It will come as no surprise to regular readers of the Wildlife column to discover that 2024 has been a difficult year for our wildlife. In a wet year the most damaging rains came in April, May and June, coinciding with the breeding season for many, if not most, of our key species and just at the moment our natural world is to burst into life. The first sentence of one of Sam Taylor’s reports to me from Dulwich and Sydenham Woods was “It has been a terrible year for butterflies.” These are the visible bellwethers of much of our insect life and the observation was backed up at our Autumn meeting by Harry Rutherford, our moth expert, and Jeff Doodson, who specialises in beetles and bugs. Additionally, the rain washed off the May blossom from our Hawthorn trees and those of us with these trees in our gardens may notice the lack of berries - usually so much the autumn harvest for our wintering birds. However, they will hopefully be able to fall back on the Cotoneaster and Pyracantha berries that have survived due to later blossoming.
Before coming to better news, David Clark’s regular autumn count of the Dulwich Park birds indicated that our Blackbirds and Thrushes are still in trouble, with only two Blackbirds recorded. The populations of Song and Mistle Thrushes crashed twenty years ago, possibly due to farming practices, but Blackbirds have succumbed to the Usutu virus. This epidemic started in Greater London but is now reported to be spreading through the south east. A virus is also an organism and needs hosts to survive, so our Blackbird population should not be wiped out. It is therefore incumbent upon us to make our gardens into the best possible habitats, with shrubs for cover, well-composted ground and absolutely no artificial lawns.
Most of the challenge that our wildlife is facing is of course due to our changing climate, about which we have so little control, but there are survivors. Most of the butterfly species with which we are familiar, such as Peacocks, Red Admirals and Commas, were seen albeit in very small numbers and perhaps only the Small Tortoiseshell was absent. Matthew Frith was lucky enough to encounter and photograph this fine White Letter Hairstreak butterfly in Burbage Road. The purchase by the Dulwich Estate of disease-resistant elms via the Elms for London scheme will be of huge benefit to our maintenance of this magnificent little butterfly. Once again, we saw Stag beetles and of course Dragon and Damsel flies. These insects will have started their surprisingly long lives up to five years ago and indeed spend most of their lives in larval form either in water or, in the case of Stag Beetles, in rotting wood, escaping the vagaries of the climate until they emerge for their glorious, if brief, breeding adulthood.
The main event in the Woods was the discovery that the Hobbies that had been regularly observed did in fact nest. Two chicks were produced but unfortunately did not survive and were probably predated by crows. Hobbies are summer migrants and will hopefully return next year for another try. Amanda Tuke, who volunteers with the London Wildlife Trust and writes a monthly column for Bird Watching Magazine, has taken this superb photo of a Hobby, which obligingly posed for her in an ideal setting. In the garden of Bell House another raptor feeding young was regularly observed by the volunteer gardeners. I thought this might have been one of the Hobbies but it was almost certainly a Sparrowhawk that had either nested there or nearby.
The other piece of good news is that we have now had three sightings of Hedgehogs, the first in the Cox’s Walk allotments, the second in Court Lane and the third in Dome Hill Park. After three years of no hedgehog reports at all, I had thought that we had lost them but with three reports quite far apart in spots where they can avoid traffic deaths - and hopefully now slug pellets - we can be cautiously optimistic.
Belair Park has an active Friends Group and is much assisted by volunteers from Dulwich College in the maintenance and development of its ecology. Additionally, Dave Clark, together with his friend Frank Connor, have undertaken a month-by-month survey of the park’s wild flowers, taking into account those that have grown naturally and those thriving after wildflower planting. They divided the park into seven transepts that reflected the management processes of each terrain noting some eighty wildflower species, concluding that the most fertile areas of growth were in the most managed areas. They recommended that the least managed areas should be improved and that where possible grass should be left long. As the project develops, we will look forward to more detailed reports.
In conclusion, this year has given us mixed messages and can perhaps be remembered as the year of the gastropod, when the snails and slugs have taken over our gardens free of predators. There is a huge number of species of slugs and snails which we may encounter, not all of which are unfriendly. If somebody loves them enough, they may in the future be a subject for study if wet summers are here to stay.
New Volunteers Sought
The Wildlife Group and Tree Group have now amalgamated and anyone with an interest in joining is invited to get in touch by emailing
In particular, members with an interest in the care and conservation of Dulwich trees and who might wish to make an active contribution are invited to apply.