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A rare yellow Blue tit visits The Wildlife Meadow

Posted on Tuesday 13th September 2016
Orange-tip butterfly

With summer coming to an end, the grassland plants and insects using the Wildlife Meadow are starting to complete their life-cycles and prepare for winter. With sunshine not arriving until late this year it has been a particularly poor year for butterflies. Holly Blues and Orange-tips were seen early in the year, but in small numbers… while later on saw the emergence of grassland species Ringlet and Meadow Brown followed by Gatekeeper. A smaller still number of Marbled White, Common Blue and Small Copper were also seen in the meadow. Small Tortoiseshells were very low in number this year, a pattern which seems to have been replicated nationwide.

Burnet moth on Knapweed

Burnet moth on Knapweed

Although overall numbers were low, we managed to see every one of the Big Butterfly Count species this year including the Brimstone butterfly, the caterpillars of which were found feeding on eight of the Alder buckthorn shrubs we planted last year – a real success story in a disappointing year for butterflies.

Moths seemed to fair slightly better and we found some excellent species to showcase for our ‘Moth Morning’ events with 72 species caught in June and 81 species in August. Next year we shall again team up with Butterfly Conservation for more moth events so keep an eye out for dates.

During our August ‘Go Wild in the Garden’ event we once again invited the Brewood Ringers to come and demonstrate bird ringing to our visitors. Unsurprisingly there were a lot of juvenile birds to show off this time including several Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Blue tits, Great tits, Robins and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

The star of the show however was a stunning leucistic Blue tit which, lacking normal feather colour pigments, appeared completely yellow. This bright yellow bird has been seen regularly visiting the feeding station in the meadow. More bird ringing demonstrations will be held here by the Brewood Ringers during the winter months.

A leucistic Blue tit: the star of the show

A leucistic Blue tit: the star of the show

Heading into autumn the main focus is to prepare the meadow ready for a large increase in wildflowers ready for flowering next year. Last year, seed was collected from flowers already in the meadow and grown on into thousands of plants ready for planting. This autumn we will be planting Knapweed, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Devil’s-bit Scabious, Betony, Ragged Robin and Cowslips. Firstly the meadow has to be strimmed and the hay removed to lower the nutrient level of the soil and allow for easy planting.

A big thank you goes to the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust Roving Volunteer Group who visited on August 30th and helped us get off to a great start with several hundred plants added to the meadow. Seed from Field Scabious and Small Scabious has already been collected this August and these species will be the main focus for next year’s planting.

There is one more chance to see the Wildlife Meadow this year on Saturday September 24th in conjunction with John’s Garden Open Day. Visitors should remember to bring along a pair of binoculars – a chance to see a rare yellow Blue tit should not be missed!

Tom Woodhall