Harmony Woods Butterfly Transect 2016
Harmony Woods Butterfly Transect 2016
Introduction
Harmony Woods is a project started in 2012 by Andover Trees United to create a native community woodland. The land was previously agricultural and was the last remaining acreage farmed by Trinley Estate following sale of land for the new Augusta Park Housing development. Trinley Estate Trustees agreed to the sale of the 44-acre field specifically to support Andover Trees United who currently hold 7 acres under licence agreement. Since then the land has been planted up with native trees, planned out with rides and glades to allow the maximum diversity for wildlife once it develops. A later project introduced native wild flower seeds, and then plugs. Whilst the trees develop, the 'woodland' is a meadow, some of these meadow plants should survive when the glades/rides develop fully. Two acres of the site has not been planted with wild flowers, being primarily rye grass dominated. A large wildlife pond has been added this autumn.
Outside the main Harmony Woods enclosure is another area of woodland managed by Hampshire Country Council, who own the whole site. The trees here have been planted and left to fend for themselves. No wildflowers have been planted here. Due to this it creates a slightly different habitat from that inside the Andover Trees United enclosure. The edge of this plantation borders a path which has English Elm regrowth which could be valuable in the future.
The Harmony Woods Transect was set up this year (2016) for many reasons. The most important of these being that butterflies are bio-indicator species and can be used to assess the health of the environment. The transect itself is also a guide to how well the management of the site is working. As the site develops we expect the butterfly species to change. They should move from meadow butterflies, which with the right management should remain in the rides and central glade, to more woodland species, which need specific plants and light levels within a mature woodland to survive.
It is of note that nearby woodland in Smannell contain Silver-washed Fritillary and White Admiral Butterflies. With the addition of their food plants, we may be able to establish these butterflies at Harmony Woods.
Butterfly Transect Methodology
Butterflies are recorded in a fixed width band (typically 5m wide) along the transect each week from the beginning of April until the end of September yielding, ideally, 26 counts per year.
Transect walks are undertaken between 10.45am and 3.45pm and only when weather conditions are suitable for butterfly activity: dry conditions, wind speed less than Beaufort scale 5, and temperature 13°C or greater if there is at least 60% sunshine, or more than 17°C if overcast.
Even when there was a count of 0 butterflies this should have been recorded. This could give information about the weather, habitat or just natural butterfly population fluctuations.
Common Blue Butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) 1.6.14.Harmony Woods. Female
The Results:
The transect this year was the first on record, so we have nothing to compare it with. However, it was noted that the summer this year was a very poor summer for butterflies across the country, and butterfly numbers in general are on the decline. The summer didn't have an unusual amount of rain, though it felt like it did, but it did have quite a few 'grey' days. The site being high up on a hill also had the added disadvantage of being fairly cold, and breezy even on good days, and this may have accounted for the poor records either side of mid-summer.
The graph above shows the numbers of each butterfly species that was seen. In total 15 species of butterfly were seen. As you can see from the graph Meadow Brown was by far the most numerous species, followed by Marbled White, Small Heath, Small White and Small/Essex Skipper. Most the butterflies were seen in the months of June and July.
This result was not too surprising. The site is mainly a grass dominated site and the above species are all grass feeders as larvae, with the exception of Small White, which is a widespread wanderer. Meadow Brown are the most numerous butterfly species in Britain, and so with the right food plants was going to be fairly numerous.
Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) 30.7.16.Harmony Woods
As more nectar plants develop on the site, and more food plants for some of the other butterfly species are planted, we should see more butterfly species hopefully colonise the site. Bird's-foot trefoil, Violets and marjoram are species that are most needed to develop as starter plants.
As the trees develop into woodland and scrub the introduction of Honeysuckle, Wood Spurge, Wood Sage and Pignut would of be of great advantage to lepidoptera.
Other species recorded:
In the course of the survey many reordered added addition species records. These are important to see how the diversity of the site increases/decreases. Bees and moths are important amongst these records, as like butterflies they are good at telling us the health of the environment.
The following were recorded:
· Buff Tailed Bumble bee
· Birds: - Kestrel, Buzzard, Sky Larks, Grey Legged Partridge, Magpie, Wood Pigeon, Swallow, Barn Owl
· Mammals:- Roe Deer, Brown Hare, field mouse, vole
· Blister Cup Fungus
· Moths: - Burnet Companion Moth, Large Yellow Underwing Moth,Silver Y Moth, A Micro Moth (Chrysoteuchia culmella), Mother Shipton Moth (Pictured below)
· Plants noted: - Weld, Birds-foot trefoil, Wild Carrot, Yellow Rattle, Common Broomrape, Red & White Clover, Ribwort Plantain, Ox-eye daisy, Ribbed Melilot, White Camion, Red Campion, Common Ragwort, Common Valerian, Teasel, Round-leaved Fluellen (Pictured below) – A plant not noted before, it likes disturbed ground and was probably an agricultural relic brought back by the on-site Archaeological dig in May.
A full list of wild flowers on site has been recorded, but is too long here to note.
Appendix/ information
Now we have a base line set of date, we would like to keep this survey going into the future. This will help guide management and help us monitor population fluctuations and changes.
If you wish to get involved in next year’s survey, starting in April, please let us know before the end of February 2017
Email: or let one of the Andover Trees United team know.
Below is an annual summary of the butterflies counted at Harmony Woods. Note that some weeks were not covered due to weather/ personal reasons and other columns had 0 results. These still help us understand butterfly populations in general. You can also see from the table the most active months for the site at the moment. This may change as the plants become more established.
Graeme Davis 2016 01264 360534