U3A Nature Explorers - Delderfield

U3A Nature Explorers - Delderfield

10.00am Wednesday 5th July 2023


The Delderfield meadow

For our July nature expedition the U3A nature explorers explored the Delderfield nature reserve which seems an appropriate thing for nature explorers to do! Having 'warmed up' with a walk up the western slopes from the Manor Car Park in town we entered the reserve around 10.30 and spent an hour admiring the flowers and looking deeper into the meadow and hedgerow to see what we could find.

Delderfield is not a large site but with nature reserves it is not always size that is important. Delderfield is a fragment of how hay meadows used to be having seemingly escaped agricultural 'improvement' over the years. The sheer density of flowers is a joy to behold in mid-summer. One might say the diversity of flora is not that great, we found 33 species in total, but that is not important, it is the diversity of insect life that it supports which adds significantly to its value. 

The meadow is dominated by common (or black) knapweed, oxeye daisy, yarrow, common fleabane, meadow vetchling, wild carrot and the nationally scarce corky-fruited water drop-wort. Scrubby areas have their share of creeping thistle, marsh thistle, common nettle, common ragwort and, of course, brambles; all vital nectar sources for insects and so worthy of their place.

Amongst the common species less frequent flowers of interest included common restharrow, self-heal,  field bindweed, cat's-ear, bristly oxtongue and common bird's-foot trefoil. The yellow rattle is nearly all over but was obviously a key feature of the flora earlier in the year.

Between the meadow and the neighbouring road is an impressive hedgerow and the main feature is the abundance of bramble flowers but herb Robert, wood dock, nipplewort and red campion were all found.

The weather was fine and we had several sunny intervals which brought out the butterflies and we were treated to several ringlet, meadow brown and gatekeeper making the most of the brambles. On the flowers in the meadow were small skipper, large white, peacock and a painted lady. Moths were in evidence too with several silver Y present (a migrant species but they also breed here in southern England). We also unearthed a single six-spot burnet, a large yellow underwing trying to remain safe and undetected and also a white plume moth.

The meadow grasshoppers were abundant and leapt from under our feet as we made our way carefully around the grassy areas. The umbellifer flowers housed countless red soldier beetles as well as beetles including swollen-thigh beetles, 7-spot ladybirds and a harlequin ladybird. A 14-spot ladybird was also discovered.

Add in the flies and bees, along with labyrinth spiders, and you have quite a feast of entertainment all packed into this lovely little reserve. You can see our full species list here: Delderfield Species List



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