Top Field 2008 :D - review

It has been a very good year for the Top field in 2008. It is an amazing haven for butterflies and wildflowers and supports a strong breeding population of skylarks that nest in the long grass each year. Having just persuaded the farmer not to plough the field I am going to make a study of it in the next 4 years, recording and monitoring the wildlife found there.
I will start with the flowers because that is the field’s “main attraction”, with some scarce species growing there. Firstly the field has had two orchids this year. I found a pyramidal orchid growing up near the Rec. on the 5th of July, having had 3 in the garden – hopefully next year there will be more. But the field’s best flower has to be the single greater butterfly orchid that made me very happy, not only because I hadn’t seen it before, but also because it is quite rare and to have it in the Top Field is absolutely amazing!!! The majority of the flowers growing in the field are from the daisy family (Asteraceae). For example, beaked and smooth hawk’s-beards, rough hawkbit, cat’s-ear, common fleabane and goat’s-beard. I’ve found wild onion and keeled garlic in the hedgerow going up towards the Church and also up by the Rec. neither of which I have found anywhere else. Blue fleabane, wild basil, hoary ragwort, hop trefoil and black medick all grow in the center of the field and spread towards the edges, not getting as far as either end of the field though. Buttercups, umbellifers, crane’s-bills, vetches can be found all over the field and aslo plenty of clover (white, red and alsike) which provides life for common broomrape, of which there was lots. So this year has been amazing for the flowers with a staggering total of 74!! I have also recorded 10 different grasses and 3 sedges as well.
Because there were so many flowers in the field, this then attracted lots of butterflies. Every saturday in july I did a complete circuit of the field counting the numbers of butterflies. On 5th july there were good figures for meadow brown, ringlet and marbled white and even a few small skippers were sighted on the way round. The next saturday, the 12th, I found the first gatekeepers of the year with a total of 8, joined again by ringlets, meadow browns, marbled whites (huge numbers that day!!), small skippers and a very ragged painted lady which was a very nice surprise! The 19th was a very good day as I added 3 to the field’s year list: a common blue, green-veined white and a couple of essex skippers – another nice surprise. The final saturday I had before the field was cut was arguably the best day for butterflies though (26th). The temperatures rose into the mid-twenties and so I returned home happy, but sweltering and with a head-ache :-). I had seen 11 different butterfly species including large, small and green-veined whites, a comma, essex skippers, gatekeepers, brimstones and, best of all, a small copper which very kindly stopped for a photo :-). I must mention also that after one round of the field I had counted 80+ meadow browns which is great! Having done it for 4 weeks now I’m pretty good at not counting them twice (obviously some would fly over the field but it’s just a rough guess). Earlier in the year I was lucky enough to be wandering through the long grass and to come across a duke of burgundy feeding on a clover!! It was a surprise because their foodplant is primrose and we haven’t had any in the field this year – only in the churchyard I suppose, but they are found in Bentley Wood which is only two miles down the road so there you go!! Again, very good butterfly numbers – a brilliant total of 15!!
When I’m doing my round I don’t really watch out for birds but I have been watching the skylarks. They have had a good year, sightings in the sky have multiplyed considerably during the last few weeks, often with 4 or 5 singing their melodic songs at the same time. Birding highlight has to be the hobby that flew over one hot morning, showing its pale underside, ‘red trousers’ and long, swift-like wings (Quote: “There was no mistaking its appearance, like a giant swift, wingblades cutting the air to ribbons” by Brett Westwood, BBC Wildlife). Other birds of prey include numerous buzzards and kestrels and (although they aren’t technically birds of prey) I’ve seen a little owl, lots of tawny owls, heard hooting overnight and then the barn owl. It also has had a good year with two or three chicks and even though the weather hasn’t been perfect it has been seen hunting regularly. There have been yellowhammers and linnets in the hedgerow earlier on and I even had a visit from a noisy raven one afternoon!!
Other insects include ducky sallow, speckled yellow, lime-speck pug and cinnabar moths, thick-kneed flower and red soldier beetles and, though not an insect, a colourful wasp spider on its dew sodden web, early one morning. There were lots of hoverflies around including Helophilus trivittatus, Myathropa florae, Melanostoma scalare, Chrysotoxum bicintum and the Marmalade fly, Episyrphus balteatus.
Overall, it has been an amazing year in the field and, now the farmer isn’t going to plough, I can’t wait for next year when I will be out recording the wildlife again and comparing it to this year!

FLOWER OF THE YEAR: Greater Butterfly Orchid
INSECT OF THE YEAR: Duke of Burgundy
BIRD OF THE YEAR: Hobby