Knepp (1 July 2023)
This was our second visit this season to the Knepp Estate near Horsham. It is a pioneering rewilding project that’s turned failing farm land into a profitable site of wildlife abundance. This time we were keen to find Purple Emperor butterflies and to check on the progress of the White Stork families. The weather was mainly overcast with a NW breeze although by the time we left the sun was blazing down. No one had the energy to go back and look for butterflies however! Despite the weather we did see some butterflies although last Sunday in the heat and sunshine people were counting 50/60+ Purple Emperors, many coming down to noxious substances spread on the ground for their delectation. We kept an eye on piles of horse dung but nothing appeared. We did see 18+ flitting around in the tops of mature oak trees as the males aggressively defended their ‘master’ trees. While we had lunch on our usual log pile in Green Lane 2 were clearly seen in the oak above us and Sandra trained her scope on a Purple Hairstreak. Ian also pointed out evidence of large caterpillars, probably Purple Emperors, having chewed big holes in sallow, their food plant. When the sun emerged briefly or we came to a warm sheltered spot we also saw Ringlets, Meadow Browns, Red Admirals, Marbled Whites, 3 Silver-washed Fritillaries mating in flight, Small Whites, Small Skippers, Gatekeepers, a few Commas and a Green-veined White. Beautiful Demoiselles were still in the same ditch near the farm as last time.
The previous years’ Purple Emperor route is not open this year which is a bit of a shame as it is an interesting bit of habitat north of the Hammer Ponds. Their reasoning is that there are plenty of Emperors to be seen on the blue route without going around there. Less work for them I imagine but we missed the purple ribbons marking out trees to keep an eye on. Luckily, I had my map from last year showing ‘master’ trees and sap trees. A volunteer did put some useful biro circles on this year’s map for us. So, we changed our plans and followed the blue route instead out to Green Lane then back along the same path with a diversion down to the Hammer Pond. Here we heard Reed Warbler, watched Swallows feeding young in mid- air, saw Swifts (Roger had a House Martin) and admired 2 Great Crested Grebe dozing with their 3 chicks in the pink Amphibious Bistort – very picturesque and surprisingly well camouflaged.
As well as butterflies we had 38 species of birds although most species were lying low. Chiffchaff provided a constant background of onomatopoeic song and soft whistled ‘hweet’ calls. Several Lesser Whitethroat and a Garden Warbler were heard but not seen from hedgerows. Whitethroats were visible but not in very great numbers even though we heard a fair amount of their scratchy song. A loudly singing Wren was more obliging and appeared much to Janet’s delight! A departing female Bullfinch was spotted by Sandra leaving a fence. A Pied Wagtail ran after flies in the farmyard and Goldfinch were more obvious here. The White Storks were very visible however. The black beaks of the youngsters in the nests were distinguishable from the red beaks of the flying adults. This year there were 24 nests and 29 chicks from 45 eggs. In a couple of places, we could see 3 nests at once with many adults flying around. A Buzzard and a pair of Red Kites joined them. The closest nest we passed was in the usual oak in the farmyard but the pair of youngsters stayed crouched in their nest unless an adult returned to regurgitate food for them. Not good for photographs!
If the sun had been out more the place would have been awash with butterflies but as it was the wild flowers were still abundant. Ian’s plant knowledge was very helpful naming all sorts of species for us including Field Scabious, Fleabane, Ladies Bedstraw, Wild Carrot, Knapweed, Musk Mallow and Fairy Flax.
Walking back to our cars in the by now hot sunshine we had our final species. The first Yellow Hammer of the day heard then seen in the hedge by the car park.
by Rebecca Dunne