www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I have lived here for 17 years (moving in a month) but I have lived near a walled in apple orchard that borders deciduous beech/oak/willow woodland. When we first moved here, there was brambles and hogweed crowing high, so much overgrown stuff, it was bad. There was two buddliea and there was butterflies everywhere (small copper, nymphalids, browns etc...) and there is about 7 apple trees, a damson, a cherry and a bird cherry. Never sprayed. Not a commercial orchard. There is even a big Japanese tree that was supposed to be there temp and moved to formal National Trust gardens, but they didn't remove it and its growing there big now. At the end of the orchard is an old Lebanon Cedar which was planted in 1700s (when in country estates like this, it was a symbol of how important you were and planted for this reason)

Since that was cleared away, the butterflies went with it (sad to say) I no longer remember the numbers of small copper (they have gone completely from here) and other butterflies I used to. The large cherry tree fell last year in a strong storm and only cherry is bird cherry. The grass was regularly cut and new apple trees (about 4) were put in

Over a year ago, the owner of the orchard died and a new owner took over. Over the past several months, since about April I noticed there was wildflowers everywhere (oxeye daisies, Birds-Foot Trefoil (very common), White Clover (also quite abundant), Vetches, Ribwort Plantain, Ragwort, Cuckoo Flower's, Selfheal, Sorrel and more). I wondered why this was not cut and today I was informed that the new owner wants to keep it as a wildflower meadow among the trees and I have noticed butterflies return, Orange-Tip, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell, Large and Small White (not seen orange-tip here before although I did record one in forest nearby a year ago). Only ones I have yet to see return are common blue and small copper, but as this is now designated as a wild flower meadow, I could see them return if this remains as is, as the amount of birds-foot trefoil is abundant.

The area is about 5 acres. Also noticed the moth numbers are up since I began trapping here 3 years ago, this year they are doing well (although I have not trapped here much this year). Even Treble-Lines moth (a rare on in NI) has started breeding here due to the amount of ribwort plantain which is great. Also noticed an oak tree is growing here now where the cherry used to be.

I am going to find out if I can plant a few more wildflower seeds (for more diversity) and maybe attract more, the bees are doing well now. Some I hope to plant here are common valerian, Yellow Rattle, hedge bedstraw and a couple others.

I'll post images tomorrow or Thursday, I get paid tomorrow and hopefully can get my new Canon camera. I have some older images of the orchard over 3 years that I'll post tomorrow too.

Here is an image of the trefoil for now (just a small area of it but you can see how abundant it is). I have always asked to have this place into a wildflower meadow and so did the person who lives in front of the orchard, but never allowed, until now. I think the new owners are more into conservation than previous owners which is good. Just have to ask them about coming back to record butterflies/moths and wildplants since I won't be living here in future.

Crikey, that is a lot of trefoil, Dave.

A heart warming story though - long may it continue as a flower meadow.

Cheers

Lee

Thanks Lee, I was kinda wondering what was up when the new owners asked me for a list of all the butterflies and moths I had recorded here since I have been here. Could have been changes like this. Since places like this around here have started to be looked after better, I have found Coleophora mayrella (first 2 in NI before others in NI started finding them soon after), Grey Birch (Last seen in NI over 75 years ago and new site here, new habitat too, conifer plantation with a few old alders) and the new for Ireland, Acleris abetiena (3, two last year, confirmed this year with 1, a female). Just wondering what else will turn up.

You will be best planting plugs into existing grass land. You can either buy them from some of the wild-flower growers, or become a gardener and sow the seeds and pot them on for planting out next year. As an example I planted out some Greater Mullein seedlings in my wildflower patch last winter and had Shargacucullia verbasci larvae on three of the plants this summer, the first recorded in this hectad since the beginning of the last century.

That is a good idea John, I have been doing that already with some plants I am growing such as bilberry, juniper, white campion, wild strawberry etc... Probably just the yellow rattle I can't really do that with since its a hemiparasite of grass.

Dave McCormick wrote:Probably just the yellow rattle I can't really do that with since its a hemiparasite of grass.

Yellow Rattle needs to be treated as an annual. Now would be the time to mow some single strips in the grass, allow the grass to recover for a week and then apply glyphosphate (Round-up). Leave for about 6 weeks, then rotovate or turn the turf in and make a rough seed bed, then sow with Rattle in say mid September. Since you then have a seed bed you might as well chuck in some other annual seeds. If you don't like the idea of glyphosphate then simply lift some turfs in the autumn and sow. I don't know how good Rattle is at self seeding because this is the first year that I have grown it.

The picture is a shot of part of my field that I treated as described a year ago. I sowed annuals as nurse plants to a heavy sowing of perennials, from the height of the annuals the ground was obviously too rich but the Rattle made a good 8 inches. I am about to weed-kill a similar area of grass and I shall use the "hay" from these annuals to provide the seed for the next stage.
P.S. It's an apple tree in the lower right hand corner of the photo !

OK, finally got around to getting photos of the orchard now. I have older images somewhere I'll post when I have time.

Here is images of the orchard:
The tree in the background beside wall here is a Lebanon Cedar, there is a wild cherry beside it, woodland behind wall, the four trees in foreground are old apple trees.
Here is the damson (left) and bird cherry (right) side by side (damson is the dark tree, its has a gap at the bottom near roots so I can't see it living too many more years)
Another image with the cedar in background, this time looking from the flowers:
You can see extent of trefoil here (trees in far right background behind the wall are a mature Oak, mature black poplar, mature beech and an old sweet chestnut. There is also a walnut and another beech here you can't see):
Here is the rose garden beside the orchard (was a rose garden, has a few old dog roses around the edge) it has 3 bay leaf trees, 2 plam trees that were burned accidently. The flowers have grown along the paths and more grassy meadow here. The building at the back was a creamery where milk was churned, now disused:
Only other thing I noticed was that for past 5 years there has been no honeybees here. There has been a nest here for around 12 years, but about 5 years ago they swarmed (I couldn't even leave house for a few hours due to sky being black with bees) and moved away. Quite a few bumble bees now. Lots of red admirals and small tortoiseshells and small whites about here today.

Excellent stuff Dave. If there are bare patches on the ground around the trefoil, the orchard might become suitable for Dingy Skipper - do you have any locally?

Thanks. Wish we did, all populations in NI are in 25 sites in Fermanagh over 100 miles west of here. Bit off topic, but I think BCNI were going to create a roadside sign in the shape of a dingy skipper with birds-foot trefoil in it with info on dingy skipper on it, where populations are breeding along roadside edges, to get people aware of it. A species I would very much like to see, maybe next year.