Friends of Chesworth Farm Annual General Meeting

Land of The Long White Cloud

Weekend Round-up

Dotted Chestnut - Warnham Local Nature Reserve

A busy weekend around all the sites meant that there was lots of fantastic wildlife reported. Starting off with the moth trap at Warnham Local Nature Reserve which has finally started to get some results after the Beast From The East part 2 hit us last week! The best moth of the weekend was the Dotted Chestnut (Conistra rubiginea) which is nationally scarce and always nice to see in the traps. It is one of the few moths that hibernate after first being on the wing in October/November before reappearing in the spring. The second moth of note which we don't trap very regularly at Warnham is the Grey Shoulder-knot (Lithophane ornitopus) which can be seen below. It is quite similar to the more common Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) but the former is generally paler with the dark antler marks at the head end helping with identification. This is also an interesting moth as its larvae have a tendency to be cannibals!

Grey Shoulder-knot - Warnham Local Nature Reserve

The ringing has been very quiet at Warnham lately and there have been very few opportunities to actually get any of the nets up on the Reserve either due to windy conditions or flooding so it was nice to be able to catch a few birds this weekend. The highlight was this Greenfinch which was the first of 2018. They have been very few and far between in recent years which is a theme carried out nationwide sadly as many of the Greenfinches seem to be struggling to beat some of the avian diseases found in the UK.

Greenfinch - Warnham Local Nature Reserve

Meanwhile at Chesworth Farm I added a new fly to the species list when I found the larval mine of Chromatomyia ramosa on Teasel. This is part of the agromizid fly family, all of which mine leaves of various plants. The adults are very difficult to identify and most of them need genitalia examination to be sure of their identity but many of the leaf mines are quite simple to recognise. In the picture below you can see the light coloured markings which are moving away from the central vein. These are caused by the larvae of the fly eating the leaf from within the leaf structure itself.

Chromatomyia ramosa on Teasel - Chesworth Farm

Finally at Southwater Country Park a quick check of the oldest stand of Blackthorn on the site produced a number of the scarce Brown Hairstreak eggs. They are absolutely tiny so I make no apology for how bad the picture is! This is the second site we have found the eggs at this winter after the Friends of Chesworth Farm found some earlier in the month when carrying out a hedgerow survey on the Farm.

Brown Hairstreak Egg - Southwater Quarry

Friends of Warnham Local Nature Reserve Event

Warnham Local Nature Reserve

Chesworth Farm

Surfacing works at Chesworth Farm

31 volunteers joined Ryan at Chesworth Farm as Horsham Green Gym got stuck into the surfacing which we have been planning over the winter. The aim of the task was to not only cut back some of the vegetation such as the ever encroaching Bramble but also to surface with aggregate some of the worst affected gateways which you can see above. It was excellent to see such a good turn-out at what is undoubtedly a tough task with lots of barrowing and digging the order of the day.

Not much was seen on the wildlife front as all of the volunteers had their heads down grafting but Ryan did manage to see a couple of Grey Herons on the wetland fields. David Verrall also managed a nice picture which he took over the weekend of one of a number of Greenfinches seen around the site.

Greenfinch - D. Verrall

Also of note if you are not already aware the Friends of Chesworth Farm are running their next event this coming Saturday which is a guided walk around the Farm. This is a fantastic opportunity to get to know the Farm, see the livestock as well as learn about how the site is used by the wildlife at this time of year. 

Chesworth Farm

Chesworth Farm

A beautiful evening on the Farm doing the final preparation for the Christmas Wreath Making event which the Friends of Chesworth Farm are running tomorrow involved coppicing lots of bendy willow whips, collecting seasonal vegetation such as pine cones and Ivy leaves as well as stocking up with logs and kindling to ensure the attendees aren't too chilly whilst making their own wreaths.

After dropping off the supplies to the Volunteer Centre, Sam and I had a quick mooch round the Farm to check the animals and also to inspect a reported blocked stream which was as a consequence was flooding the path. Lots of birds were whizzing around the hedges in preparation for a cold night, trying to find the best roost spot. A summary of the species noted is below:

Blackbird 3, Magpie 12, Chaffinch 1, Blue Tit 1, Herring Gull 40+, Robin 3, Song Thrush 1, Woodpigeon 4, Jackdaw 10+,