Wildlife

Lesser Quaking Grass Image © Seb Haggett

Astonishing success as nature takes the lead

Rewilding Wild Woodbury – Dorset Wildlife Trust’s project records more than 1,100 species in its first year

A year into the Wild Woodbury rewilding project at Bere Regis and surveys have already recorded an uplift in the biodiversity and abundance of species moving onto the site. Over the last year, the land has been allowed to regenerate naturally, which has increased the biodiversity and abundance of wildlife. Staff and volunteers have recorded more than 1,100 species in this summer’s surveys, and eight Red List birds (of conservation concern) have been confirmed to be breeding at Wild Woodbury. Skylarks have increased from just two singing males last year to 18 counted this summer. No tree pipits or woodlark were recorded in 2021 but a breeding pair of each has been sighted raising juveniles this year. Though there’s no previous data for them, 28 yellowhammers have been counted this year. A rising number of juvenile birds have been spotted across the site too, including cuckoo, whinchat and nightjar.

Lesser quaking grass

A dry spring and the mass of emerging pollinators in the former arable fields helped to increase the invertebrate population. Butterfly transects tracked more than 200 meadow brown butterflies as well as silver-washed fritillary and painted lady on the wing. The hot summer weather increased moth activity, attracting rarer species such as dingy mocha. Invertebrate specialists amassed more than 200 species of beetles, bugs and spiders, some of which have only a handful of records in Dorset. Large clumps of the nationally-scarce lesser

quaking grass appeared, offering an excellent food source for many finches including goldfinch and linnet, and for yellowhammers.. Narrow-leaved lungwort, red hemp nettle and three species of orchid – including southern marsh orchid – are present on the site, as are small populations of cobalt crust fungi. The restoration of natural processes on the site should provide the right conditions for many species to return in greater numbers next year.

Nature’s regeneration

With an ambitious aim of building an exemplar for sustainable land use to tackle the climate and ecological crises, the early years of the project were always going Eight Red List to be about letting nature take the lead, allowing the land to gently birds have been regenerate and giving nature more confirmed to be space. But of course, that doesn’t breeding mean simply abandoning the land! The Wild Woodbury team, partners and volunteers have spent much of the year conducting surveys and collecting data on ecology, soil, hydrology, species and water quality to provide baselines for monitoring and future analysis. Restoring a landscape and making space for nature on this scale takes time, but it is extraordinary to see all that has been achieved in just one year and to witness the abundance of wildlife species already calling Wild Woodbury home.

Discover more about Wild Woodbury at: dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildwoodbury

Above – Wild Woodbury, taken in June 2021 as the rewilding project began (image courtesy of James Burland). And below, Wild Woodbury taken almost exactly one year later, in July 2022 (image courtesy of Roger Bates)

In search of the elusive three hares

Wildlife writer Jane Adams goes in search of mysterious hares in Dorset churches which may have originated in Buddhist China

As I stared up at the ceiling inside St. Hubert’s church, Corfe Mullen, three hares stared back at me. Each hare shared ears with its neighbour and though the optical puzzle was fascinating itself, what did it mean? Placed alongside the Christian iconography, it felt weirdly out of place. ‘Aren’t they just big bunnies?’ a friend asked when I told her about the hares. While it’s true that they share some physical similarities, these elusive mammals are very different from rabbits. With long, black-tipped ears, a golden brown coat and those powerful hind legs, they’re nearly double the size, and about as similar to a rabbit as a Chihuahua is to a Cocker spaniel. Hares are solitary creatures, particularly outside breeding season, feeding on fresh plant shoots at night and hiding in a dip in the ground (a form) during the day. However, if discovered,

The three hares boss in St Hubert’s Church, Corfe Mullen they can run at up to 45mph, quick enough to outrun any native predator. Historically, we’ve had a confusing relationship with hares. Pagan and Christian beliefs linked them not only to madness, famine and witchcraft but also fertility, good luck and longevity. A pagan springtime ritual celebration of hares may even have morphed into the Easter Bunny tradition. But nowadays they aren’t as common as they once were. Most modern farms don’t include the mosaic of crops, hedgerows, woodland and grazing that hares need to thrive. Along with an increase in pesticides, modern farm machinery and a lack of legal protections, their numbers have decreased by 80 per cent over the last 100 years. Hares breed from February through to September, producing three to four litters each year. The three hares motif may be linked to their fertility. In the Middle Ages, it was thought that hares could reproduce without a mate – effectively virgin births. So the three hares could symbolise the Virgin Mary – or the Holy Trinity. This mysterious icon isn’t restricted to one Dorset church. There are 17 churches in Devon with examples of a three-hare boss, with others found in Somerset and Cornwall. However, the earliest example of the motif is found in a Buddhist cave painting in China, dating from 581 to 618 CE. It is likely that it found its way to southern Britain via the Silk Road – a busy trading route in medieval times. So although autumn and winter are an excellent time to spot hares in the wild, this month try looking inside as well. Check the ceiling of your nearest medieval church and, if you find the mysterious three hares, I’d love to hear from you!

To learn more about brown hares, see the

Hare Preservation Trust.

Find out more about the

Three Hares Project here.

Contact Jane Adams via her website janevadams.com

Sadly, hare coursing continues to be an issue, especially in north east Dorset – see the report from The BV, Aug 21. Hares cannot match the stamina of hunting hounds who will continue the chase until the hare is exhausted. Even if the hare escapes it is widely understood that its welfare is seriously compromised due to the trauma.

Hedgerows – are they our overlooked climate heroes?

Hedgerows have inexplicably been left out of the climate change action plan, says Rupert Hardy, chairman of North Dorset CPRE

Last year we wrote about the importance of hedgerows in offsetting climate change (The BV, Aug 21). We welcomed the government’s 2019 Committee on Climate Change report, which called for a 40 per cent extension of the UK’s hedgerows. Sadly the government did little to implement this in its 2021 action plan, which aimed to restore and enhance trees and woodland, but inexplicably left hedgerows out. CPRE therefore set out to promote this instead, proposing a target of 40 per cent by 2050, with the campaign called #40by50. We commissioned the Organic Research Centre to provide an overview of the impact on nature, climate and the economy – and they suggested that for every £1 spent on hedgerows, a return of up to £4 can be expected from ecosystem and economic activities such as biodiversity enhancement, carbon sequestration and woodchip production for biofuel. Planting hedgerows on arable land can boost yield by ten per cent and reduce artificial pest control by 30 per cent. This is all rather ironic when

For every you consider how £1 spent on hedgerows, many hundreds of miles of hedgerows were grubbed up in expect a return the post-war period of up to £4 to supposedly to improve agricultural efficiency! Healthy hedgerows teem with life and more then ten per cent of the UK’s priority species are associated with hedgerows, including dormice and hedgehogs. There is huge potential to increase the carbon sequestration of hedgerows, if they are allowed to become wider and taller. They also improve air quality and can reduce soil erosion and flooding.

Hedgerow Heroes

The CPRE has worked with Farmers Weekly to engage with farmers who want to be involved in our hedgerow management survey and has received no less than 1,100 responses, which we are analysing now. There will be a parliamentary reception in December to launch the results of our farmers’ survey. Dorset CPRE has also been involved in a project to plant or restore more than 15 kilometres of hedge across the county, including the planting of over 50,000 trees. On the Hinton Admiral Estate straddling the Dorset/ Hampshire border, this has involved the planting of 1.7 kilometres of new hedgerow and improving a further 1.3 kilometres of existing hedgerow to create a better habitat for wildlife. We are asking parliamentarians to sign up to become Hedgerow Heroes and to call on the Secretary of State to make a firm commitment to our 40 per cent target. Fifty five have signed up to our campaign – but sadly they

do not yet include any Dorset MPs.Our fellow campaigners, Dorset Climate Action Network, want to facilitate hedgerow restoration through their Great Big Dorset Hedge (GBDH) Survey project. Dorset CPRE members are helping with this too. John Calder, who has a farm in Charmouth, is helping to start that journey by designing the hedgerow surveys on the major trails that traverse our county – the Jubilee Trail, Stour Valley Way and Brit Valley Way among others. Hopefully this will start a conversation in every parish they visit. The aim is to bring together volunteers and/or contractors with landowners who want to have their hedgerows assessed, then restored or extended.

Hedgerows in Toller Porcorum

In September various volunteers, including those from Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) and Dorset CPRE, made their observations on nearly a mile of the Jubilee Trail to the west of the DWT’s Kingcombe Centre in West Dorset. They looked at what species are in a hedge, found one English Elm tree, and used the Adams Condition Code infographics sheet to determine the distinct stages of the life cycle of a hedgerow. Almost every hedge surveyed had an interesting story to tell but they found a particularly wonderful old pathway in Mount Pleasant Lane. It was far too important historically and complex structurally to fit tidily into the streamlined hedgerow assessment process that has been developed for the GBDH project. It is worth so much more than that, so they added a sheet especially on it. Hopefully data collected will be added later to a Quantum GIS database so everything can be recorded in one place and then used in mapping software such as Dorset Explorer. This will help to identify the hedges that have already been surveyed and sections that may need additional planting. If you would like to join John and other volunteers on future surveys, or find out more about the GBDH project, please visit www.dorsetcan.org/hedge. html.

Hedgerows in North Dorset

In 2000, our future CPRE president, Bill Bryson, wrote: ‘For well over a thousand years

hedgerows have been a defining attribute of rural England, the stitching that holds the fabric of the countryside together. From a distance they give the landscape form and distinction. Up close they give it life, filling fields and byways with birdsong and darting insects and the furtive rustles of rodents … More than 10 per Hedgerows cent of the UK’s don’t merely priority species enhance the countryside. are associated They make it.’ with hedgerows Nowhere is this more true than in the pastoral landscape of North Dorset, with the added realisation of the key role hedgerows can play in halting biodiversity decline and tackling climate change. Thomas Hardy’s “Vale of the Little Dairies”, the Blackmore Vale, is characterised by its irregular patchwork of small fields divided by ancient hedgerows. Some are Bronze Age or Neolithic in origin. They may have been boundaries then, but now we need them for other reasons. Please consider planting a new hedgerow as well as more trees. They are vital for our own survival.