johnv
Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:44 pm
OK, I need to start a diary. Not sure I will be able to be as regular as others due to many other commitments but I will try to record most of my expeditions this year.
Only managed to get out for my first butterfly trip this year on 1st March and then only for an hour and a half. It was at my ‘local’ – Southampton Old Cemetery (see below) a short 10 minute walk away.
And, my first of the year, a solitary Red Admiral. Not in too good a nick, guess it managed to get through winter as an adult. Despite a few nectar sources being available, it was quite content to just bask on the headstones.
This time of year is so good for the spirits. Winter now behind us and spring flora starting to burst through. Spring Crocus, Wild Daffodils, Primrose, Lesser Celandine, Greater Periwinkle, Pulmonaria saccharata all adding colour together with Alpine Squill, Snowdrops and Hazel not yet finished. Yews shedding pollen so profusely it looks like smoke and the first of the Prunus trees already well in flower – the Purple-leaved Cherry-plum, Prunus cerasifera "Pissardii". And, things can only get better – until autumn at least.
SOUTHAMPTON OLD CEMETERY
An introduction to this little city-enclosed paradise. It consists of 11 hectares (27 acres) of Victorian council owned cemetery, opened in 1846. All burial plots had been used by the 1910’s; gradually over the following decades it became less manicured and more wild. Following a public consultation in the late 1980’s it has been managed since 1990 by a regime “aimed at preserving the character of the existing flora and fauna”. Originally hived off from Southampton Common, much of the woodland stream valley remains to the west (although the stream itself was diverted underground) with several big old Oaks remaining. To the east the acidic soils produce a heath-type environment with Ling & Bell Heather thriving. In the centre is an area of maintained grassland, originally much grazed when part of the Common (since kept as such by scythe, strimmer and volunteer sapling removal) and is home to many huge Yellow Meadow Ant mounds – fast-food restaurants for Green Woodpeckers. Over 300 species of flora are present including quite a few feral exotics and non-native conifers. I have been walking a transect there since 2006. So far 24 species recorded, plus another 2 off-transect. Species with an Annual Index regularly exceeding 100 are Speckled Wood, Marbled White, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown and Ringlet; although the MW and MB have both had a very poor last couple of years. Holly Blue and Small/Essex Skippers also reach 100 in good years. The cemetery and adjoining Common are completely surrounded by urban sprawl making it difficult for several species to arrive/depart. The territory would be suitable for Small Heath, for example, but alas the nearest populations are over 10 km away and they have yet to make it through. The friends-group for the cemetery has a good website to which I have contributed the wildlife page and photos – http://fosoc.org/the-cemetery/wildlife/ Some of the photos shown above are from Gillie Dunkason of the friends-group.
I hope to keep updating the butterfly situation in the cemetery as I progress with the transect this year.
Only managed to get out for my first butterfly trip this year on 1st March and then only for an hour and a half. It was at my ‘local’ – Southampton Old Cemetery (see below) a short 10 minute walk away.
And, my first of the year, a solitary Red Admiral. Not in too good a nick, guess it managed to get through winter as an adult. Despite a few nectar sources being available, it was quite content to just bask on the headstones.
This time of year is so good for the spirits. Winter now behind us and spring flora starting to burst through. Spring Crocus, Wild Daffodils, Primrose, Lesser Celandine, Greater Periwinkle, Pulmonaria saccharata all adding colour together with Alpine Squill, Snowdrops and Hazel not yet finished. Yews shedding pollen so profusely it looks like smoke and the first of the Prunus trees already well in flower – the Purple-leaved Cherry-plum, Prunus cerasifera "Pissardii". And, things can only get better – until autumn at least.
SOUTHAMPTON OLD CEMETERY
An introduction to this little city-enclosed paradise. It consists of 11 hectares (27 acres) of Victorian council owned cemetery, opened in 1846. All burial plots had been used by the 1910’s; gradually over the following decades it became less manicured and more wild. Following a public consultation in the late 1980’s it has been managed since 1990 by a regime “aimed at preserving the character of the existing flora and fauna”. Originally hived off from Southampton Common, much of the woodland stream valley remains to the west (although the stream itself was diverted underground) with several big old Oaks remaining. To the east the acidic soils produce a heath-type environment with Ling & Bell Heather thriving. In the centre is an area of maintained grassland, originally much grazed when part of the Common (since kept as such by scythe, strimmer and volunteer sapling removal) and is home to many huge Yellow Meadow Ant mounds – fast-food restaurants for Green Woodpeckers. Over 300 species of flora are present including quite a few feral exotics and non-native conifers. I have been walking a transect there since 2006. So far 24 species recorded, plus another 2 off-transect. Species with an Annual Index regularly exceeding 100 are Speckled Wood, Marbled White, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown and Ringlet; although the MW and MB have both had a very poor last couple of years. Holly Blue and Small/Essex Skippers also reach 100 in good years. The cemetery and adjoining Common are completely surrounded by urban sprawl making it difficult for several species to arrive/depart. The territory would be suitable for Small Heath, for example, but alas the nearest populations are over 10 km away and they have yet to make it through. The friends-group for the cemetery has a good website to which I have contributed the wildlife page and photos – http://fosoc.org/the-cemetery/wildlife/ Some of the photos shown above are from Gillie Dunkason of the friends-group.
I hope to keep updating the butterfly situation in the cemetery as I progress with the transect this year.