Gatwick's first Wildlife Recording Day

Where: The River Mole, north of the airfield, Sussex/Surrey border (TQ260414)

When: 29.08.2014 (Friday night)

Who: Local residents, keen volunteers, professional conservationists, ecologists and representatives from Sussex Moth, Sussex Mammal and Surrey Bat Group. 

Riverbank Basecamp with the moth light trap

Bat Trapping - Martyn Cooke

Time: 20:00

In the fading light, we met at the Riverbank basecamp, firstly setting up two moth traps (one beside the river, another in the woodland). Moving further into the woodlands, we set up the two bat 'harp traps'; these are made up of a tall frame, with vertically running fine wires and a collecting bag at the base. When bats attempt to fly through, the strings intercept them and they slide unharmed to the bottom.

Harp Trap in woodlands (Photo by Maria Donoghue)

Martyn also kits out these traps with electronic lures, essentially a laptop and microphone which play out the social calls of different bat species, hopefully enticing them in. 

   Our bat detectors were picking up the rapid clicks of Common Pipistrelle bats and as we moved off, Martyn's detected the call of a species belonging to the 'Myotis' group. Could it be the rare and elusive Bechstein's Bat?

Time: 21:30

Small mammal surveying - Laurie Jackson

A crowd of people with headtorches comes in handy after the batteries in both of mine died! 

(Photo by Tom Forward)

Over to the small mammal surveying areas where our Longworth traps were staked out. These humane traps are placed out in both woodland and grassland habitats, targeting as wide a suite of species as possible. Baited with porridge oats, apple, dried mealworms, peanut butter and some warm straw for bedding, how could any small mammal resist!

Scruffing small mammals for identification (Photo by Maria Donoghue)

As a result, we grabbed a good haul of small furry beasties this evening, including Bank Voles, Field Voles and Wood Mice, from which we collected biometric data. After weighing the wee rodent, Laurie then gently holds it by the scruff of the neck, checking its gender and general health.

Time: 22:30

Moth Trapping - Jake Everitt

A futuristic campfire - Photo by Maria Donoghue

Back to the moth trap (and the tea, coffee and biscuits) and we all gathered around the actinic light bulb. As well as attracting in passing Moths and Humans, this light proves tempting to plenty of other things such as Caddisflies, Shieldbugs and Lacewings.

Brightly coloured Brimstone Moths (Opisthograptis luteolata) were one of the most numerous species this evening. Photo by Maria Donoghue

The odd Hornet tends to join us for a free feed, but its not our biscuits they are after...

European Hornet (Vespa crabro). Photo by Maria Donoghue

These chunky hymenopterans make short work of delicate moths, munching them up with their strong mandibles. If a whole lot of them get in the trap, you can end up identifying moths just by the remains of tattered wings. Jake bravely freed this one from its gluttonous prison by fishing it out with an insect pot.

Tins of biscuits prove an effective Human lure for Wildlife Recording Days

Jake and Tom F, a formidable team on any Bird Race, 

dull company when comparing bird apps on their smartphones

It was then back to the bat traps for a final check... they remained determinedly empty. Not our luckiest night for bats, with only Common Pipistrelle and our mystery Myotis species turning up on the detectors. However, we totaled a good number of small mammals in the longworth traps, plus there would be plenty of moths to take a closer look at in the light of the day.

Saturday: 30.08.2014 

Time: 09:00

Who: Around 30 people including keen naturalists, representatives from Surrey Biodiversity Records Centre, Wealden Dragonflies and Sussex Fungi Group

River Mole floodplain on the Saturday morning. Seriously, it's right by an airport! 

Photo by Maria Donoghue

Sussex Wildlife Trust marquee and recording desk, manned by Kevin Lerwill of Gatwick Greenspace and Catherine Burton of Surrey Biodiversity Information Centre.

Back at basecamp, we had begun the day in earnest... with lots of chatting, drinking coffee and generally not getting very much done.

Time: 09:30

Small mammal surveying - Laurie Jackson

Emptying wee mammals into a bag for weighing

Someone took the initiative to get us all moving and our group split into two, half to carry out a bird survey and the others to check the mammal traps again. Our fingers were tightly crossed to find a Harvest Mouse (Mircomys minutus) as I had trapped one in this area only the day before...

Harvest Mice prefer to clamber up the stalks of grass and other vegetation, so we try to target them by putting some of the Longworth traps on stands

Common Shrew (Sorex araneus), re-orienting itself after being released. Photo by Maria Donoghue

Field Vole (Microtus agrestis). Photo by Maria Donoghue

No Harvest Mouse sightings today, but we did find ourselves evidence in the form of a nest right next to one of the traps, and that counts as a record!

Harvest Mouse nest in Tufted Hair Grass

Time: 09:30

Bird surveying - Tom Forward

In the meantime, Tom F was leading another group along the riverbank to collect some bird records. They got some great bird of prey action, including Common Buzzards, Sparrowhawks and this awesome little Kestrel.

Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) Photo by Maria Donoghue

Reed Warbler and Reed Bunting could be heard by keen ears along the river

Great views (and songs) of a European Robin (Erithacus rubecula). Photo by Maria Donoghue

Time: 10:30

Moth Trap reveal - Jake Everitt

The moth traps had been sealed overnight and now was the time to go through the contents, listing all of the species...

Moths drawing a crowd. Photo by Tom Forward

Jake Everitt of Sussex Moth Group.

The moths were quite obliging in the light of the day, sitting quite still for their close ups...

Centre-barred Sallow (Atethmia centrago). Photo by Martyn Cooke

Angle Shades (Phlogophora meticulosa). Photo by Martyn Cooke

Mother of Pearl (Pleuroptya ruralis). Photo by Martyn Cooke

Ello mates! A crowd of Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba). Photo by Martyn Cooke)

Time: 11:30

Terrestrial invertebrates

It was onto recording invertebrates and the sun was putting on a good show, warming up those things with wings. Seeing as everyone had become quite familiar with the site, naturalists with cameras, nets, paper and pens were let loose in all directions.
   We were incredibly fortunate to have on our site a selection of keen invertebrate recorders, all specialising in their different groups. These photos are just a tiny subset of their final species lists:

Hoverflies and Bees - Jeremy Early

Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) queen. Photo by Jeremy Early

Bumblebee Mimic Hoverfly (Eristalis intricarius) Photo by Jeremy Early

Hornet Mimic Hoverfly (Volucella zonaria) Photo by David Chelmick

Butterflies - Harry Clarke

Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) female. Photo by Jeremy Early

Checking the hedgerows

Comma Butterfly (Polygonia c-album) on Blackberries. Photo by Maria Donoghue

Excitingly, a rare Brown Hairstreak Butterfly (Thecla betulae) also put in an appearance, however the crowd was slightly off the ball with all their cameras!

Dragonflies - David Chelmick

Mr Chelmick has been on a personal mission to prove the presence of Willow Emerald Damselfly (Lestes viridis) along Gatwick's section of the River Mole. He emphatically believes this recent arrival to Britain has to be here someplace...

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum). Photo by Maria Donoghue

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) on naturalist. Photo by Maria Donoghue

Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta). Photo by Tom Forward

Sadly, no Willow Emeralds were to be found on this day, however there was a very unexpected surprise in the form of a Golden-ringed Dragonfly, far away from its usual heathland habitat!

Bugs, hoppers and other terrestrial groups -Andrew Halstead and Roger Hawkins

These chaps did a brilliant job of boosting our invertebrate species list with less well known groups...

Forest Shield Bug (Pentatoma rufipes)

Harvestman (Mitopus morio). Photo by Jeremy Early

Tom F and Tom S, helping with the identification of Crickets and Grasshoppers

Time: 13:30

Time for a lunch break. People relaxed by the river while Catherine did a quick species tally...

These guys were super keen though and couldn't sit down for long....

Is it a bird, is it a plane?

Probably.

Time: 14:00

Plants - Arthur Hoare

Botanical records make up a huge part of any species list on a recording day, and our floodplain is a mecca for botanising!

Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense). Photo by Maria Donoghue

Broadleaf Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia). Photo by Maria Donoghue

Wild Carrot (Daucus carota). Photo by Maria Donoghue

Fungi - Nick Aplin

Nick knows this area well and is a most welcome addition to a diverse team of naturalists...

Scotch Bonnet Fungus (Marasmius oreades). Photo by Nick Aplin

Phialina (Calycellina) ulmariae growing on Meadowsweet stems.
This species is possibly a new record for vice-county Surrey. Photo by Nick Aplin

Plus Nick's personal favourite: Calyptella capula on Rabbit poo.

Photo by Nick Aplin

Aquatic invertebrates - Tom Simpson and David Chelmick

Wading in the River Mole: We selected areas with differing silt levels and flow rates to see what we could find. 

Invertebrate kick-sampling is quite self-explanatory; Tom stood in the silt, held the net downstream and kicked up aquatic minibeasts from the silty river bottom.

David draws in the crowd with his battle cry of 'Odonata!' (That's dragonflies to you and me)

White-legged Damselfly larva (Platycnemis pennipes). Photo by Maria Donoghue

American Signal Crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus), an invasive species which we trap to remove along the River Mole. Photo by Martyn Cooke

Also a few more vertebrate species to add to the list...

Stone Loach (Barbatula barbatula)

....and since I had forgotten to put out any refugia, not a single reptile record today!

Knackered naturalists

At the end of the day, we had totaled 215 species. As of now, we are officially up to 298, with probably more to come!

A rough breakdown of the species groups:

Massive thank yous are in order to Kevin, Catherine, Tom F, Tom S, Laurie, Martyn, Jake, David, Jeremy, Nick and absolutely everyone else who came along on the day and helped make it so memorable. You may rest now.

Here are a few of the natural history groups who were respresented on the day:

Gatwick Greenspace Partnership

Wealden Dragonfly Group

Nature Conservation Imaging

Sussex Mammal Group

Sussex Moth Group

Surrey Bat Group

Sussex Wildlife Trust

Surrey Wildlife Trust

Tom Forward's twitter feed

Rachel's twitter feed

Surrey BIC twitter feed

We hope to see you all again next year!

A Summer Summary

It's been a very busy summer so sticking with Rachel's trend of timely blogging, I decided to wait til the Himalayan Balsam had started to go over before kicking off the waders and getting back into the office to contribute to the blog. When you see the amount we've achieved in the last few months I think you'll agree that it was worth the wait! 

We’ve been re-surfacing woodland paths, creating new habitats in the form of bug hotels and reptile hibernacula, not to mention keeping up with the Great Gatsbees – our thriving Honey Bee population. As always, however, one of the most important jobs has been trying to control the spread of Himalayan Balsam (Glandulifera impatiens) across Gatwick’s conservation zones and beyond.

This impressive plant can grow up to eight feet in a little over sixteen weeks, using an explosive mechanism in its seed heads to disperse seeds far and wide, before spreading quickly to dominate river banks, displacing native flora in the process. If you’d like to find out more, there’s a helpful article on the Sussex Wildlife Trust website here: http://www.sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/blog/2014/07/greenspace-invader/

Himalayan Balsam in flower

Himalayan Balsam’s dependence on river systems for seed dispersal means that low-lying areas like Gatwick Airport, which is intersected by a number of water courses such as the River Mole, Gatwick Stream, Crawters Brook and Mans Brook, receives a constant influx of seeds throughout the summer. This makes the job of controlling its spread all the more important and begs the difficult question; where do we start?

After much deliberation (and some blindfolded pointing at a map), we decided to begin our battle at Povey Cross in the North West Zone with a team from Gatwick Airport’s Engineering and Asset Integration Department. On a scorching hot day at the end of June, this nine-strong group got stuck in, removing plants over an incredible 700 meter stretch of the banks of the Mole.

Engineering and Asset Integration with Balsam casualties at Povey cross

A little over a week later, volunteers from Southern Gas Networks took up the mantle in Horleyland Wood where Balsam had taken up residence in dense patches under the woodland canopy, encroaching from the adjoining Gatwick Stream and sewage treatment works. The following day reinforcements arrived in the form of GGP’s youth rangers. They set to work with boundless energy, pulling back more valuable habitat from the Balsam’s clutches.

Southern Gas came ready for action with matching overalls.

Youth Rangers at Horleyland wood, accompanied by one slightly less youthful ecologist.

By early July it was time to call in the elite squadron and GGPs weekly volunteer group got to grips with the Balsam in Riverside Garden Park, Horley, where the Gatwick stream joins the river Mole. Undeterred by the towering Balsam-covered banks, they put in a tremendous effort over two long and very hot days. Using ladders to scale the steep banks, they tirelessly removed plant after plant. This resulted in at least one volunteer taking a bath in the cool, calming waters of the Gatwick Stream. Despite these setbacks, their hard work paid off and we managed to clear the majority of the Balsam from the park, downstream from the underpass in the south-eastern corner.

GGP Volunteers tackle towering Balsam at Riverside

A final sweep of Riverside was carried out by a group of EDF office staff who came all the way from London to join the fight. The team were very thorough and spent the morning working away from the stream, removing any stragglers in the woodland edges where seed had been carried by winter flood waters. As the day wore on and we worked our way into open grassland, it became apparent that we were going to need a change of plan. Fueled by the scorching summer temperatures, much of the Balsam in these open areas was already setting seed and too much disruption at this stage would only facilitate its spread.

EDF's London team at Riverside

We proceeded carefully, using scissors and secateurs to carefully snip all of the seed pods into bin bags before ripping out the remainder of the plant. Six bin bags of seed were removed and prevented from entering the catchment that day.

As you can see from the map below we have made a big impact this year, and its all thanks to the fantastic work of our ever-growing volunteer network. All our volunteers have proved willing and able and always up for a challenge.  

But as I said earlier, it hasn’t been all about Balsam this summer. I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has turned out to help with our many projects. And just to prove it, here are a few more pictures.

UK Power Networks and the huge pile of rubbish they cleared from Horleyland pond back in April.

Dave and Stefan "discuss" how best to lay geotextiles while building a footpath in Upper Pickets wood.

Rachel's mum, Sue and ecologist Natalie get the job done with a little less "discussion"
(I'm not sure who that slacker is trying to sneak into shot)

Another gang from UK Power Networks turned out in force in June, working competitively on woodland and grassland footpaths

 And finally, the Insect Hotel has been slowly coming together over the summer with the help of Donald and Peter.

Not long until our programme of autumn works starts up again!

Honeybee freeloaders

Following Simpson's lead I've decided to have a try at this beekeeping thing. During a busy field season it means I get home even later, but on the other hand it is an excellent way to unwind.

The well-guarded hive entrance of the European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera). It is incredibly therapeutic to just sit and watch the comings-and-goings of  workers and drones.

We now have several hives which are packed to the rafters with honey and bee larvae, attracting a menagerie of predators and parasites. This means that during my new hobby, I still get to record new species!

Greater Wax Moth (Galleria mellonella)

The Greater Wax Moth is a new one for me; this individual met her demise in the top section of the hive (perhaps after being stung or balled to death by the workers). It lays its eggs on the waxy honeycomb, which then hatch into caterpillars and bore tunnels through the cells, feeding on the wax and other bee-substances. They can also burrow into the wood of the hive, so when present in high numbers they can cause a lot of damage to the structure.

I'm quite please with this pic. That red 'welt' on the top of the
abdomen is an individual Varroa Mite (Varroa destructor)

Varroa destructor is an apt name for this mite, indicating just how much beekeepers love them... Not only does this blood-feeding arachnid weaken the individual bees by sucking out their life-force, they spread several bee viruses and are incredibly difficult to contain. However, we do not intervene unless an infection is particularly severe. Symptoms can include stunted, scruffy, deformed wings and unsteady, drunk-looking bees. Having this mite must be like hanging out with your impulsive, booze-hound flatmate on a night out in town (not of course referring to anyone I live with right now).

 German Wasp (Vespula germanica)

Social wasps can be a right pain at this time of year (I need not tell). Attracted to the scent of the wonderful honey stores, as soon we lift the lid off the hive, then they appear, persistently pesky. They also scavenge the dead and dying bees from the ground around the hive; not such a bad thing in terms of good house keeping and removing infected individuals. This female German Wasp found a dying worker Honey Bee and set to it with her strong mandibles... There was an audible 'click' as she decapitated it!

Fencepost Jumper (Marpissa muscosa)

It seems that almost every time we start a check of the hives, a Marpissa jumping spider will pop out onto the side to see what all the fuss is about. They probably just use the hives as a well-defended shelter and are unlikely to bother the bees. Perhaps they love the sweet smell of honey and cedar wood as much as we do.

Beekeeper (Homo sapiens)

Of course, not forgetting those ultimate freeloaders! Which reminds me, it is about time I enter my first record for Homo sapiens into iRecord... Egotistical perhaps to submit myself as a specimen?

Nom.