Nature Notes Every fortnight, columnist Jono Forgham will be showcasing nature in the Bishop’s Stortford area.
In January my wife and I were guests at the Indy Community Awards at Bishop’s Stortford Rugby Club and sat around a table with staff from Golf World Stansted, sponsors of the Green Award category. The award was won by Suzanne Melia, who was presented with a trophy and bouquets of flowers by Golf World’s duty managers Joe Mutton and Dan Clancy.
At the end of the night, Joe invited me out to the golf course. Nature Notes It’s special. After the awards night, I spent a few hours familiarizing myself with the habitat, and then visited again on Monday, June 3rd to see what I could find.
We spotted plenty of wildlife within three hours, including a barking muntjac as we parked. After meeting Dan for coffee on the terrace, we set off to check the rough areas, being careful not to disturb the golfers on the course.
The birds were in chorus: marsh tits were singing near the lake near the fifth hole, there was a constant mix of chiffchaffs, titmice and thrushes, and one titmice flew up into the top of a willow tree to be photographed from quite a distance.
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I arrived at a colony of Michaelmas daisies in full bloom, attached my macro lens to my camera and set off to examine the pollen and nectar-sucking pollen heads. There was so much pollen that I got busy.
Ann Aranyela The spider species was busy eating flies. A. cucurbitina or A. OpistographaThese are also known as cucumber spiders. It’s hard to tell them apart just by looking. The other one was on its delicate web.
Oedemera The beetles are rampant, Plantain and Plantain There are quite a few of them – the former are a metallic green colour and the males have impressively bulging thighs – and they were all busy feeding so it was relatively easy to photograph them.
Among the daisies there were other flowers too, and I was especially pleased to find several types of dogwood and a very wimpy grass called vetiver – a sign of good habitat – as well as a bush vetiver.
As the fourth ball rolled down the fairway, I headed towards the fifth green, which had an area of conifers with lots of nettles growing underneath. Again, there were lots of insects, especially. Cantharis The species is a soldier beetle, so named because they are usually red and black and resemble old military uniforms.
Immediately I recorded Perlucida, C. rustica, C. livida and Creutzfeldt nigricansThe latter is common in marshes and this specimen was found beside a footbridge spanning a damp ditch, where cuckoo flowers and bitter melon were also growing, and above the former. Empis tessellataa kind of dancing fly. The list that day was getting longer and longer.
Soon afterwards we heard the call of a chickadee coming from the coniferous forest – too high and fast to photograph, but it was awesome to hear their tinkling calls.
Thanks to a sleepy bumblebee, I was able to get some photos. BumblebeeAn early-flowering bumblebee, next to which a metallic-like green insect with two red spots on its abdomen, the common malachite beetle, clings to a grass seed head.
As I was checking out the ubiquitous ladybug species, a white-tailed ladybug glided past me. The most common is the bumblebee. This species comes in a variety of colors, from black with four red spots, to red with a few spots, to red with many spots. I also found the larvae of this species. There was also a ladybug with seven spots and one with 14 spots.
We then decided to check out an area where there were lots of dog roses in full bloom – always a striking flower. The area was away from golfers, along a footpath surrounded by tall grass and mature trees – many of which were blackthorn, and all had a fungus overgrowth called plum pocket gall. There seemed to be a lot of this this year, which probably means a poor harvest of sloes in the fall. The taxonomic name is Tafrina Purni This causes the fruit to grow distorted and seedless.
There was a lot of rose feeding. Gramputera ruficornis Beetles, etc. Cantharis Seed. Nearby there was a medium-sized fly on a blade of grass. Chloromya formosaThe Broad Centurion Fly is another species that lives in wetlands.
Further investigation of the nettles revealed more insects, including colorful crane flies. Nephrotoma flavescensHe can be seen sunbathing. Melanotus There was a click beetle nearby, Pollenia Flies. In the latter case too, microscopic examination is required to identify the species.
As the light and temperature improved, I headed down to the lake to see if there were any dragonflies or damselflies flying around. I didn’t have to wait long before I came across several common blue damselflies. They flitted about over the grasses and sedges, often stopping to roost. The damselflies were attached to the grass stalks in a manner reminiscent of an airship secured to a landing mast.
A four-spotted dragonfly flew away before I could land on it, so I approached cautiously, but this insect has excellent eyesight and I ended up chasing it until I finally managed to get a photo.
Another damselfly floated by, a blue-tailed one. Odonata I’m sure we’ll be seeing more species in season by mid-July – a sign of the lake’s health – and a family of Common Coots were hiding under the willows – a pair of Common Moorhens were at odds with the Mallards that were also there.
On the fairways, flocks of Canada geese were cutting the grass short and seemed unconcerned as a group of other golfers sprinted by. Someone somewhere on the course hit a great shot and a cry was heard: “I can’t believe it, he lost by two strokes!”
A green woodpecker flew down the neighboring fairway, chirping away with its usual call. Near the lake a reed bunting sang its three-syllable chorus, and a wren let out a raucous warning call. With over 250 photos, I was struggling to keep up with everything I was seeing and hearing.
I headed down to the entrance road where the mini golf course was located, where a wren and a wagtail were flying about, both heading towards the greenkeeper’s hut.
Checking the vegetation along the road again, I found a nest. Myrmica rubraa type of red ant. One in particular dangling from the end of a nettle leaf caught my attention and I took a photo.
We returned to the clubhouse for a cold drink and a look at our photos, before finishing off with a look at the conifers behind the office, where carrion crows and jackdaws were probing the damp soil. For the first time this year, spotted butterflies had risen up, and we should be seeing plenty of prairie butterflies such as spotted butterflies, gatekeepers and marbled whites in the coming month or so.
In total, I must have seen and heard over 100 different species during the short time I was there. Golf courses across the UK are now seen as potential “nature reserves”, and they often contain a large amount of habitat that remains largely untouched.
Golf World Stansted’s greenkeepers keep the rough intact to keep the course in tip-top condition – the amount of balls in the rough is evidence that golfers are keeping it off the course and letting nature take its course. Come back in a month and you’ll likely find the list of species just as long – just different.
Thanks to Dan and staff for the warm welcome and to Joe for giving us the opportunity to visit places we would never normally think of visiting – it was a really fun and busy nature morning.
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