A year in review at Newdigate

Obviously, everything at Newdigate is a treasure, but these are a few less common, or less commonly seen, things that can be found here!

Treasure no. 1

My first Newdigate Treasure is the Grizzled Skipper, which flies in late spring. It is classed as Vulnerable on the GB Red List. Most sites in Surrey are further north on the Downs, but Newdigate is one of a few in the Weald. We recorded only the one, though, and must hope they pick-up next year. While on this subject, huge thanks go to two fellow volunteers, Vanessa Ramsden and Alex Patterson, who helped me with the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme transect over the summer.

The transect was walked 38 times between May and September, recording 26 species and counting over 1,200 butterflies. The late spring/early summer was quieter, but by July we were seeing many more: a peak of 88 Gatekeepers on 29 July. Prize observation goes to Vanessa for the single Clouded Yellow on 30 August. Butterfly Conservation say few came over to the UK in 2023, so we were lucky to get one. Even luckier that it initially landed on Vanessa’s recording pencil! I was deeply envious.

Grizzled skipper butterfly at a Notts WT nature reserve - Tom Hibbert

Treasure no. 2

My second Treasure comes from July and a night-vigil on the 6^th, when I went to look for glow-worms. It took me a little while to work out how to find them. I had expected them to crawl up grass stems and glow from a relatively prominent position which would make them quite easy to spot. If that is what they do in some places, here in Newdigate they remain firmly at ground-level, looking a little like a greenish-yellow LED someone has dropped in the grass.

It was gone 11pm before I saw my first one, but I found another seven dotted around the grassier areas in the north and west side of the Reserve. The Trust has this autumn been opening-up some of the scrub on the west side, which may help this insect. I’ll look again this year.

false - Vaughn Matthews (please also tag @vaughnmatthews8 if using on Instagram or @VaughnMatthews2 on Twitter)

Treasure no. 3

The third Treasure is the Pondweed Leafhopper. It is currently found in only six ponds in the south-east of England and one of those is at Newdigate. If I tell you it is known to sit on Broad-leaved Pondweed in sunshine, you don’t know a lot less about its life history than the foremost expert in the land. It is visible from late July to mid-September. But not that visible. It is a fetching blue, which helps, but is only about half a centimetre long, which doesn’t.

It is a job to spot on a leaf a few metres out into a pond, and impossible without binoculars. Leafhoppers, as it happens, are a pretty diverse group, with species living in all UK terrestrial habitats. The British Bugs website (BB-Link) has a splendid gallery, showcasing their astonishing variety, although for the Pondweed Leafhopper itself, try the Freshwater Habitats Trust (FHT-Link).

Treasure no. 4

My fourth Treasure is the Wild Service Tree. This is mentioned on the Trust’s website for the Reserve, but I’d never located it. It is recognised as an ancient woodland indicator species. Places such as Ebernoe in Sussex have plenty of it. I discovered there are two areas of designated ancient woodland at Newdigate, which is defined as woodland believed to have existed since before 1600, so in October I decided to do a search.

Needless to say, I started with the wrong block and spent a fruitless hour or so, although it was nice to see a lot of the Hornbeam in flower. I did find it at last in the northwest corner of the Reserve. It was in fruit and the leaves just starting to turn. The fruit is edible and known as chequers: apparently the same word as in pubs called the “Chequers Inn” – there are a few of those in the area, the closest at Rowhook, I think. Perhaps there are older Wild Service Trees here, but the one I found is just a baby, the girth only 46cm.

Treasure no. 5

We had a very quiet summer for birdlife on the water at Newdigate. Things started to pick-up from September, with the return of a few Coot, the odd Gadwall and, more recently, Tufted Duck. There has been the occasional mass-influx of geese – 170 Canadas one day in October! In September, I recorded a call from the reeds in the South Lake I did not recognise, which the Merlin bird-call id app identified as a Water Rail. (The app is well worth a try if you haven’t already.)

I was very gratified to hear that one of the members of the Fishing Club saw one among the reeds on the North Lake a month or so later (and with apologies for not giving a proper credit as I did not get his name). The Fishing Club are a mine of valuable information on the wildlife at the Reserve and many of them keenly interested in it; there can be no better sport for seeing wildlife.

This brings me to the fifth Treasure. Credit for this goes to Matt Pipe of the Fishing Club who has several times mentioned to me seeing a Merlin over the water (this time the bird, not the app). The Merlin is the UK’s smallest falcon and a winter visitor to these parts. In spring, it will be off to heather moorland in the north to breed.

With the leaves off the trees, now is a good time for spotting birds. The Reserve has had a good crop of hawthorn berries and rosehips: Redwings and Fieldfares are here taking full advantage. I have several times seen a flock of what I initially thought were Linnet, foraging seeds from the Alder cones (of which we also have a lot), often hanging upside down on the branches.

The presence of Siskins among them gave me pause and, on consulting the RSPB guide, it seems Alder plus upside-down foraging plus Siskins equals the Lesser Redpoll. (It looks quite like a small Linnet.) There are plenty of Goldfinches about too, also Chaffinches, Great Tits, Blue Tits and Long-tailed Tits; more occasionally, Bullfinches. There seems to be a resident Grey Wagtail by the stream on the east-side and Goldcrests forage for insects among the lichen in the trees in the north-west corner. On the water in December, I saw a Great-Crested Grebe for the first time since late April. Pete Lilley, a founding Reserve volunteer, reports occasional Teal and Shoveller (Pete’s Newdigate reports are here).