracted your area "fit", i.e. stronger, faster and to our bird table by the food we put generally more healthy. out. How can we deter the hawk ? Pat, our editor , discus.sed this with Arthur Brown of Bucks Bird Club and he nswer:My immediate reaction suggests the only thing you can do is to plant a few shrubs around the bird table when asked this question by a into which the birds can dive "for cover" In frosty weather visitor to our demonstration A when they sec the hawk coming. Clip the keep drinking wildlife garden shrubs regularly to encourage dense , bushy bowls free of at the West growth but REMEMBER the danger of cats! Wycombe ice. which Arthur considers to be a more serious Garden Centre threat to gard en birds than hawks, so don't was "Aren't plant the shrubs too close to the bird table. you lucky! Some of the small birds that fall prey to Many pt'Oplc only see this your hawk , however , are not absolute Sparrow hawk angels. A recent issue (no . 54) of Butterfly sort of thing Conservation News had a fascinating article on television Broader wings than entitled "Buddleia Butchery" in it. This and keen bird kestrel , less pointed tips described the predation of buttertlies on watchers only and Keep bird tables tonger tail . A woodland garden buddlcjas by tits, sparrows, robins, if they spend bird manovering easill/ and feeders hours cooped wagtails, wrens, flycatchers and even a among the trees. magpie. All of these birds, including, the clean - scrub up in a hide." magpie, are poten We all love to see kestrels hovering with water con Kestrel tial prey for the over the fields and valleys when we go taining deter hawk - all are part out in the country and quite a lot of gent (washing of the natural food time and money has gone into the up liquid) and re-introduction of the red kite in this chain/web and if it is all going on in bleach. part of the Chilterns. To survive , how your garden - ever, they must feed. This hawk has found your garden an easy, good hunt congratulations ! ing ground and although it is, perhaps, a little distressing to witness small SCHOOLS there is a birds your kindness has lured to your super, challenging wings longer and mor e garden being slaughtered, take the pointed project here - work philosophical view. The hawk is only hovers over its hunting out the fcxxl web of redressing the natural balance which grounds - motorwat{ a ( wildlife) garden - Good hygiene is ._____ v_e_r.;;;..g_es______.whateats what . you , by feeding birds in your garden , essential for the have upset . By providing extra food you enable more small birds, and in health of your particular, the weaker individuals , to In writing the draft for this article I, not avian visitors - survive than would do so if they had to thinking, used the term "kestrel" instead of and you - so do rely solely on the natural food supply hawk and Arthur pointed out, from the wash your in your area. The birds that the hawk results of an annual Garden Bird Survey he hands after takes from your bird table are, most conducts among Bucks Bird Club members, probably , the slower, less fit individuals. that kestrels very rarely visit gardens and handling any What you are observing is natural that the bird discussed here was most likely animal feeders -selection and survival of the fittest in to have been a sparrowhawk. Maurice. and bowls!- .... TheGreat Hedge Suruey ....
The first stage of the project is to identify and map existing hedges, a massive task, so to restrict its magnitt.1de PLANTLIFEdecided to focus on hedges that mark parish boundaries, some of which, like the Black Hedge near Princes Risborough: will be old hedges with a well documented history and of high wildlife value.
The WyUWG committee thought the Group should carry out a survey of Wycombe's Urban Parish boundary so sent for the survey form. T~; The first task was to identify the boundary. It is shown f?,""··· on the 1:25,000 Pathfinder maps but to sec the line of tiny ~ .1....._.·.:~-#•• ,..... grey dots you need good sight , a good light and a magnifying glass ! To facilitate our survey the boundary was divided up into sections. Members who had ~~:i1//;~ volunteered to help with the survey selected and surveyed the sections with which they were most familiar. The Vf,2... (1 survey was co-ordinated by WyUWG's Project Officer \ ••) I who photocopied completed forms for WyUWG's records before forwarding them to PLANTLIFE.
KEY Marking the District Boundary clearly on a map brings to light a number of interesting features of Wycombe's Woodland landscape. For instance: in the region of Kings Wood, or common which lies outside the NE boundary, if you look at a street ~ map you will see that Micklefield Road swings north as if urban the developers planned to link up with Kingswood Road m development in Totteridge. urban l_, boundary
Scale 1:25000 - Thank you to all who took part in the survey- -~ TheGreat Hedge Suruey ....
%no (jreen is 'Wycom6e's'llr6an Parish 'Bowufary?
At
~-········· PLANTLIFE- r:•u ITV \ Any one who wants & I 0••01"--~•····.. information alxmt the Similarly tiny cul-de-sacs off Forest LA~- ~/2 activities & membership Way look like the beginnings of roads /-/,, 7/,/;,- of PLANTUFEshould into Kings Wood, these and -~ =nt~t Maun,~ Micklefield Road arc cut short - by the parish boundary. Only one road in the Micklefield complex breaches the parish boundary - Lea's Close. Kings Wood is in Chepping Wycombe C P and this stretch of the boundary -blackthorn ~3~h,./.I 1//ij/ /·' is not so much hedgerow as woodland edge although where it continues Another surprising point is that ~ along the boundary of the land of our residential developments only •• sponsors - Equity & Law - to the straddle the boundary in three places north of the wood there is, of course, - Downley, Daws Hill and along the a neatly trimmed hedge. London Road. This mt,:.ans that at least 75% of Wycombe's "urban" The urban parish boundary also boundary runs through fields ! so an follows the woodland edge of Hanging urban wildlife group opting to do a Wood in the Hughenden Estate and hedge survey is not so daft as it Downley Common, Lee's Wood and might have originally seemed. Gt. Cockshall Wood and Lt. & Gt. Cockshoots Woods as the boundary In our survey members found 18 swings round West Wycombe. In this species of tree: apple, ash, beech. area it also passes through the middle cherry, downy birch, English elm, of two woods - Hearn ton Wood and hornbeam, oak, field maple, holly, Hellbottom Wood. _,r Douglas fir, Lawson's cypress, Norway maple, Scots pine, sycamore, rowan, whitebcam and yew in the hedgerows of the District boundary., Shrubs, some of which in unmanaged hedges have grown into small trees included: blackthorn, box, buckthom, elder, goat willow, guelder -hawthorn, hazel, spindle, dogwood, rose, dog rose & bramble. • - -•----•-,-~.....\'._, --- Conseruat1on____ fl!J__: -~--•-
As the recent Great Hedge Survey, field maple in a 30 yd. stretch of a in which we participated (see p. 36-37), hedge it probably dates hack to has shown, our landscape possesses a medieval times. The formula for wealth of hedgerows, copses & woods. dating hedges was derived by Max The tragic loss of much of this heritage Hooper following his survey of some has been much publicized in recent 227 hedges, the ages of which were years and it is to be hoped that the well documented and ranged from 75 recent MAFF (Ministry of Agricul to 1100 years. This method of ture, Fisheries and Food) Hedgerow estimating the age of hedges is useful Incentive Scheme will redress for old, established hedges hut is not these losses. The Countryside foolproof as modern hedge planters C'nmmission's Stewardship Scheme, tend to use a mixture of species which which pays land owners to manage rather upsets the calculations. When their land in traditional (the old) ways, Hedges have been a ma_pr part of Butterfly Conservation to help conserve hedges, walls, woods our landscape for centuries, it is im members walk a and many other countryside features, portant that they remain so for the transect at a site and shows signs of being successful. future - and that is up to all of us. count the numbers of Hedgerows have many uses, from Neil Harris (National Trust) butterflies they say boundary markers to wildlife refuges. they are doing a Their origins lie back in the mists of time. A few date back to the times of "POLLARD" after the Anglo-saxon farmers but many E. Pollard who originate from the land enclosure devised the scheme. movements of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. However, it has been A number of tree species, including estimated that up to 25% of present ? beech and hornbeam, become very day hedgerows have established • bushy in response to regular pruning naturally - shrubs and trees springing and make excellent hedges. These two Should, therefore, up along field and stream edges from really come into their own as hedges, those walking a 30yd. bird and wind dispersed seed in areas however, in the winter, for regular transect to date a that have escaped the reaper's scythe clipping keeps them young so, like or grazier's animals. When woods were hedgerow describe the young trees of these species, they keep cleared to cteate fields outer rings of activity as doing a their leaves in winter - beautiful to trees were of ten left to divide the "HOOPER". behold and a superb compagcs in fields. The presence of small-leaved which many things can hibernate. lime in an obviously sinuous hedgeline Whether planting a hedge, or a more often than not indicate the ghost Pyracantha arch, use young saplings of a former wood. no more than 50 ems high placing Straight hedges tend to date from them about 30 ems apart in two rows the 17th. century up to the present 20 ems apart. Trim them to about 15 day when hedges were planted to ems high to encourage them to branch create a patchwork of regular, angular low down, or you will get a leggy fields on land previously farmed on an hedge with gaps at the base. Cut back 'open field' system. a11vigorous growths to I/3rd of their Much has been said and written on length twice a year to encourage dating hedges. In the Hooper method branching and build up a solid, ent a count is made of all woody species wined mass of twigs. As the hedge (trees and shrubs) in a 30 yard stretch grows, clip to the desired width and of hedge. The number of species ultimately at the desired height. counted X 100 is supposed to give the age of the hedge. Thus if you find hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, ash and - - -•-• ...... ,... ___ rn1l~l1fe~eports_____ 11..."... 1 llliiiii•-- $ANU$8AffKt8CAt ffAtUftt atstavt
Ian Butterfield, WDC's Community Spring this time so as not to miss Martin & Peter ran their moth Woodland Officer, reported in our the early flowers and animals". trap on the evening of 14th. Newsletter last year that surveys August 1993. They R"Corded 58 sp would be carried out during the Nation Notable B moths of macro moth, 19 sp of micro summer at Sands Bank - an area at Sands Bank moth, 3 different beetles, a forest of chalk grassland ...------. shieldhug, an oak bushcricket and sandwiched Barred hook-tip - common 3 types of lacewing. Of the macro between the in Chiltern Woods. moths 4 are on English Nature's factories of the Mocha - known only Nation Notable B list (B being less Sands Industrial from 4 sites, all south of M40. notable than A), and 4 described }~state and Sands Chalk carpet - a chalk as "looal" i.e. more common than W(X)d. The first Mocha " grassland species, notable but not widespread. year's surveys of known only at 2 other sites. Martin commented that "apart plants by Angus Idle (WyUWG) Beech-green carpet - from the Barred hook-tip, the and moths by Martin Albertini presence of the other 3 NNBs was known from only 4 other sites. and Peter Hall (BC) have now very encouraging and suggested been completed. the bank was worth further in Angus, who over the year, has Local species at Sands Bank vestigation". recorded 155 species (sp) of plant ______The Bank is being and 22 sp of butterfly said "It used Small emerald - 6 other sites. fenced ready for to take me two hours each time I Maiden's blush - not the introduction, walked round Sands Bank each in February, of a uncommon week following the same route few sheep & cattle marked out with little wooden Dark umber - not uncommon to graze it - as pegs, so I know the hillside pretty Clouded magpie - generally Maiden's blush men tioncd in our well now. I hope to start in the south of Wycombe ------'1 last Newsletter. tUNCU$,aaav- ttffff Wt80$
cold weather, we might not find other fungi of GB & E' and came any fungi. In fact we ended up to the conclusion that the one finding nearly 40 different ones, of that could not be identified on which 30 were identified to the walk was almost certainly species level and the remainder, li,/ycena haematopus, the blood apart from one, to genus level. red latex it exudes distinguishes it Most of the species found are from the other 101 species of the common in our local woods but Myccna genus which Philips says two, the fly agaric (Amanita arc found in Britain. mus
t NAMES OF CONTACTS FOR WILDLIFE GROUPS IN WYCOMBE DISTRICT t 13C Butterfly Conservation Ron Beaven 0494 444158 B1'CO British Trust for Conservation Volunteers Buckinghamshire Office / County Officer Martin Jakes 02% 383393 Wycombe Office - The Countryside Centre Andrew Lyon 0494 536930 BOOX1' Berks, Bucks & Oxon Naturalists' Trust Maurice Young 0628 472000 BBC Bucks Bird Club Arthur Brown 0628 604769 YOE Friends of the Earth Lyn Jack 0494 447680 EX English Nature Frances Richmond 0635 268881 sws Saunderton Wildlife Sanctuary Margaret Baker 0844 342188 St!l"w St. Tiggywinkles Les Stocker 0844 292292 SC Swan Lifeline Tim Heron 0753 859397 WW'Y World Wide Fund for Nature Valerie Lambourne 0494 443761 W9UWG Wycombe Urban Wildlife Group Pat Morris 0494 529484
For other groups contact the Countryside Centre If you have enquiries about BADGERS contact the 800X1' Aylesbury Office 02% 433222 and if you have any enquiries about BATS oontact The Countryside Centre 0494 536930