The BGS site at Keyworth has been progressively rewilded in recent years and there’s been an increasing interest from staff in recording the nature present. During a recent survey for clearwing moths, a single hornet moth boring was discovered in the buttress root of a Lombardy poplar tree. The hornet moth is a species of clearwing moth; three other clearwing species had already been recorded at the site using pheromone lures, but the presence of the rare hornet moth had not been suspected — even though there are several established poplar trees including aspen, Lombardy and black poplar, which are all potential host trees.

As this is only the third known site of a hornet moth colony in Nottinghamshire and there are fewer than 10 known in the East Midlands, the moth is classified as scarce nationally. This colony lies near the present northern limit of the hornet moth in Britain.

With the discovery of the first boring, closer examination of the bases of nearby poplars revealed a total of over 60 similar borings on five individual Lombardy and black poplar trees. The dense clusters of these borings almost give the appearance that the root-bole of the trees have been sprayed with bullets or resembles a Swiss cheese! Part of an extruded hornet moth pupal case was also found proving very recent (2023) activity in the colony. Subsequently, a single adult male hornet moth was attracted to a pheromone lure.

In terms of lifecycle, adult hornet moths emerge to fly and mate in June and July each year. The females rarely fly far and deposit their eggs near the base of trees of their host species, which hatch into caterpillars (larvae) that then grow and develop for two to three years. During this time, they bore a tunnel up to 10 cm long into the base of the host tree. Finally, they move to the tunnel entrance and pupate before finally emerging as an adult moth. As they emerge, the moths extrude their larval case from the boring.

Pheromone lures

The use of pheromone lures to detect moths and clearwing species has taken off in recent years in Britain. Small rubber bungs or plastic vials are impregnated with pheromones that match those released by the female clearwings to attract mates. These sources slowly release the chemical attractant, creating a plume of scent in a downwind direction. Once detected, the male flies to the source to investigate. The lures can be placed in muslin bags or into the basket in the roof of a trap. Pheromone lures have long been used in mainland Europe to capture pest clearwing species that infest fruit crops such as currants and raspberries. Their widespread use in Britain is more recent.

Clearwing moths

Clearwing moths are named for their transparent wings, which resemble leaded stained-glass windows. In all there are about 15 species of clearwings found today in Britain and, with the recent increased use of pheromone lures, their distributions are becoming better defined. In addition to the hornet moth, the similar lunar hornet moth, which favours willow trees, has been recorded at BGS Keyworth. Both species are hornet mimics with bold yellow and black markings, but they lack the very narrow waists of true hornets between the thorax and abdomen and possess feathered antennae.

Two further clearwing species, the red-tipped (another willow species) and the currant, have been recorded at BGS to date. Lunar hornet moths and red-tipped clearwing are found along many of the willow-lined streams draining the wolds of south Nottinghamshire north towards the River Trent and along the Grantham Canal. Just such a stream is found immediately behind BGS Keyworth and is no doubt the home ground for these two species. The currant clearwing occurs widely, most commonly in gardens and allotments with currant bushes.

About the authors

Steve Mathers

Steve Mathers is a former BGS Geologist and the butterfly county recorder for Nottinghamshire.

From food to biotechnology, the impressive fungal bodies we all know as mushrooms have a dynamic variety of beneficial uses. That just one of the reasons why colleagues from our Keyworth headquarters have started the BGS Mushroom Club.

What began out of curiosity and an excuse to explore the fascinating variety of fungi growing on site at Keyworth has now turned into a growing community of staff with a shared interest. The club gives passionate foragers a chance to share their knowledge and time, searching for and identifying different fungi whilst learning more about their contribution to local biodiversity. The club work is also helping to build a more holistic rewilding output on site, creating spaces for nature to thrive in a healthy and sustainable way, and is an important pillar of the 51ÁÔÆæ Environmental Sustainability Strategy.

I think fungi are one of the most fascinating groups of microbes. As a microbiologist, I probably am biased towards finding fungi cool, especially because I have learnt so many amazing facts about them! They are used in so many applications, from food to biotechnology, have many types of visually impressive fruiting bodies and can survive some of the most extreme conditions on Earth.

What I love most about the mushroom club is that it brings members of staff from many different areas together over a common love for these organisms, creating a community out of a shared interest.

Jess Mackie, BGS Geomicrobiologist.

So far, the club has identified around 20 different types of mushrooms in Keyworth, including the shaggy inkcap, candlesnuff fungus, violet-toothed polypore and even a variety that probably wouldn’t look out of place in the wizarding world: the obscure-sounding wolf-milk slime!

According to the club founders, the shaggy inkcap is particularly prolific on site throughout October to November. It is an edible species, forming tall, white pillars that dissolve as they grow, creating a black ‘ink’ which spreads the spores. This ink can be used to write with. Inkcaps can be found around the canteen and orchard area.

The wolf-milk slime has been a particularly interesting find this September. It is a slime mold that appears in the form of many tiny red balls that are filled with a pink paste, which pops out when squeezed and looks almost like toothpaste!

The group is collecting photos and videos of their finds, catalogued by the month they were found, in the hope that they will be able to predict which varieties we might see all year round. The aim is to improve the group identification skills and create a calendar and map of mushrooms describing which fungi can be found where on site and the time of year each species appears.

I’ve always been a fan of mushrooms, but I really started getting into fungi identification during lockdown. I love going out into nature and spotting all these amazing fruiting bodies that form part of a much larger system which can grow for kilometres under the ground.

My favourite mushrooms are morels (so much I even have a tattoo of some) and I am fascinated by slime moulds. Starting the BGS Mushroom Club really began as an excuse to talk about the variety of cool fungi we find on site, but it been really useful to have a record of what growing and where, which could help inform future rewilding work.

Penny Reeve, BGS Digital Communications Manager.

Mushrooms should always be considered a wonderful addition to any site diversity as they play a key role in nutrient cycling by degrading organic matter and making it more available for plants and other soil dwellers. The club hopes to inform more people about the variety of mushrooms on our doorstep, which contribute to the great diversity of organisms we already have here in Keyworth.

Caution

Some mushrooms are highly poisonous and can be easily confused with edible species. Always exercise caution when foraging. If in any doubt, leave the mushroom in place.

About the author

Managing our landscapes, from individual gardens to vast areas of native woodlands and peatlands, is vital for sequestering and storing carbon while also increasing and protecting the biodiversity of our plants and animals. A has shown that a hectare of woodland sequesters as much carbon dioxide (CO₂) each year as 13 flights between London and Rome. 

At BGS, we have been creating meadows from our former lawns and, by maintaining native trees in small patches of woodland, we are contributing to carbon sequestering.  

Our Keyworth site, located on the outskirts of Nottingham, was highlighted as a prime place to manage one of our estate landscapes and return the area to a more natural state. Our grassland areas are now 80 per cent ‘no mow’ between April and October, after a recent survey of these areas showed we have many ‘old’ meadow plants, including bee orchids. Various patches of the site have been left to go completely wild and now hundreds of small native trees (hawthorn; blackthorn; holly, etc.) have popped up between the large established trees, while the undergrowth is a mass of brambles and nettles, which is great for butterflies and bees. 

Other initiatives to increase our biodiversity include:

• maintaining a pond, which is filled from rainwater diverted from a nearby roof
• installing 60 bird boxes for small birds and owls
• adding several hedgehog boxes
• planting an orchard with twelve apple and pear trees, which will bear fruit for staff and insects in the next couple of years  
• establishing three large bug hotels and several bee mounds in our newly created orchard for our smaller guests (insects, mice, voles and shrews)

In one sunny space, we recently removed and chipped several Leylandii, thus creating an place that is desirable to our local grass snakes. The space includes a large, warm compost area, swathes of heat-absorbing wood chip and rock caves built from waste rock-core material. 

To celebrate the Queen Jubilee we created a walkway of Japanese cherry trees. While not native, these cherry trees will provide nectar early in the season to feed early-emerging bees and other insects. We have planted thousands of spring bulbs including bluebells, snowdrops, wild garlic and daffodils. The Keyworth grounds have also been enhanced with wild-flower circles; the ox-eye daisies have looked particularly amazing through June. 

The BGS Keyworth site is a good example of how, by changing the management of the grounds, we are helping to sequester carbon as well as reaping multiple other benefits. We save money by reducing our gardening costs, improve the health of our plants and animals, and the beautiful grounds are admired by our staff and encourage lunchtime walks, which supports the health and well-being of both staff and visitors.

About the author

As part of BGS commitment to supporting staff with their sustainability efforts, we recently made time for employees at BGS sites around the UK to spend a few hours on projects focusing on increasing sustainability, both in their offices and in the local area.

Keyworth

In Keyworth, a group of staff built a mega bug hotel out of waste pallets, logs, rocks, dry moss and grass. The newly named ‘Buggingham Palace’ now sits majestically in our Snake Wood, which is a habitat designed to home our growing population of grass snakes. We’re hoping to see guests flock to the hotel soon!  

Close to Snake Wood, staff planted more apple and pear trees in our orchard. Triassic mudstones lie just below the thin soil, which makes for good moisture retention and is great for the trees but makes digging holes to plant the saplings hard work! A good crop of fruit for staff and wildlife should start appearing in the next two to three years.

Recently we’ve also fixed 60 nesting boxes around the site — mostly on trees — for blue tits, great tits, house sparrows, robins and wrens. With the help of our on-site workshop supervisor, staff have been encouraged to make their own.

A group of staff organised a ‘mendathon’; staff brought in their clothes that needed some attention, which were repaired for further use rather than being thrown away. Our knitting circle tried ‘sustainable knitting’ using recycled materials including plastic bags to create items such as sleeping mats for the homeless.

Wallingford

In the Wallingford office, several staff had an introduction to biological recording. They did a nature walk to search for invertebrates around the site, identified them in the office and uploaded images to which is a citizen science app for biological data. Twelve species were recorded, including three species of bugs:

• Miris striatus (fine-streaked bugkin)
• Palomena prasina (green shield bug)
• Rhopalus subrufus

These have already been approved by the national recorder for Mirid bugs and so will be available for inclusion in future research studies. We also identified damselflys, including the azure damselfly (Coenagrion puella), and the rare click beetle (Agrypnus murinus), which has been recorded fewer than 600 times in the UK.

Cardiff

At our Cardiff office, the staff organised a nature walk, exploring parts of the Alexandra Gardens and Bute Park, a short distance from the office. In several park areas, the grass has been left unmown to allow wildflowers to bloom, which helps feed and shelter insects and other invertebrates, birds and small mammals. Speedwell, buttercups and daisies were all identified and bee records were submitted to the local nature record centre. Staff also collected rubbish along the way using biodegradable rubbish sacks and second-hand litter pickers from the local recycling centre, Y Caban.

Edinburgh

At the Lyell Centre in Edinburgh, a book exchange has been set up for staff to bring, exchange, borrow or take books. Staff also had a plant swap/sale, which was a great success, with donations from many green-fingered BGSers and other staff from across the Lyell Centre! All money raised will be donated to Ukraine. A Lyell Centre Wilding Group has also now been established on site. The group aims to do some baseline studies on the current wildflower population and will be writing a proposal for the establishment of a small allotment at the back of the Lyell Centre for the benefit of staff.

Sustainability

Supporting our staff to be more sustainable both inside and outside work forms part of our sustainability strategy. In this strategy, we endeavour to reduce BGS environmental impact whilst staying at the cutting edge of our research through a series of commitments. Our strategy follows our parent organisation (51ÁÔÆæ) vision to â€˜embed sustainability in everything we do’ (51ÁÔÆæ Strategic Prospectus, 2018). We will embed it in all we do and continue to make a positive contribution by lowering our environmental impact and addressing current environmental challenges and global sustainability issues. 

A walkway of eight Japanese Amanogawa pink flowering cherry trees, chosen for their colourful ornamental blooms, has been planted in the grounds of BGS in Keyworth, in celebration of the Queen platinum jubilee. The walkway has been created as part of a project called the Queen Green Canopy, a nationwide campaign to encourage people to ‘plant a tree for the jubilee’.

A special bench and plaque will be installed near the trees to mark the celebrations in honor of Queen Elizabeth II 70th year on the throne.

The Japanese Amanogawa pink flowering cherry is well known for its beautiful and delicate flower display in May and June. The young leaves are a greenish-bronze and, around autumn, they develop a red, orange or yellow tinge. In the years to come, they will develop into spectacular trees and will be a fitting tribute to the Queen legacy as the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee.

The flowers of the Amanogawa (like all plants) contain pollen and nectar, which is used by insects such as bees, butterflies and beetles, as well as small birds. It is hoped that, as the trees mature, they will create a safe and relaxing natural canopy for wildlife, employees and visitors to the site.

The walkway will create a green legacy of its own, with every tree planted bringing benefits for people, wildlife and climate, now and for the future.

51ÁÔÆæ Chief Scientist for Environmental Change, Adaptation and Resilience, Melanie Leng.

The planting of the walkway furthers BGS’s development of its sustainability strategy, designed to help BGS reduce its environmental impact through a series of commitments across its estates, travel and working practices, whilst staying at the cutting edge of research.

In recent months, BGS has joined forces with local community volunteers to develop the Mary Ward Nature Area, a small patch of woodland that runs behind the BGS site at Keyworth, accessed from Platt Lane. Over 12 000 spring bulbs were planted, providing a haven for wild animals, insects and birds. A Grand Bug Hotel has also been installed on BGS grounds, using natural waste materials to provide shelter for insects, which in turn will provide food for animals such as toads and hedgehogs.  

Part of our commitment to sustainability at BGS is developing our sites to support and nurture the local environment. A team of volunteers from BGS and Wild Things: Keyworth came together to help brighten up Keyworth village and provide a space for local wildlife to thrive.

51ÁÔÆæ secured NERC funding for 12 000 spring bulbs to brighten our Mary Ward nature area at our headquarters in the village, providing a haven for wild animals, insects and birds.

How do you plant thousands of bulbs?

We knew that planting some 12 000 bulbs in one morning would be a challenge even for the more enthusiastic gardeners among us, so we began a recruitment drive to call on staff and volunteers from the community to bring their spades and help. Numbers began to grow and by the weekend we had managed to entice a gathering of around 30 staff and volunteers. Luckily it was a bright, warm morning so there was no worrying about planting in really muddy areas.

Armed with gardening tools, our staff and volunteers got down to the job of planting hundreds of beautiful native snowdrops, bluebells and wood anemone. Hopefully they will come into flower soon, providing nectar for early insects as well as a lovely display for walkers using the path through the woodland.

Wildlife on site

Having installed wildlife cameras over the winter, perhaps one of the most exciting developments has been watching the array of local animals who have been visiting the woodland over the frosty season, from beautiful muntjac deer to foxes, badgers, brown rats, buzzards and owls.

As well as our feathered and furry animal visitors, we hope the improvements will be enjoyed by members of the public.

Recent improvements

The woodland has a right-of-way path maintained by the council and recently, they improved two patches of earth along the path, flattening them and installing handrails to aid walking. Other improvements include removing damaged and diseased tree branches. Some parts of the bramble will soon be cut down to allow new growth and keep parts of the woodland open.

A big thank you!

We couldn’t have done this without the support and help of our staff and , a local group set up in Keyworth to be a voice for the natural world and a shared way to do more to help. They recently helped to establish a Hedgehog Highway in the area and it is fantastic to be able to reach out to others in our local community and bring them together with BGS staff members to support the area we live and work in.

We’ll look forward to sharing some pictures of our work in bloom on Twitter in a few weeks’ time.

The Mary Ward nature area

The Mary Ward nature area is a small patch of woodland that runs behind the BGS site at Keyworth, which can be accessed from Platt Lane. It takes its name from Mary Ward College, the local college that used to be on the site and named after the famous scientist, artist and astronomer, Mary Ward (1585–1645), a nun who championed women rights to education.

About the author

As part of our commitment to increase biodiversity on the BGS sites, we have undertaken a range of initiatives. The majority of these initiatives currently relate to our Keyworth site in Nottinghamshire as we have fewer limitations there, but we’re hoping to roll out similar measures at our other sites wherever we can.

Anyone visiting the Keyworth site will see these changes as soon as you walk through the gate. The best of these initiatives is the new ‘no-mow’ commitment, with around 70 per cent of grass now being left to grow during the summer to promote wild flowers, bring in more insects and of course the bigger animals that feed on them. Our meadows stretch from the front car park area, around the south of the site and continue on the rear of James Hutton and William Smith buildings, to give a full wraparound meadow feel. We are running butterfly transects and some moth trapping, as well as monitoring the larger animals on site.

This initiative has been helped along enormously by the BGS Estates team, who have been very supportive with our ideas and liaised with the grounds team.

We’ve recently installed bird feeders and bird baths to encourage birds onto site, which has of course also pleased the squirrels! We have a lunchtime Wilding Group, which meets a few times a year,and we’ve used this group to shape some of the areas which we’d like to make richer in wildlife but also richer to the staff. One such area is our pond, which now has a clear path running through the wild areas, improvements to the pond itself, planting of new spring flowers, cutting back of brambles, and opening the ‘secret garden — perfect for a lunchtime retreat into nature!

Part of the programme of work is monitoring, as it really important to measure and plot wildlife improvements, so that we can say whether the measures we’ve put in place are working, or if we have to change things. We’ve collaborated with the , who have been instrumental in helping us decide where to put our owl and bird boxes. They have completed a bat survey for us and we hope to continue working with them to make further improvements.

We recently ran an evening event looking at the nature onsite after dark. Steve Thorpe ran the moth trap, with NWT completing a bat survey. Chris Rochelle was able to use the infrared camera to see what he could find scurrying around in the meadows. Mice and voles made up most of the sightings, but he also found and photographed a fantastic hedgehog. We’ve recently installed five hedgehog houses, so hopefully these will be well used over the winter! We also heard young tawny owl by the front gate. Our night-time cameras have also picked up a fox in the Hanlon House wildlife area.

All in all things are really positive on site for our wildlife and, with more people back in the office soon recording their sightings, we’ll start to see a real improvement!

About the author

Today, 22 May 2021, is the International Day for Biological Diversity, an event initiated by the United Nations (UN) to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues — a theme central to the UN development agenda as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.

At the BGS Keyworth site, we currently have a series of initiatives to promote various species of plants and animals and enhance both their amount and diversity. A small group of staff (the Wilding Group) have been working with our estates team and together have made huge progress.

Caretaker’s garden

Over the last few years we have been working on initiatives around site, including managing a former bramble patch that used to be the caretaker’s garden with a small pond. We chopped back about 90 per cent of the brambles to create some new habitats. The bramble (or blackberry) is good in small patches as it offers protection for nesting birds and for small animals; its flowers are a good source of nectar and the juicy black fruits are good food for birds and small mammals. The pond is a vital source of water for insects, birds and small mammals.

We have left areas of shrubby blackthorn, hawthorn and plum as small woodland in the caretaker’s garden. The trees are tightly packed, meaning there is plenty of shade and protection. In one small grassy area, restricted mowing has allowed spring flowers to pop up, including cowslips, bluebells, snowdrops and a beautiful patch of fritillaries. These spring flowers will soon give way to geranium, buttercup, daisies and dandelion.

A small area of the garden is centred on a magnificent white poplar; we have left a hedge of bramble and blackthorn and it provides a ‘secret’ garden for staff. This area currently has herb bennet, goose grass, nettle, chickweed, cow parsley and some three-cornered leek. In a few months, a long-forgotten Mirabelle plum will provide fruit for insects, birds and staff!

Welcoming our visitors

Our night camera has caught plenty of late-night visitors including a buzzard, sparrowhawks and hedgehogs. Other wildlife initiatives in the garden (and around the rest of site) include the installation of bird boxes, insect hotels and a toad hole, which is a hole dug in a shady spot and filled with rocks, which creates a damp, dark habitat perfect for various amphibians.

Holes cut into the new perimeter fence allow wildlife to pass through the estate, including hedgehogs, squirrels, shrew, rabbits and other small mammals.

Wildflowers and birds

Around the wider site, we are leaving 70 per cent of our lawns to grow over the summer months (‘no-mow’ areas) to promote wildflowers, which not only look lovely but provide food for pollinators such as bees to collect more nectar. The wildflowers include clover, buttercup, daisy, vetch, ox-eye daisy and our magnificent bee orchids. This spring we counted over 700 bee orchids on site and we are currently looking forward to seeing them flower in June.

We have also recently placed 10 bird-feeding stations around site and we regularly see blue tits, robins, dunnocks, blackbirds, long-tailed tits, sparrows and wood pigeons (to name the most common).

Plants along the Geological Walk

At the centre of the Keyworth site, a walk along the 130 m-long rock concourse takes you through geological time, starting with a three billion year old rock from the Scottish Highlands and moving chronologically through time to the last great ice age. We have recently added geologically relevant plants to the walkway, from the first vascular plants in the Devonian Period (more than 300 million years ago), represented by horsetails, to magnolias, one of the first flowering plants (around 20 million years ago). Pampas grass represents the first grasses and of particular note is a splendid monkey puzzle tree, which was common in the UK in the Jurassic Period.

In the future

During the year ahead we will be engaging with local wildlife groups so we can document and monitor our wildlife, hopefully adding more night-time cameras and undertaking mammal, bird and insect surveys. We will be increasing the numbers of bird and bat boxes on site and planting more native deciduous and berry- or fruit-bearing trees.

If you are interested in getting back to nature this summer why not consider taking part in the Wildlife Trust’s #30DaysWild challenge, running throughout June?

About the author