Wild Flowers in Spring

Judi Darley

Bluebells in the Copse

Committee member Judi Darley asked ecology enthusiast Dr Mike Perry of the Chichester Natural History Society for his top 6 spring flowers to be seen in Brandy Hole Copse. Mike said “it’s a bit like selecting records for Desert Island Discs”! After some careful thought Mike came up with the following 6 wild flowers to look for in the Copse this spring:

Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) voted Britain’s most popular wild flower in a recent Plantlife poll. The Natural History Society recently made a count of about 250,000 flowering stems in the main body of the Copse. Mike is concerned that these native bluebells are protected from the Spanish Bluebell, a species often planted in gardens and now seen along Brandy Hole Lane and by the west end entrances. Mike said “it appears to hybridise freely with the native bluebell … I’d like to see the Spanish Bluebell removed from the Copse”.

Wood Anemone (Anemone nemorosa) low growing, with white flowers sometimes flushed with pink. It does very well in the sweet chestnut coppiced area, where the trees have been cut down to let the light in before they grow to maturity again.

Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) a stunning display of shiny bright yellow flowers, found around the edges of the ponds and in the damp area between Brandy Hole Pond and Centurion Way.

Common Dog Violet (Viola riviniana) low growing with violet flowers, like the sweet violet but it has no scent. This plant is important because it is the food plant for the caterpillars of the uncommon Silver-washed Fritillary butterfly.

Wild Arum (Arum maculatum) also known as Cuckoo Pint and Lords and Ladies. The large fleshy leaves appear in December and January and tiny flowers appear, surrounded by a green ‘hood’, in April-May time.

Germander Speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys) Bright blue flowers with a pure white ‘eye’, they are small but spectacular in large numbers. Mike said “I’ve included this one because it is one of my all time favourite flowers”.

Do you agree with Mike’s list? Do let us know which are your favourite spring flowers in the Copse!

The year in the copse, following the 2006 AGM on May 4

May: Donated hedging planted along bridge abutment (wire fence removed). Volunteer from Workability joined Wednesday work group. Both BHCCG site notice boards remade waterproof . Site walk for Havant Wildlife Trust. Leaflet box post which had been thrown into Brandy Hole Pond replaced with a more substantial metal post.

June: Tagging of all mature trees in the Copse in progress. Location map of all mature trees prepared for survey work . Site walk with Emma Livett, CDC Environment Officer. Request for leasing triangular field to BHCCG via CDC . “You are here” label added to information boards, which unfortunately were deteriorating. Beetle trapping event by Chichester Natural History Society.

July: Site visit by Chichester in Bloom judges. BHCCG talk at St. Wilfrid’s Hall for Chichester Festivities. Guided walk with Society for Chichester Festivities. Vandalised stile E12 repaired. Small seat installed in glade area. Pond dipping platform installed at Cops Pond. Ten ducklings disappeared from Brandy Hole Pond after two days.

August: Butterfly Conservation Society visit to LNR. Moth and bat evening event, Chichester Natural History Societ . CDC replaced damaged Centurion Way dog waste bin. Damaged Brandy Hole Pond platform repaired. Water level in ponds lowest ever. Damaged glade seat remade more substantially. Rotary Club talk.

September: Entrance E7closed off (to be replaced by a hedge). Entrance E8 repaired. Strimming along Brandy Hole Pond bank by CDC. Volunteers joined from Breakdown Support Employment Services and Workability Agency

November: Vandalised traffic sign at access E3 replaced. Pedestrian entrance E10 rebuilt as a stile. Damaged litter bin replaced by CDC at Brandy Hole Pond. Repairs to E1 access stile. Invasive weed and debris removed from ponds.

December: Installation of seven bird boxes produced by the Wrenford Centre. Damaged info panel at Willow Pond replaced by spare panel. Buckthorn alder whips planted with Chichester Natural History Society. Need for roadside hedging replacements assessed with Crumblies. CDC urged to replace stolen Brandy Hole Lane road sign.

January 2007: Work on providing additional footpath on eastern part on Brandy Hole Lane cancelled indefinitely by WSCC. E7 access permanently closed with banked soil and hedging planted.

February: Ducks’ nesting area at Brandy Hole Pond protected. Dangerous hides removed. Brandy Hole hedging replaced as required by Crumblies. Stakes cut for Chichester Tree Wardens project. Patches of invasive brambles strimmed. Woodcrete nesting boxes secured to numbered trees.

This view southwards through the Copse to Willow Pond was created by the Crumblies when they opened up one of several glades – which are providing valuable new habitat for insects and plants.

From the Chairman

Graham Ault

I would like to be writing in this issue about the joys of Spring in the Copse. Unfortunately our attentions have all been diverted by the news that one of the two preferred sites for major housing development includes the fields immediately to the South of the Copse.

You should all have received a separate letter from me on this issue recently encouraging you to write to protest against these proposals. I know that many of you have written and I am most grateful to you. I suspect this is the first round of a series of consultations in which this group needs to prove its strength and determination to protect the local environment.

At the same time, we are including in our response to these proposals the suggestion that the fields should be formally incorporated into the Nature Reserve for their longer-term protection. This would give us a great positive outcome from what looks at the moment to be a major threat.

I have also addressed the Chichester Natural History Society, who support our position on this, and the Summersdale Residents’ Association, who have also written in support.

I am also in discussion with the Consultants who are advising on the Western development proposal to explore the possibility of designating the fields as a nature reserve as part of the overall development plan, should this become the preferred location for development. I have also been approached by consultants proposing a North-East development.

We will discuss this further at the AGM and I can then update you on how these discussions and representations are progressing. In the meantime, members are asked to take all opportunities to express your views about the threat to our environmentally important fields which are, in practice, an integral part of the biodiversity of the Copse.

The Fields and the Copse

Graham Ault

Have you ever thought how small and vulnerable the Nature Reserve is? Indeed it is so small that you could question whether it is viable for nature conservation purposes.

The Copse is a small area of managed woodland. In places you can walk from one side to the other in about ten seconds! At its broadest it takes a few minutes. It contains archaeological remains which limit the activities that can take place to promote biodiversity.

Birds, insects, plants and animals do not recognise artificial human boundaries. If it suits a butterfly to fly into the fields to survive, that is what it will do. If there is water in the pond in the fields, that may be preferred by some creatures to the more enclosed ponds in the Copse. We cannot artificially say that the edge of the Copse is where nature conservation starts and finishes.

We have some plants, insects, animals that rely totally on the woodland areas but there are many also that rely mainly on the fields. Butterflies are a good example. We have some 24 recorded in the Natural History Society survey data. Only a very small number of those are essentially woodland butterflies (such as White Admiral and Speckled Wood), but the majority rely also on open glades and open fields. Those who walk in the meadows in the summer will see the huge numbers of butterflies everywhere (until the field is cut!).

One of my favourite features of the Reserve is the number of Green Woodpeckers. They sit in the trees at the edge of the Copse, they nest in trees in the Copse but they feed mainly in the fields. Take away the fields and these wonderful birds will leave. Their habitat is the combination of the fields and the woodland.

Informal management of the fields in recent years has demonstrated their potential for new plants to appear or return. Who would have thought we would have records of Common Spotted Orchids at a woodland reserve, but we now have them in both of the fields.

A Reserve that combined both the fields and the Copse would confirm what has in effect developed naturally and would provide for Chichester a Reserve that maximises biodiversity in an area that would then become viable and linked up with the characteristics of the environment to the North and West of Chichester. Surely this is something worth fighting for!