As the daylight hours gradually get shorter, we are sensing the changes in the season beginning to sweep across The Farm. Naturally, we are starting to reflect on the struggles this summer has brought, whilst also being very grateful for these warm sunny days which are helping to propel our solar-powered plants into the autumn with some oomph! Here, Engagement Leader, Emmi Wurmli, reflects on the rather slow start to the great British summertime and what that has meant for our beloved wildlife...
As a nation of animal lovers, we are often focused on the magnificent mammals which call these islands home, but it's worth reminding ourselves that where we have fewer than 50 species of mammal, we have over 500 bird species, and literally 10's of 1000's of invertebrate species (there are over 4,000 species of beetle alone in the UK!). Amidst these numbers are the increasingly championed bumblebees and butterflies.
We have been surveying the humble bumbles on the farm for about seven years now. The 2024 August count reached the spotting of 40 individual bees within the allotted which is less than half of the 92 spotted at the same time last year. The wet Spring and cool Summer has made for a tough season for our furry little friends and their already struggling populations. We have had some positive news though - Annie Price, one of our bee and butterfly surveying volunteers has been enjoying noticing just how popular the blue and purple flowers are with our bee-customers, so we'll continue to plant more of these! (Bees colour spectrum differs from ours and their vision is focused on the blue-green and UV end of the spectrum, with some red wavelengths not even visible to their compound eyes!).
We only have one month to go on our weekly Butterfly Surveys, and the data this year has been quite shocking. Last year was our first season of walking the transects and monitoring our butterfly species and numbers, so we don't have much to compare it to, but that's where feeding into national monitoring schemes is so valuable, as the collated data really helps highlight national and regional trends. We have recorded about 70% fewer butterflies so far this season than the same period last year, with four fewer species, clocking in a total of 14 species so far this year. Time will tell what this means for next season. In the meantime, this really highlights the importance of capturing this data - so a HUGE thank you to all our dedicated survey volunteers for walking loops around the farm with bug-noculars and ID charts!
Elsewhere, the geese have started gathering, and flying in 'V's', honking across the fields and one of our volunteers has already spotted a squirrel busily foraging for hazel nuts in our wonderfully rich hedgerow, and as the apples begin to be harvested, it truly feels like autumn is in the air...let's hope it comes with kindness to both our crops and our wild communities!
A big thank you must go out to you, our supporters. Your veg box purchases, donationas, venue hires, event participation and just generally spreading the word helps us help our wildlife - we couldn't do it without you!
Find out how you can help us support our wildlife here.
By Emmy Wurmli, Engagement Leader
