Nature in Harmony: July Round-up!
Scabious - by Kym Welsh
As the Sainfoin and Ox-eye Daisies go to seed, the Harmony Woods wildflower meadow has turned to a beautiful mixture of yellows and purples with Lady’s Bedstraw, Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Knapweed and Scabious.
My favourite wildflower at the moment is the Scabious. This year I have seen three species of Scabious, which is 2 more than identified last year! You can identify them from the shape of their leaves and the number of petals in each floret - take a look at the photos below:
Butterfly Surveys
Meanwhile, Sparsholt student Henry has taken over the data collection from our Butterfly Conservation transect. It is a great way for him to complete his course homework - improving his butterfly ID skills - and is doing an excellent job!
He has recorded lots of different species including the Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Large White, Marbled White, Small Skipper, and many more :)
Ringlet Butterfly - photo by Kym Welsh
Youth Team Awards
On July 10th, the Nature in Harmony Exchange Project group plus two students from the local secondary school gave a presentation and guided walk in Harmony Woods as part of their John Muir Discovery award and Junior Foresters Award. Their presentations outlined the sorts of things they have been learning over the past year, including findings from their mini-project work. They then guided a group of visitors around the site, explaining the different types of habitats that are present there, the kinds of plants and animals that live there, and how they have been working to improve or create new habitats, too.
The morning was followed by refreshments and an award ceremony. It was a lovely few hours and we all feel very proud of what they have achieved over the past year, their hard work, respect, and commitment to the environment and their community.
In August we welcome another 6 new members to the Nature in Harmony Exchange Project. If you are a young adult and would like to help lead and organize the exchange project sessions, please get in touch! Contact us here or by emailing alex.marshall@andovertrees.org.uk
Bug Hunt!
July 17th was our Invertebrate Search event* as part of ongoing citizen science opportunities with the Nature in Harmony project. Volunteers of all ages came up to Harmony Woods to help collect more data on the invertebrates living in the woods. Invertebrates are animals without a backbone. 97% of all animal species on earth are invertebrates, so as you can imagine we didn’t have to look very hard before finding any!
We set 6 pitfall traps in the woods the night before - providing us with lots of big ground beetles and black spiders to identify.
We saw lots of butterflies and species of hoverflies! Huge dragonflies and tiny blue damselflies.
We saw centipedes, millipedes, worms, and snails. And it seems that Haromy Woods is a hotspot for woodlice and earwigs!
These findings will really help with our survey data - as we have only just scratched the surface when it comes to our invertebrates!
*Funded by the Nineveh Charitable Trust
Our next Nature in Harmony citizen Science event will be Moth Trapping on Saturday 7th August (after dark). Book your place by emailing alex.marshall@andovertrees.org.uk. If the email bounces back (as it has one with a few people recently, please contact us through the website here) Thank you :).
