Waldringfield Wildlife Group
Since 2007 the wildlife group have been working with the support of the parish council and with residents to protect and improve habitats for wildlife and plants. With the help of the Save Our Swifts organisation nest boxes have been installed on the village school and a number of houses, and each year sees a continuing effort to plant wild flowers in verges and young trees in the hedgerows. The group organises regular talks in the village hall from local experts on birds, insects and all aspects of wildlife interest.
Group activities and work in the village
WWG report for Annual Parish Meeting 11th April 2022
Programme of events for 2023
Martlesham Wilds
On the 12th January an enthusiastic and excited gathering from Waldringfield Wildlife Group (WWG) were given a guided tour of the new Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve at Martlesham. The tour was organised by WWG as a fundraising event and everyone donated money, raising a magnificent grand total of £1330. This was presented to and gratefully received by Charlie Zakks from Suffolk Wildlife Trust. The money will go towards the £1,000,000 plus needed within the year to secure the land as a nature reserve. On the tour the group were shown the early work, including new steps on the river wall, and given details of the rewilding program which has been proposed. This centres around rough grazing with cattle, and a general approach of letting nature determine the initial seeding and wild growth. There may be some new scrapes dug to encourage wetland wildlife.
Follow this link to make your donation and help secure Martlesham Wilds for the local wildlife and our future generations.
Suffolk Wildlife Trust
Waldringfield's Swifts
Although nationally we have lost over half of our swifts in the last 25 years, Waldringfield Wildlife Group have been working closely with conservation groups locally to provide nest boxes and raise awareness of the importance of nest sites for Swifts. The group have sourced, and made, nest boxes and helped less able residents fix the boxes to their houses. Swifts are very gregarious and form nest colonies. Six boxes have been located on the north facing wall of the village primary school, at a height of around 5m which is ideal for them.
The swift shown in the photo, on the livingroom carpet, was rescued after falling down the cavity wall of a local two story house, ending up between the bathroom floor and the livingroom ceiling. It is presumed to have lost its way to its 'natural' nest in the loft. At first it was thought that the scratching noise was a mouse, but after the bathroom carpet was lifted and the floorboards cut, it emerged after 2 days of captivity and was successfully reunited with its fellow swifts.
Follow this link for everything you need to know about swifts and how you can help.
Swift Conservation Website
Rosemary Beetle
This beautiful beetle is often found on herbs, Lavender and Rosemary after which it is named. The shiny purple and green striped specimin in the
photo was found in the front garden, on Lavender, in Cliff road. Note they lay their eggs on the underside of the host leaves after August, which become
larvae within a few weeks. They then feed on the leaves and migrate to the soil.
Note certain established gardener's websites have advocated
the use of pesticides to eradicate this beetle, with which we would strongly disagree. The RHS site offers good advice which includes encouraging their natiral predators such as frogs,
birds and ground beetles which eat the larvae and adults. - Dig a pond!
Butterflies
Butterflies will be attracted from the local area into any garden that offers shelter from the wind and a supply of nectar from flowering plants. They may stay and breed if the correct foodplant for the caterpillar stage is growing. To overwinter, they need a suitably managed garden. Offer all these, and a particular species may be with you every season.
LARVAL HOST PLANTS
The following trees, shrubs, and plants provide foodplants for the caterpillars of the species
indicated. Planting more could help those species already present, whilst new species could be attracted by growing the plants not yet present.
Oaks: Purple Hairstreak
Holly (and Ivy): Holly Blue
Buckthorn: Brimstone - use purging buckthorn to fill gaps in hedges.
Broom: Green Hairstreak.
Bird's-foot trefoil: Common Blue, Dingy Skipper.
Horseshoe vetch (and other clovers): Common Blue (also Clouded Yellow, Chalkhill Blue)
Rock rose: Brown Argus.
Garlic mustard: Orange-tip.
Sheeps Sorrel, Common Sorrel: Small Copper.
Grasses:
-Cock's-foot: Large Skipper, Essex Skipper, Wall, Ringlet
-Sheeps Fescue: Grayling, Small Heath
-Yorkshire Fog: Small Skipper, Speckled Wood, Wall
-Annual Meadow-grass (Poa sp): Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown
It is important that these grasses are allowed to grow to maturity, with
cutting kept to once per year at a high cut, and with a proportion of the
marginal grass remaining completely uncut. Even better would be a grazing
regime, by sheep or rabbits.
Weeds:
Nettle: Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma - there is no
particular need to encourage nettle, as there is often enough in the
general area to support large numbers of these common species.
Thistle: Painted Lady - there may already be sufficient thistle nearby to support this
migrant species.
NECTAR:
Early in spring, nectar is available from the catkins of Goat willow (Pussy willow), and the flowers of blackthorn in the hedgerows will attract Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks emerging from hibernation.
Privet flowers in Jun/Jul, and attracts butterflies (provided it is not trimmed).
Buddleia is an excellent nectar source from mid July until the end of the butterfly season.
Bramble flowering in the sun provides nectar/fruit in the hedgerow from Jun to September.
Hemp agrimony alongside streams attracts all the nettle feeding species in great numbers.
Ivy blossom is the last nectar of the year, being particularly attractive to Red Admirals.
Rotting fruit (not strictly nectar), also provides an autumn feast.
To provide a nectar source suitable for the smaller species, whose probosces are too short to reach right into the
buddleia blossoms, a variety of wildflowers should be incorporated into borders or long sward. Suitable plants might include:
Flowering Period
Bugle May - Jul
Bird's foot trefoil May - Sep
Red Valerian May - Oct
Field Scabious Jun - Aug
Knapweed Jun - Aug
Marjoram (vulgarae) Jun - Aug
Thyme Jun - Sep
Viper's Bugloss Jun - Sep
Hyssop Jul -Sep
Lavender Jul - Sep
Devil's Bit Scabious Jul - Oct
Garden flowers should be planted to maintain a continuous supply of nectar through the season; amongst the most popular with butterflies are:
Spring
Primrose Primula vulgaris
Aubretia Aubretia delftoidea
Dandelion Taraxacum
Summer
Alyssum Alyssum
French marigold Tagetes patula
Candytuft Iberis amara
Lobelia Lobelia
Aster Aster
Sweet rocket Hesperis matronalis
Mint Mentha
Autumn
Heathers Calluna spp
Ice plant spectabile
Michaelmas daisy Aster novi-belgii
Night-scented plants are an opportunity to encourage some large and attractive moths at dusk.
Jasmine (not winter jasmine)
Red Valerian
Tobacco plant
Ivy blossom late in the season
Brambles with over-ripe fruit
MANAGEMENT
The key thing is to avoid any gardening practice which kills butterflies or their eggs, caterpillars or pupae, and to provide the right conditions that they will require to overwinter. These differ depending on the stage in which particular species pass the winter months:
~ Outbuildings or trees with ivy allow adult Peacocks, Commas, Small tortoiseshells etc. to hibernate.
~ Rough grass clumps suit the larvae of Skippers and Browns.
~ Eggs laid on the buds of blackthorn are doomed if the hedge is trimmed before spring.
~ Pupae clinging to dried weed stems will perish if they are pulled out and burned in autumn.
Do not unnecessarily:
Use Pesticides
Use Weedkillers
Use fertiliser over-generously
Burn too many garden fires
Mow a vast lawn
Tidy up foodplants after flowering
many thanks to Peter Maddison for these butterfly facts.
Biodiversity Group Meeting 26th April 2021
Members of the biodiversity group met in Jill's garden and the following minutes were taken by Christine
The Biodiversity group's main purpose is in creating habitat to help endangered species (or any species before they become endangered)
The meeting considered factors leading to problems for wildlife including:
climate change leading to hotter summers;
less rainfall but concentrated in shorter periods of wet weather;
reducing loss of water unnecesarily through drainage;
exposure of soil leading to
loss of soil by erosion and windblow;
exposure with loss of cover
loss of foodplants for invertebrates as well as mammals and birds;
reduction in range of species found in land and water.
Hedges
Hedges are good for biodiversity, allowing transfer of species between sites e.g. woods as wildlife corridors, Wide hedges and taller hedges are much better.
Recent hedge cutting in the village has caused considerable consternation as it was very rough and destructive especially on the old gnarled hawthorns.
Hedge laying
Mariah is speaking to 2 hedge laying instructors about doing a course in the village for people to learn the craft of hedge laying. They will visit in May.
Linda thought it might be expensive for the participants. Mariah is looking at possibly getting a grant from AONB as the idea would be for thoose
who do the training to do hedge laying for farmers instead of them having to cut hedges. There was some discussion about the drastic cutting carried out
in the winter, more than other parishes it seems.
Species used in hedges
Mariah asked what species people might like which we don’t usually get.A range of species have been supplied in the
last few years by the tree council, but we need to check what we received.
Christine had a list of species being grown by tree wardens under the current nurseries project. These would only be seedlings at the moment but by autumn
some might be ready to use in hedges. We can also plant seeds and nuts etc. directly when planting hedges to appear in the future hopefully. Many tree seeds
have a long period of dormancy.
More hedges are to be planted next winter
Mariah proposes completing the infill of the hedge parallel to the one by the footpath to Mill Road which was done last autumn.
Christine has permission to do more round the field at the crossroads where 30m was planted in the Autumn.
There may be more spots available.
More possibilities – tree planting – the Waller estate may allow some tree planting near the reserve below Dairy Farm. Action Linda and John to take this
further perhaps with local land owners.
Approaching land owners was generally thought to be best route
Betsy's Mason Bees 16th June 2021
This video was taken on June 16th. The female Mason bee is laying its eggs in little cells in the bug hotel in Betsy's garden. This hotel has a sliding drawer which as you can see has a number of parallel tubes covered with a sheet of perspex. The hotel faces south and the Mason bee lays her eggs along with some pollen for the grubs to eat. Each cell is sealled up with a small amount of mud and the young bees will emerge next year.
Note it looks like Firefox will not render this video, but all OK in Microsoft Edge.