The
Knepp Castle Estate, situated 12 miles inland in West Sussex, hosts a thriving selection of biodiversity, from lichens to bats, from moths to bees, from beetles to birds, it really does have it all.
One particularly good weekend in mid-July was the AFON Knepp weekend workshop, an event I had been eagerly anticipating since early summer, and it didn't disappoint!
For those who are unfamiliar with the group,
AFON (short for A Focus On Nature) is a organisation run by young conservationists for young conservationists which aims to provide a platform for young naturalists to communicate with one another, offering a new perspective on current environmental issues and providing opportunities for young conservationists (such as the Knepp event).
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| The campsite |
On Saturday 16th July, myself and a
round thirty other young naturalists arrived at Knepp for a weekend of havoc ecology, conservation, rewilding, entomology, ornithology and lepidoptera.
The weekend kicked off early on Saturday afternoon with an educational talk from Charlie Burrell, the owner of Knepp Castle, who explained to us about his superb work and how the rewilding approach has been used at Knepp. The definition of rewildling is to restore an area of land to its natural uncultivated state, and this is exactly what has happened at Knepp. What was arable farmland used to grow crops only ten years or so ago is now natural countryside thriving with wildlife (which has massively benefited
from the rewilding project).
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| Knepp |
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| Knepp |
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| Cinnibar caterpillar |
We soon took a walk around Knepp with Penny Green (Knepp Ecologist) to explore the landscape for ourselves and it was incredible to see the difference compared to the photos Charlie showed us from when the land was used for agriculture. We spent some time using sweep nets to find and identify a range of invertebrates
. This provided a fantastic opportunity to share knowledge and learn from other like-minded people with similar interests in ecology and conservation.
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| Marbled White |
Back at the campsite we were showed a Brown Long-eared Bat, which had come from Sussex bat hospital, followed by some dinner.
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| Brown Long-eared Bat |
We didn't have much time to rest though and shortly before dusk we were out once more, this time looking for a crepuscular creature - the Barn Owl. This payed off as we were afforded flight views of one individual as it glided into and subsequently back out of a barn.
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| A stunning sunset |
Darkness was soon approaching and on the way back, we stopped to set up the moth traps.
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| Mothing |
Once the landscape had been illuminated by two blinding mercury vapour bulbs, we took a short walk to the Hammer Pond where we had nice views of a few Daubenton's Bats flying over the lake. After this, some of the group went back to the campsite (lightweights) while the rest of us headed back to the moth traps to be swarmed by midges and blinded by the bulbs (a combination which I am all too familiar with from garden moth trapping!). We didn't catch anything mega here but it was great to be in the presence of moth experts who could instantly identify the species present rather than having to spend a while looking through a book to reach a conclusion! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy identifying my own moths but for convenience purposes it's nice to get an instant ID.
We headed back to the campsite shortly before midnight to attempt to get a few hours sleep before an early start the next morning...
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| Ringing |
Sunday morning kicked off bright an early with a couple of hours of bird ringing. A good volume of birds were caught and Josie Hewitt (whose blog on the AFON Knepp weekend can be found
here) did a great job of explaining how ringing works and the importance of bird ringing. More information on the ringing scheme can be found on the BTO website
here.
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| Great Tit |
My personal highlight of this session was seeing Bullfinch in the hand (even though I'd seen one in the hand before) - they're always so stunning.
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| Bullfinch |
The majority of the group were treated to views of a Turtle Dove nearby but I had to make do with a heard-only bird purring. Just to make myself feel better about this, here's a Turtle Dove I saw in Hampshire a few weeks previously.
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| Turtle Dove in Hampshire in June |
On the walk back we were extremely lucky to 'jam in' on some top quality Purple Emperor action. Just next to the footpath a Purple Emperor was feasting on a juicy cow pat, probing its proboscis deep into the dung to extract vital nutrients.
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| Showing well! |
What better way to life-tick a butterfly than prolonged face to face views for around twenty minutes (in which time I took far too many photos). I think this is my new favourite butterfly species - what an absolute stunner, and slightly larger than I expected, this was probably my personal highlight of the weekend.
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| Purple Emperor |
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| Purple Emperor |
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| Purple Emperor |
After this excitement I took a quick walk back to the campsite to get some breakfast then went back out to sift through the contents of one of the moths traps. Shortly after this I joined the group for another wander, hopefully to see more Purple Emps! This was successful and we also saw some Purple Hairstreaks (which were annoyingly too distant for me to photograph with the 18-55mm. lens).
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| Ruby-tailed Wasp |
I left shortly after 2PM, whilst others stayed around until later in the afternoon and inspected the other moth trap.
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| Dusky Sallow |
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| Drinker |
Well, it was an amazing weekend!! A great location, with great wildlife, with great people - what more could you want?
It was fantastic to spend time with so many like-minded people, catching up with old friends and making new friends. The event was a great success and everyone definitely enjoyed themselves. It was great to see such a good number of people attending and I'm very much looking forward to similar AFON events in the future, so thanks to everyone for making it so enjoyable! In particular I would like to thank those involved with organising the event - Simon Phelps (AFON), Tony Davis (AFON), Penny Green (Knepp Ecologist) and the Knepp Estate for hosting us.
I am sure I will be back at Knepp in the near future!
Happy birding!
Max.
@MaxHellicar1
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