Reflections on 2018

A selection of photos from 2018 - click to enlarge

There are, I am sure, good lessons to be learned from the six months of silence since the last post. While I reflect on what they might be and announce that I will try harder to post more regularly in 2019, let’s take a look at the highlights of 2018.

I will start with the wonderful news that Falmouth Town Council is partnering with the charity, Buglife in the Urban Buzz project. This will see areas of the town planted with wildflowers to help pollinator insects in the town. I am so looking forward to seeing these areas flowering for the first time this year.

Three participants in the 2018 Bug Hunt

As part of the Urban Buzz project last August there was a bug hunt organised by Buglife and the town council in the old parts of Falmouth cemetery. The event attracted families who were given sweep nets and were soon capturing a variety of interesting insects and invertebrates. There were also pooters available to try, these are a bottle with two tubes – one to suck on and the other to collect an insect and place it in the bottle. The hunt was so successful that plans are being made for another one this year.

 The two display boards placed in both parts of Falmouth's old cemetery to raise awareness  of its importance to wildlife and the local community.

A major factor in the success of conservation efforts depends upon raising awareness in the local community. In August the Town Council placed two display boards in both parts of Falmouth’s old cemetery. They inform visitors of its importance to wildlife and the fact that it contains several rare species of solitary bees. They also display information on conservation efforts both in the cemetery and the town.

Apart from being excited over the Urban Buzz project there were two personal recording highlights this year. The first was discovering a new species of bee in Falmouth, Anthophora furcata. Not only was this a new record for this part of Cornwall but it is an interesting bee in that it is one of the few species to make its nest by burrowing into dead wood.

    A male Anthophora furcata, captured and released in a
    garden near Kimberley Park.

My second find was seeing my first European Hornet in Falmouth, only saw one and only once. This is our native species and is impressively large and unlike the Asian Hornet not a threat to beekeepers and their hives. Despite its size it is usually a docile creature that often hunts at night.

 Our native hornet, a new record for Falmouth, will we see
 more of them in 2019?

Another fantastic find was shown to me by Simon Penna, Head of Maintenance for Falmouth Town Council. A number of solitary wasps were making their nests in a dead Ash tree in Kimberley Park. Now although solitary, that is the female usually makes an individual nest some species will share the entrance that then leads to their own nest. This was the case with this species, Ectemnius cephalotes and there were steady streams of female wasps bring back captured flies to the entrance. It was fascinating watching them carry the fly beneath them and manoeuvring it into the hole. Each egg that the wasp lays is provision with several paralysed flies for the larvae to feed on when it hatches. Paralysing the fly keeps it fresh for the larvae, an interesting alternative to refrigeration but please don’t try this at home.

A female Ectemnius cephalotes solitary wasp returns to her

nest with a paralysed fly for her larvae to feed on. As an

adult wasp they will feed on nectar.

Most people only encounter and would recognise social wasps, who like honey bees live in a nest with female workers and a queen. In Falmouth the two species usually seen are the Common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) and the European wasp (Vespula germanica). In October Storm Callum damaged one of the conifers in the lower part of Falmouth cemetery. One of its lower branches was almost completely torn from the tree. This caused a common wasp nest to fall from its original position to be caught lower down. Thanks to the skilful work of the cemetery manager, Matthew Brotherton and the maintenance crew not only was the branch safely removed but the still active nest also survived. This gave a rare chance to see the intricate design of the nest and watch the activity of the common wasps for several weeks until the colony came to the end of its lifecycle.

The Common Wasp nest revealed after the damage caused
to a tree by Storm Callum.

The biggest impact made by the weather this year was made by the beast from the east, an influx of cold air that saw snow falling and settling in Falmouth. The effects of this unusually cold spell in March were immediately seen on tender plants such as Alexander that were hit hard. Many queen bumblebees delayed establishing a nest and new colonies by up to four weeks and many butterfly species appeared later than normal.

  Solitary bee (Andrena fulva) on Alexander flowers. Being

  introduced by the Romans from the Mediterranean, 
  Alexander was hit hard by the unusually harsh weather.

Generally I saw a fall in the abundance of insects this spring and to a lesser extent in the summer. My hope is that it was a result of this cold spell and it is not repeated in 2019 to allow populations to recover. Certainly with local conservation efforts the prospects look very promising for this year. It is though a reminder that climate change is something we all should be concerned about. 

Falmouth Cemetery: a haven for wildlife

Possibly the last population in Cornwall of the Red-girdled

Mining bee lives and nests in Falmouth cemetery.

When I discovered the old parts of Falmouth cemetery on a casual walk in 2014 I had no idea of its importance as a sanctuary for wildlife. It was clear that there had been minimal maintenance for quite some time. The County Council was responsible for the general upkeep but maintenance of the graves and monuments was the responsibility of the family. Clearly many had been left by the families to go back to Nature. As a result Falmouth had been left a legacy that contained a wide variety of wildlife.

The small copper butterfly has declined by 75% in urban

locations between 1995 - 2014. Another important

species found in the cemetery.

For the past two years I have been recording the species of wild bees to be found in the cemetery. While some species can be found elsewhere in Falmouth the scarcer ones seem limited to both living and nesting in the cemetery. Many solitary bees species only forage short distances from their nests, usually a distance of about 50-200 meters depending on the size of each species. So far I have discovered 37 species of solitary bees within the cemetery, some are rare or scare both nationally and in Cornwall.

Newly emerged Queen Red-tailed bumblebee. Raised in a nest
in Falmouth cemetery she visited nearby flowers to build her
reserves before hibernating

The key element why the old parts of the cemetery is able to support such a rich variety of wildlife are the range of wildflowers that grow in the cemetery. From early spring to late autumn they provide both nectar and pollen. The fact that the ground is largely undisturbed also benefits ground nesting species such as most bumblebees. 

The value of these parts of the cemetery to both wildlife and the local community is clearly something to be safeguarded. For this reason I have written the document you can download below. It is a guide to some of the species that can be found there together with an overview of the ecology. 

Click to Download PDF

  

While compiling my records for the old parts of the cemetery responsibility for its maintenance passed from Cornwall County Council to Falmouth Town Council. This brought about substantial changes in the way in the way the cemetery is managed. As a response I included a section on maintenance and its importance in ensuring the conservation of the wildlife in the cemetery. Having received a reply from the town council to an earlier draft I have now revised the maintenance section to reflect this.

It is my hope that this will open a debate on how best to manage the cemetery. The maintenance changes are significantly changing both the character of the old parts of the cemetery and its value to wildlife. The degree to which these are desirable are open to discussion. It is important that as many voices as possible are heard in deciding its future.

The current document should be seen as an introduction to the cemetery's biodiversity. During this year I hope to be adding more records to the list of species. I also hope to build a better picture of its butterfly species and also include hoverflies. As its flora plays such a vital part in its ecology I hope to build a seasonal list of its wildflowers. This blog will keep you up to date with my progress.

If you have any photos of wildlife in Falmouth that you would like to share you can be post them on the Falmouth Nature Facebook page or to Twitter including @FalmouthNature.

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