Wildlife calendar year at Gatwick

A selection of wildlife commonly found on the biodiversity sites, landside at Gatwick Airport.

January

Roe Deer - Capreolus capreolus

Our largest mammal species on site. I've also seen Fallow Deer very closeby, but never actually within our site boundaries.

February

This isn't a fungus, but is actually a type of bacteria called Nostoc commune; a colonial species of cyanobacteria.

Cyanobacteria are thought to have converted Earth's early atmosphere into an oxygen-rich one. It occurs extensively on the bare clay soil around the North West Zone and from a distance resembles squished rabbit poops.

March

Common Toad - Bufo bufo

We often find Toads under the reptile matts long before the Grass Snakes wake up from their winter sleep. Breeding occurs in the ponds and within the reedbeds along the River Mole. Unlike frogs, Toads lay their eggs in long strings.

Toad spawn, North West Zone

April

Bluebells - Hyacinthoides non-scripta. Horleyland Wood

Found throughout the woodlands at Gatwick, this ancient woodland indicator species crates a heady scent on warm spring days.

May

Not a mirror image, but in fact a mating pair of Eyed Hawk-moths Smerinthus ocellata, spotted by Tom Forward along the River Mole grasslands.

June

Grass Snake  - Natrix helvetica

Our most common reptile species at Gatwick; widespread across both sites but they are particularly found of the grassy margins of scrub areas.

July

Platystomos albinus - (a type of fungus weevil)

This is a Nationally Notable B species, found in a well-rotted pile of oak and willow logs. It may not seem obvious from the pic, bit this little dude measured only about 1cm from nose to rear! (Thanks to Graeme Lyons for correcting my I.D on this one).

August

A colony of these Willughby's Leafcutter Bees (Megachile willughbiella) set up shop in a bee hotel constructed by Tom Simpson's volunteers.

Leafcutter bee nest

September

Harvest Mouse - Micromys minutus

One of our smallest mammal species, these tiny mammals weigh in at around 5g. Their nests
are commonly found in the reed beds along the River Mole.

October

Brown Long-eared bats - Plecotus auritus

Arguably the cutest bat species on site, they often utilise the bat boxes in the Land East of the Railway Line. In order to open and check bat boxes, a licence holder must be present, which in our case is ex-air traffic controller Martyn Cooke.

November

Eyelash Cup Fungus - Scutellinia scutellata. Upper Picketts Wood

These tiny and beautiful fruiting bodies are commonly found on very damp, well-rotted wood.

December

Tawny Owl - Strix aluco

It just so happens that Tawny Owls are the subject of a current BTO survey, which members of public can also join in on.

Happy New Year everyone and all the best for 2019!!

Early Winter Bird Survey - North West Zone 12/12/18

This morning was the start of a real cold snap here in Sussex, which always seems to tie in with our North West Zone bird survey transect. Tom F. and I set off along the northern side of the airfield fence a little after sunrise, giving the birds some time to get moving and active. Tom commented right away that this was a spookily quiet morning...

A group of Meadow Pipits are typically the first birds we come across, bouncing along the airfield fence. A Robin and several Dunnocks called sporadically, hidden away along the banks of the River Mole. Our first red-status species was a Song Thrush, giving it's subtle 'tseep' alarm call as it fled, nipping down into the river bank vegetation.

Song Thrush - RSPB

Down on the floodplain it truly felt bone-achingly cold. The reed beds seemed devoid of life, then a fiesty Wren struck up an alarm call as it faced us off from the top of a reed. Finally, a Reed Bunting called, although only faintly and with no replies forthcoming. It really felt like the birds hadn't got out of bed yet.

Further along the floodplain, we caught the distant calls of Water Rails. These secretive birds seem to be more vocal in winter, and their call is highly weird. If you happen to be standing right next to one when it sounds off, it's pretty alarming!

Water Rail - RSPB

Over to the scrub west of Brockley Wood, a few Blue Tits and Long-tailed Tits were foraging together on the woodland edge. A sole Green Woodpecker headed off calling and a group of Wood Pigeon broke from the trees. Over in woodlands, a distant Nuthatch called.

This sheltered patch of grassland is one of my favourite spots in summer, dense in long herbaceous vegetation and absolutely humming with invertebrates. In winter however this tends to be the favourite patch of another highly-secretive and red-status bird; the Woodcock. We flushed one from the low scrub; its low, whirring flight really does give the appearance of a giant bat. 

Woodcock - RSPB

Poking our heads into the north of Brockley Wood, we were hoping for some Redwing activity, however the flocks were conspicuously absent from the site this morning. The collective alarm calls of  Blackbird, Magpie and Wren indicated the presence of an avian predator, likely a perched-up Tawny Owl or Sparrowhawk. Whatever it was then moved off, as the alarm calls rapidly followed it through the wood.

Our final section of grassland along the River Mole turned up two Common Snipe, which had been well hidden in the rushes. One put on an amazing display, flying a wide loop over the environment bund and then skimming low past us at about waist-height. This whole transect was again peculiarly quite, and surprisingly one of the most numerous birds was Bullfinch; we counted a total of 6.

Bullfinch - RSPB

At the very end of the transect we had a buzz of excitement in the form of a perched Sparrowhawk, apparently causing upset with the resident Ring-necked Parakeets. It casually took off over the trees, leaving in its wake a string of songbird alarm calls.

Final species count = 34

Common name	Species
Blackbird	Turdus merula
Blue Tit	Cyanistes caeruleus
Bullfinch	Pyrrhula pyrrhula
Buzzard	Buteo buteo
Carrion Crow	Corvus corone
Chaffinch	Fringilla coelebs
Coal Tit	Periparus ater
Dunnock	Prunella modularis
Goldcrest	Regulus regulus
Goldfinch	Carduelis carduelis
Great Spotted Woodpecker	Dendrocopos major
Great Tit	Parus major
Green Woodpecker	Picus viridis
Grey Heron	Ardea cinerea
Jackdaw	Corvus monedula
Jay	Garrulus glandarius
Long-tailed Tit	Aegithalos caudatus
Magpie	Pica pica
Mallard	Anas platyrhynchos
Meadow Pipit	Anthus pratensis
Moorhen	Gallinula chloropus
Nuthatch	Sitta europaea
Reed Bunting	Emberiza schoeniclus
Ring-necked Parakeet	Psittacula krameri
Robin	Erithacus rubecula
Siskin	Spinus spinus
Snipe	Gallinago gallinago
Song Thrush	Turdus philomelos
Sparrowhawk	Accipiter nisus
Treecreeper	Certhia familiaris
Water Rail	Rallus aquaticus
Woodcock	Scolopax rusticola
Woodpigeon	Columba palumbus
Wren	Troglodytes troglodytes

Gatwick's first butterfly transects

Clouded Yellow Colias croceus f. helice, North West Zone 

(Photo by Vince Massimo)

This was our first year of conducting a butterfly transect in the North West Zone (NWZ). I had expected it to be at times quite trying and physically demanding... and THEN we had the heat wave!

Our NWZ transect is 2.5km in length, which comprises of a route along the River Mole corridor, over the large clay mound (where a colony of Long-horned Bees reside) and the edge of Brockley Wood. We completed 26 weeks of surveys and the almost-constant sun allowed us to easily fit in surveys during the optimum weather conditions.

The UK BMS website has a useful reporting feature, which makes it quick to work out a few simple stats:
We recorded 2,885 butterflies over 26 weeks
The highest count of the year was 509 butterflies on July 8th.
The average temperature for the walks was 20 degrees and level of sunlight was 82%

Peak counts for the top 5 species in NWZ:

• Meadow Brown peaked at 197 species (June 17th)
• Gatekeeper was next at 157 (July 8th)
• Small Skipper at 129 (July 1st)
• Ringlet 115 at (June 24th)
• Common Blue peaked at 42 on June 3rd then had a resurgence on July 22nd, reflecting two main flight periods

Low abundance species (single records):

• Green Hairstreak
• Clouded Yellow
• Painted Lady

We had only two records for Small Tortoiseshell, both occurring in April.

























With a regular group of volunteers the transect progressed well, so we decided to set up a second transect in the Land East of the Railway Line (LERL). We only began this about midway through the season, it doesn't result in a full year's worth of data, but still good to have it up and running.

A few highlights via photos taken by Vince...

Marbled White Melanargia galathea

Purple Hairstreak Favonius quercus

Clouded Yellow Colias croceus f. helice

Ringlet Aphantopus hyperantus 

A huge thank you to all the surveyors who volunteered their time for butterfly recording at Gatwick: Vince, Peter, Sue, Abigail, Tara, Yasmin, Emily and Ryan. I can't wait now until spring... only 27 weeks to go!

The 2018 species list:

		Site
Common Name	Species name	NWZ	LERL
Small Skipper	Thymelicus sylvestris	✔	✔
Essex Skipper	Thymelicus lineola	✔	✔
Clouded Yellow	Colias croceus	✔
Large Skipper	Ochlodes sylvanus	✔
Dingy Skipper	Erynnis tages	✔
Large White	Pieris brassicae	✔	✔
Small White	Pieris rapae	✔	✔
Green-veined White	Pieris napi	✔	✔
Orange Tip	Anthocharis cardamines	✔
Green Hairstreak	Callophrys rubi	✔
Brown Hairstreak	Thecla betulae	✔	✔
Purple Hairstreak	Favonius quercus	✔	✔
Small Copper	Lycaena phlaeas	✔	✔
Brown Argus	Aricia agestis	✔	✔
Common Blue	Polyommatus icarus	✔	✔
Holly Blue	Celastrina argiolus	✔	✔
Red Admiral	Vanessa atalanta	✔	✔
Painted Lady	Vanessa (Cynthia) cardui	✔
Small Tortoiseshell	Aglais urticae	✔
Peacock	Inachis io	✔
Comma	Polygonia c-album	✔	✔
Silver-washed Fritillary	Argynnis paphia	✔	✔
Speckled Wood	Pararge aegeria	✔	✔
Marbled White	Melanargia galathea	✔
Gatekeeper	Pyronia tithonus	✔	✔
Meadow Brown	Maniola jurtina	✔	✔
Small Heath	Coenonympha pamphilus	✔	✔
Ringlet	Aphantopus hyperantus	✔	✔
Brimstone	Gonepteryx rhamni	✔

Total no. species = 29 NWZ    19 LERL

Previously recorded but missing from our transects in 2018:
Grizzled Skipper - NWZ
Purple Emperor - NWZ
White-letter Hairstreak - NWZ & LERL
White Admiral - NWZ & LERL