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Dr Judy Webb BEM A few items from 2021-2022
24 April 2022 In celebration of the International Day of the Dandelion, Judy tweeted photos, commenting that local meadow dandelions were looking dwarfed because of the drought 'but still lovely and many still crucial food for insects like this hoverfly'.
In response to her query if anyone knew whether the plant featured in Biodiversity Net Gain calculations (she thought it should), Steven Falk, author of A Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland, tweeted: 'Not specifically but we’ve tried to emphasise that assorted common plants that are considered weeds or injurious are actually crucial for supporting insect diversity. I’m sure Defra already know that, just a case of ensuring BNG doesn’t undermine things'.
22 April 2022 Judy tweeted photos taken in Raleigh Park, Oxford, where a calcareous fen is undergoing restoration thanks to the Freshwater Habitats Trust. Log-damming of drains is being used to keep the water on site. However, Judy is concerned that this year's dry spring will prevent the aquifers of rare, groundwater spring-fed alkaline calcareous fens such as this one from being replenished and that springs will fail. The problem here in Raleigh Park is exacerbated by continued property development in the catchment area. The soil in the meadow areas is as dry as it would normally be in July. This site's special features are slender spike-rush, Eleocharis uniglumis, and the wealth of invertebrates in the tufa, identified with the use of malaise traps. See Judy's 2-part tweet/photos here
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22 February 2022 In January a friend of Judy's found a cocoon attached, low down, to an ash twig. The consensus at that time was that it was a puss moth's. She took it home and left it in a bag, thinking it empty, but some weeks later she was surprised by numbers of 'very jumpy little parasitic wasps' emerging, which she presumed were male and female. Her tweet asking for help with identification brought a response from Gavin Broad, Principal Curator in charge of insects at the Natural History Museum, London: 'Seem to be a brood of an Agrothereutes species. Is it definitely a puss moth cocoon and not a sawfly, a Trichiosoma species? Agrothereutes mandatory is a regular parasitoid of Trichiosoma pupae wasps'. The wasps will be sent to Gavin for identification. See Tweets
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3 July 2021 Judy (far left of photo) with Abingdon Green Gym volunteers at Frilford Heath Ponds and Fen SSSI. See Eleanor Baker's tweet and Judy's response here Photo by Eleanor Baker (whole photo shown in Tweet) |
27 June 2021
Judy led a walk around Chilswell Valley for the Friends of Cothill Reserves, (which include mostly fens – Cothill NNR, Parsonage Moor, Lashford Lane fen and Dry Sandford Pit), and also an Oxford University student who is keen to learn about wildlife and conservation. The group looked at the flowers of limestone grassland (sadly the weather was too cool for butterflies), the ancient woodland of Chilswell and then at the fen restoration taking place adjacent to the boardwalk. This led to a discussion of all the positive changes brought about by the work of the Wild Oxford Project* in the fen and with coppicing hazel in Chilswell copse. This work is now being continued by a group of volunteers run by Richard Newton on Mondays. |
*See Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust's Wild Oxford Project here.
The area of fen cutting and raking has been extended. Sadly no grazing seems to be possible on the limestone grassland at the moment. The Freshwater Habitats Trust has grant-funded a number of log dams in the Chilswell brook constructed by Rod d'Ayala, an ecologist skilled in wetland hydrology, and volunteers. These are designed to slow the flow and re-wet adjacent dry fen areas. Looking at the fen flora, the group were very pleased to see a number of very tall (knee-height) bee orchids occupying the drier margins of the fen restoration area, growing alongside more usual wetland plants, with a lot of marsh lousewort effectively reducing reed growth, combined with twice yearly cutting and raking.
The route of the walk led the group past some barley fields and on the edge of one of them Judy was excited to find some rare arable plants: spreading hedge parsley, Torilis arvensis, and dwarf spurge, Euphorbia exigua. For photos taken by Judy, and Rod d'Ayala, click here.
The area of fen cutting and raking has been extended. Sadly no grazing seems to be possible on the limestone grassland at the moment. The Freshwater Habitats Trust has grant-funded a number of log dams in the Chilswell brook constructed by Rod d'Ayala, an ecologist skilled in wetland hydrology, and volunteers. These are designed to slow the flow and re-wet adjacent dry fen areas. Looking at the fen flora, the group were very pleased to see a number of very tall (knee-height) bee orchids occupying the drier margins of the fen restoration area, growing alongside more usual wetland plants, with a lot of marsh lousewort effectively reducing reed growth, combined with twice yearly cutting and raking.
The route of the walk led the group past some barley fields and on the edge of one of them Judy was excited to find some rare arable plants: spreading hedge parsley, Torilis arvensis, and dwarf spurge, Euphorbia exigua. For photos taken by Judy, and Rod d'Ayala, click here.
26 June 2021 Planting out flat sedge, Blysmus compressus, in the vicinity of Raleigh Park, Oxford. The plants were grown, after obtaining the necessary permission, by Judy Webb (seen here helping with the planting) from rhizomes from Almonds Farm fields bank, Old Marston. See photos and comments tweeted the following day by Adam Bows, Oxford Brookes University MSc Conservation Ecology student |
10 May 2021
Judy helped Local Wildlife Site officers from TVERC and BBOWT with a survey of a privately-owned LWS in the Cotswold Hills, which has ancient woodland and tufa-forming springs (photos tweeted by Judy here) Underneath waterlogged calcified logs and twigs they found lots of freshwater shrimps, as well as fat, white and very mobile larvae of the Tuning-fork cranefly, Pedicia rivosa. Judy tweeted: 'These are predatory and this one demonstrated its fierce jaws by attempting to bite me' (photos in second part of the same tweet). |