Biodiversity Highlights
Have a look at the biodiversity highlights during 2023.
Supplementary Winter Feed for Farmland Birds
Supplementary Winter Feeding
As part of a Countryside Stewardship agreement the estate has grant funds for an option called 'Supplementary Winter Feeding'. The aim of this option is to provide important food resources for farmland birds in late winter and early spring on arable and mixed farms, by supplementing crops of winter bird food with additional seed, such as cereal, oilseed and specialised grains. It gives the birds food through the late winter period when natural seed is in short supply (known as the hungry gap) and as they enter the breeding season.
The Crops Team scatter seed in a variety of locations once a week from 1st Dec through to 30th April. The seed mixture contains:
Wheat
Red Millet
White Millet
Rape
Sunflowers
Canary Seed
Point counts were carried out at each of these locations for the duration of the feeding period, so we could monitor exactly how beneficial the additional feeding was! All four priority species of; Linnet, Yellowhammer, Corn Bunting and Reed Bunting were recorded!
Harvest Mice
In February, evidence was found of a new species for the Estate!
As a lover of tall grasses and other vegetation, including tussocky grasslands, hedgerows, cereal field margins, road verges, reed beds and ditches, it is unsurprising that Leckford Estate is perfect habitat for Harvest Mice!
However, looking through our historic data, they have never officially been recorded here before! (It is unclear whether this is due to no surveys ever being undertaken or lack of positive evidence).
The generally accepted survey method is to look for their abandoned nests at the end of the breeding season, when minimal disturbance to the animals can occur.
A solitary non-breeding nest, due to it's smaller size (approx. 5cm in diameter), was found in a field margin on the south side of Winchester Street. This November, 8 larger breeding nests have already been located. Now that presence has been proved, a systematic sampling approach will be in order to establish distribution.
Harvest Mice Breeding Nest
Easter Egg With a Twist!
Great Crested Newt Eggs
This was one of several Great Crested Newt eggs that were found in the Longstock Nursery pond in April.
Newts like to lay their eggs in leaves of horizontal growing, rafting plants in the shallows. The female newt finds a suitable leaf and lays an egg, in the case of GCN's they are a white/creamy colour, with eggs of Smooth and Palmate newts being more greyish/brown.
Once laid, using her back feet she carefully folds the leaf around her egg and secures it by sealing the fold with a secretion for safety from predators.
One female will lay several eggs a day over many weeks and can lay between 150 - 300 eggs in a breeding season. Unfortunately, survival rate isn't high, as the eggs can be predated on by fish, dragonfly larvae and even other amphibians.
Although only one leaf was opened to check the species of Newt, there were 21 other folded leaves counted and we know there is also a population of Smooth Newts in the Nursery Pond too!
Flutterby News
We have two official butterfly transects on the Estate which are part of the UK's Butterfly Monitoring Scheme; a national scheme that collects data from over 2000 sites.
One of which is situated along Fairview Bank, a transect first started in 1989. Unfortunately, this transect has not been completed since 2018, so it was a priority for this route to be reinstated this year.
Being in such close proximity to Stockbridge Down, it is a strategically important transect, that will give insight on movement and dispersal of some of the characteristic chalk downland specialists found on the grasslands above.
Some of the priority species in this ensemble are Grizzled and Dingy Skippers and the Duke of Burgundy butterfly. Fortunately both Grizzled and Dingy Skipper were found. Dingy Skippers have been recorded in low numbers in the past, the last in 2015.
The more pleasing find is that of the Duke of Burgundy! This small butterfly frequents scrubby grassland and sunny woodland clearings, typically in very low numbers. It has declined by over 50% in recent decades and many of the remaining colonies now only have very small populations, as a consequence it now holds an European status of 'Threatened'.
Without accounting for any ad-hoc records we’re yet to discover, this butterfly has only been officially recorded once on this transect and that was in 1991!!
Dingy Skipper
Duke of Burgundy
Southern Damselfly
Southern Damselfly
Volunteers from the British Dragonfly Society have been out searching parts of the river valley for the rare Southern Damselfly. The Southern Damselfly is a species that is listed as endangered on the British Odonata Red list with two main strongholds in the New Forest and Pembrokeshire with smaller populations dotted in other counties and along the Rivers Test and Itchen.
Up until a few years ago, the River Test population was thought to only be upstream as far as Mottisfont, but 2 years ago they were found at Stockbridge Common. Over the last 2 seasons, volunteers have been searching upstream to see how far the population is spreading.
Late on a Friday afternoon in June, a small number were recorded at the bottom of the Leckford stretch of the Test, which is great news! Recent sightings have shown that this species is now changing its habitat preferences and inhabiting areas that would have previously been deemed unsuitable!
His Imperial Majesty
A short voicemail left from the Gardens and Grounds Manager, cued a frantic rush to grab binos and camera and to get down to the Water Gardens as quickly as possible.
The mad dash was unnecessary as when I arrived, the rare species in question was happily perched on a visitors ankle and had no intention of moving any time soon!
We had been graced with a visit from a male Purple Emperor (nicknamed in the butterfly world as 'His Imperial Majesty'!). This is a species that usually spends its days high up in the canopy feeding on aphid honeydew and tree sap. The adults are notoriously elusive and males only occasionally descend to the ground to probe for salts from muddy path surfaces and animal dung.
This male was first spotted down on the duck poo around the banks, but we think was later attracted to the skin cream on the ladies leg!
Purple Emperor
Nationally Scarce Moth - Striped Lychnis!
Striped Lynchnis
Over several weeks in July, many people around the estate may have passed Glynne or Kath as they were staring intently at random yellow flowering plants along our road edges!
We hadn’t gone completely mad! We were searching for caterpillars of the Nationally Scarce moth the Striped Lychnis! A UK BAP Priority species, it occurs only in a few scattered localities in the south of England, mainly in chalk or limestone districts. The best monitoring method is to search for the larval foodplant in July & August as the caterpillars will be feeding on the flowers.
This year’s first record for the Striped Lychnis caterpillar was spotted on a lone plant outside the Maintenance & Engineering workshops, but a further 50+ have been counted on Winchester Street. In order to allow the caterpillars to safely pupate ready for emergence next year, it’s important that these areas do not get cut until flowering is over in September. Our Grounds and Gardens Team were happy to accommodate!
The foodplant in question is Dark Mullein, although generally quite widespread, there are only a few locations at Leckford that it has been found, largely along fencelines and road verges.