Gatwick Goes Wild in 2016

As part of The Wildlife Trusts' 30 Days Wild campaign, the Gatwick Greenspace Partnership held a six-day program of events in early June, engaging airport staff with the wealth of wildlife on their doorstep. Everyone got really stuck in and despite the occasional rain shower, we had rewarding encounters with small mammals, Grass Snakes, Banded Demoiselles, Long-horned Bees and Harvest Mice!

A huge thank you to Tom S., Tom F., Kevin, Lucy, Martyn and Richard for hosting this series of events and to all the volunteers and attendees for making the effort to visit. Below are a few picture highlights from the week....

Day 1. Small mammals and Harvest Mice

The morning was spent checking 10 longworth traps, identifying and releasing the occupants. On this occasion, we only trapped one small Wood Mouse...

Wood Mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus)

The wet weather meant not many insects were out on the wing, but closely checking the vegetation we found things roosting up, trying to keep dry...

A Snakefly! I don't think I've ever seen one of these before. Apparently we have 4 species in the UK

Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) clinging on to a Bluebell in the rain

The wildlife was not the only thing caught out by the rain...

Mr Simpson; 'All the gear, no idea!'

Afternoon:

Lucy's talk with the Harvest Mice in Gatwck's offices went down very well, although the journey to the meeting room took a little longer than we anticipated...

Erm, which way to departures?

In the meeting room at Gatwick's South Terminal offices

Lucy is an animal keeper and charismatic speaker at the British Wildlife Centre, who kindly gave up her free time to visit us with her captive-bred Harvest Mice. These little guys will be released into the wild once they are fully grown.

Harvest Mice (Micromys minutus)

Day 2: Family bushcraft day

Tom Simpson has a secret forest school, hidden away in Goat Meadow, land east of the runway. We were invited to visit his site, tracking the wildlife and learning how to build a safe and sturdy shelter for protection from the elements... 

Tree leaf identification

A little moth caught by young Oliver - the Common Tubic (Alabonia geofrella)

Roe Deer tracks (Capreolus capreolus)

The super-shelter was constructed in the nick of time, as it began to pour down with rain!

By the afternoon, even the interior was being well insulated! But what good is a shelter without a flag? 

Leaf-printing with natural materials

Some sort of semaphore system?

As a final reward at the end of the day, we found this sleepy curled-up Grass Snake under a refugia...

Grass Snake (Natrix natrix) with the distinctive bright yellow collar

Day 3: Riverside Walk

 A short walk away from the South Terminal, we met up with Tom Forward at Riverside Garden Park. We examined the contents of the moth trap Tom had placed out the previous evening, then took a quick stroll to see what else might be hiding out in the nearby grasslands...

Silver Y moth (Autographa gamma)

Tom does an excellent Kingfisher impersonation (the call that is, not the flight)

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) male

One of our most colourful bumblebees - Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) male

Day 4: Even more mammals

The camera trap from the night before brought us some lovely footage of a male Roe Deer...

Over to the traps. and this time we had caught 4 different species of small rodent - Wood Mouse, Yellow-necked Mouse, Short-tail Vole and Bank Vole.

Short tailed Vole (Microtus agrestis)

Yellow-necked Mouse (Apodemus flavicollis)

...and at lunchtime there was more Harvest Mouse action in the Gatwick meeting rooms

Even local celebrity TinyBirder had heard about it and came to see for himself...

Afternoon: Bat box checks

We had a fantastic walk through the River Mole woodlands, accompanying Kevin Lerwill and local bat ecologist Martyn Cooke as they checked the new bat boxes.

Woodland birds were in full song, and the ground flora was rich with ancient woodland indicator species.

Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula)

Bat box on an Oak tree

We were incredibly fortunate to be able to see a Soprano Pipistrelle in the hand; great confirmation that our bat boxes are being put to good use! 

Soprano Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus)

Saturday & Sunday: BeeWalk Training

Richard Comont from Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BBCT) visited us again a year on, delivering another weekend of Bumblebee identification training. Richard is a brilliant entomologist and another Pan-species Lister, so it's always a privilege to spend time out in the field with him.

This very popular course is run by the BBCT for free each year, at different locations around the UK...

Destinations Place, South Terminal Offices

In the afternoon we nipped over to the River Mole site, and luckily for us the weather was warming up...

Early Bumblebee (Bombus patorum) on Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii)

Buff-tailed Bumblebee queen (Bombus terrestris)

Another cool find was this Rhinoceros Beetle (Sinodendron cylindricum)

We were also lucky to be able to provide Richard with a new tick for his life-list; Gatwick's very own Long-horned Bees!  

Long-horned Bee (Eucera longicornis)

Truly one of the best weeks I've ever had at work, I really hope it was as much fun for everyone else!

Behind the scenes...

Last Friday, Gatwick was officially presented with the Biodiversity Benchmark Award from The Wildlife Trusts. It resulted in a rare gathering of all the main players behind Gatwick's biodiversity project. Here's a run down of the key organisations involved, a sort of extended version of 'who we are':

On Friday Tom Simpson led the walk through Upper Picketts Wood, demonstrating the coppicing works which have been carried out by Gatwick staff along with external volunteers

Steve Bates Photography

Gatwick Greenspace Partnership

(Part of the Sussex Wildlife Trust and funded by the Airport and local authorities)

Represented by Peter Crawford, Kevin Lerwill, Tom Forward and Tom Simpson, GGP educates and engages the local community through coordinating conservation tasks, forest schools and bushcraft, wildlife walks and events. They have been working in and around Gatwick under various different names for over 20 years and in 2014 alone 45 task days were run, totaling about 351 volunteers! A melting pot of practical abilities and local wildlife knowledge (plus of course dashing good looks), these guys happen to be the first people I volunteered with after graduating back in 2009. 

Gatwick's first official Bee Hotel, now complete and open for business in Ashley's Field

The Wildlife Trusts: 

The central charity which works hard to promote wildlife awareness throughout the UK, linking up our landscape via 47 different regional Wildlife Trusts. The charity is responsible for giving out the country's only exclusively biodiversity-centered business award. Peter Dorans is the Benchmark Manager who traveled all the way from Nottinghamshire to visit Gatwick and present us with the certificate. He tells me that since the award system was set up, there are now collectively over 9,000 hectares of land managed by businesses for wildlife. Now I might have misheard, but I think that is the equivalent of all the wildlife reserve land put together in a large county such as Sussex!

  

Ashley's Field: part of a green hay strewing project to increase botanical diversity

(Steve Bates Photography)

Martyn Cooke of Surrey Bat Group, James Webster and Phil Milham of JSA, heckling at the back

(Steve Bates Photography)

JS Agriculture and Landscape Group 
These are the specialist grounds maintenance contractors (and my employers) who manage Gatwick's landscape both airside and landside. They carry out work in huge grass areas, shrub and flower borders, trees, hedgerows and footpath maintenance, all in an ecologically sensitive manner. With the kit and the know-how, they carry out heavier habitat works such as hay-cutting the River Mole grasslands, chainsawing and brushcutting plus transporting materials to and from our sites. James Webster is the fella who originally set up the Biodiversity Action Plans for Gatwick; now working for Ecology and Habitat Management Ltd, he consults in biodiversity at other airports as well as with us.

Tom Simpson, myself, Peter Dorans of The Wildlife Trusts, Ian Chalk and Hannah Deacon

 of Gatwick Airport Ltd (Steve Bates Photography)

Gatwick's Environment, Health and Safety Team

Ian and Hannah (pictured above on the right) along with others on their team, oversee our biodiversity project and this work comes under Gatwick's many other environmental commitments. Their team's knowledge of the airport operations and business, plus their enthusiasm and commitment to the local environment helps our project to run smoothly, ensuring we maintain a tight ship. These guys work really hard for the airport and along with Gatwick's Communications, their department has been great at backing what we do.

The Gatsbee Hives (Steve Bates Photography)

(Steve Bates Photography)

Gatsbee honey with Gill's handmade labels

The Gatsbees

A small collection of bee hives were installed in Ashley's Field in early 2014, to be maintained and monitored by local mentor Gillian Sentinella of  Central Sussex Beekeepers Association. Tom Simpson and myself are Gill's avid students, learning about 'natural beekeeping' and maintaining colonies in balanced harmony with the surrounding environment. We hope to register in the near future as a Sentinel Apiary for monitoring Honey Bee health, watching out for pests, invasive species and other environmental concerns which Honey Bees can act as indicators for. We do take a little of the honey now and then but without overly depleting their hard-earned stores!

(Steve Bates Photography)

Although not everyone could make it on the day, it was great to have this fantastic bunch get together and share in the achievement over a generous amount of food, drink and honey tasting.

We would also like to say a special 'thank you' to the Parson's Pig pub on the Balcombe Road, who in the threat of stormy weather came to our aid providing last minute shelter for mingling and refreshments. The pub has a lovely homely atmosphere and they even lit the fire for us especially! You guys rock.