Meadow Secrets - The Wildlife Trusts

DISCOVER
OUR MEADOWS
SECRETS
W
hichever it is, summer
is by far the best time of
year for exploring your
local meadow. Now
wildflowers are blooming, butterflies
are on the wing, grasshoppers are
singing and birds are raising young.
In most of the UK, meadows
came about through people felling
forests thousands of years ago, and
subsequently grazing livestock over
many centuries. Meadows are what
scientists call a plagioclimax: a habitat
maintained – and prevented from
becoming something else – by the
activity of humans and their livestock.
As meadows are more open than
woods they generally favour sun-loving
species of flower and invertebrate.
Since these habitats were largely
shaped by centuries of grazing,
conservation organisations continue
the same management today.
Meadows are therefore also great
places to look for our tough native
breeds of sheep, cattle and horses.
Park Gate Down, Kent WT (c) Jim Higham
Wherever you live in the UK, there is a
meadow near you. It might be a an upland
fell or dale, a coastal dune slack, a river
valley water-meadow, a patch of waste
ground on the edge of town, or a priceless
chalk grassland nature reserve.
DISCOVER
OUR MEADOWS
SECRETS
10
MEADOW
SECRETS
(c) Margaret Holland
(c) Meul / ARCO (naturepl)
Yellow meadow ant
1
Meadows and grassland are full of attentiongrabbing insects in summer – bright blue butterflies,
burnished burnet moths and rattling grasshoppers
– but how many of us look for the tiny ones which
toil under the soil’s surface? One such, which is
found in lowland grassland all over the UK, is the
yellow meadow ant. This little ant lives in colonies
of thousands of females, whose burrowing through
the topsoil in search of their minute invertebrate
prey tills the soil and aerates it. The yellow meadow
ant also contributes to the conservation of one
of the loveliest butterflies of our southern chalk
grasslands. Worker ants are attracted by volatile
chemical released by caterpillars of the chalkhill
blue and often take the caterpillars underground,
keeping them safe as they develop.
Meadow pipit
2
The little meadow pipit makes a virtue of being
nondescript. It has neither the buttercup crown of
the yellowhammer, nor the carmine blush of the
linnet’s breast, nor even the free-wheeling song of
the skylark: it is simply a plain olive bird with a slim
bill and black streaks on its pale breast and flanks.
But the meadow pipit is one of the commonest and
most characteristic birds of rough grassland all over
the UK. In early summer male meadow pipits sit
on fenceposts and low bushes, giving their strident,
pulsing songs, and are often moved to launch into
exuberant parachuting song-flights.
DISCOVER
OUR MEADOWS
SECRETS
10
MEADOW
SECRETS
(c)Philip Precey
(c)Bruce Shortland
Bush-crickets
3
Some wildlife is best found by sound. Bushcrickets are related to grasshoppers, though they
have much longer antennae. Several species live in
UK meadows, including two which have recently
colonised large areas of the country. In the late
twentieth century both Roesel’s bush-cricket
(pictured) and the long-winged conehead exploded
across the southern UK and they are still spreading.
They are the ultimate kids’ insects as, without the
aid of a bat-detector, their whining late summer
songs (made by rubbing their wings together) are
inaudible to most adults. Once heard, the next
challenge is to locate the green insect in the long
grass without scaring it into falling silent.
Groundhoppers
4
Though also related to grasshoppers, the tiny
groundhoppers are not known to make any noise
at all. Like grasshoppers, their antennae are short
and forward-pointing. Groundhoppers differ from
grasshoppers in that the roof-like shield which
covers the thorax (known as the pronotum) extends
the whole length of the insect’s body. These minute
hoppers favour bare, sunny places in grassland,
very often muddy places close to water and, unlike
grasshoppers which only overwinter as eggs, they
live as young adults through the winter. Two
species, the common and slender groundhoppers
(pictured), are widespread in the UK, though it
takes sharp eyes to find them.
DISCOVER
OUR MEADOWS
SECRETS
10
MEADOW
SECRETS
(c) Geoff Simpson (naturepl)
(c) Jon Hawkins
Rabbit
5
Everyone knows about rabbits. Everyone sees them
all the time. But do we stop to look at rabbits and
their fascinating behaviour? Though introduced
to the UK, they have lived in many habitats here
for at least a thousand years and are instrumental
in maintaining several of our grassland habitats.
Rabbits are social, matriarchal, territorial, fastbreeding and highly attractive to predators such as
stoats, polecats and foxes. What’s more, in summer
their little youngsters are making their first forays
into the world, so there is always something to
watch at a rabbit colony. If only we took the time to
watch them.
Common twayblade
6
June meadows froth with brightly coloured flowers,
each demanding the observer’s attention. Among
the most dramatic are the numerous orchids which
flower now: purple spires of marsh and spotted
orchids in damp meadows and the enamelled
buttons of bee orchids in sandy grassland. But
everyone knows those; so why not look for an
overlooked orchid? Try to find the pale green
blooms of a common twayblade, each flower on the
spike shaped like a tiny man in a huge hood. You’ll
know you’ve found a twayblade because of the two
broad, oval leaves from which it gets its name. It’s a
common but neglected species in grassland all over
the UK.
DISCOVER
OUR MEADOWS
SECRETS
10
MEADOW
SECRETS
(c) Richard Bowler
(c) Robert Thompson (naturepl)
Mother Shipton
7
Meadows are great habitat for many species of
moth. Among the most widespread and the most
delicately patterned is the Mother Shipton, so called
because its pattern of cream and brown squiggles is
said to resemble the mysterious but famously ugly
sixteenth century prophetess of the same name. The
lovely adult moth flies by day in May and June, in
many types of meadow all over the UK’s lowlands.
Its caterpillars, also brown and cream, feed during
the summer on clovers and grasses.
Yellow dung fly
8
Where there is a meadow in the UK it is most likely
that, thousands of years ago, forest was felled and
subsequently livestock has been grazed. Meadows
are kept open to this day by grazing livestock and
where there are grazing animals, especially cattle,
there is sure to be plenty of dung. Where there is
dung there will be organisms that eat it. In summer
meadows one conspicuous insect on cow pats is
the yellow dung fly. It is the bright yellow males
which spend most time on the dung, waiting both
for females and for the other insects on which they
prey. Once mated a brownish female lays her many
eggs, like tiny white scales, on the dung, on which
the larvae will feed.
DISCOVER
OUR MEADOWS
SECRETS
10
MEADOW
SECRETS
(c) Elliott Neep
(c) Carl Wright
Shrews
9
The feistiest of the UK’s mammals, shrews are
secretive and difficult to see. However, like bushcrickets they are easily heard by young ears as
they bicker over territory in the long grass. Three
shrew species are found in the mainland UK, two
of which – common (pictured) and pygmy – can be
abundant in meadows. These tiny insectivores do
everything fast: they rarely live longer than a year,
but may have two or three litters of half-a-dozen
young, which themselves are independent when just
a month old. Though their fizzy squeaks are readily
heard, almost the only way to see shrews is to take
part in a live-trapping event run by a licensed small
mammal trapper.
Grasses
10
Meadows and grassland are – who would have
thought it? – dominated by grasses. Yet, somehow
we ignore the grass; preferring to look at the pretty
flowers or the brightly-coloured butterflies which
live with them. This summer why not look at the
grass too. It’s no surprise that in grassland there are
many species; indeed wherever you are in the UK
there are species which define your local grassland
type. So get out and look for the slender foxtails
of timothy grass, the bristly heads of cock’s-foot,
the shiny green leaves of ryegrass and many local
rarities. (Pictured - meadow foxtail).