Volunteering for Marine Life in the Helford VMCA!

Helford VMCA have small but effective groups of volunteers who can regularly be seen on shore and at events on the Helford. Helford Marine Conservation Group coordinate and share tasks with Plastic Free Helford (part of the Surfers against Sewage plastic free initiative) and Clean Ocean Sailing, an independent group of intrepid water based litter collectors who row, kayak and sail to the most inaccessible coves and islands around the coast of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Busy litter pickers

Plastic pollution in the Helford is an ongoing problem (as it is everywhere) especially after an Easterly wind. In 2019 we had a few! Generally speaking a sheltered stretch of water, the Helford River Boats ferryman Ian Wells told me they were up to around nine cancellations this year due to weather conditions. The effects of the wind on the water can bring in quantities of plastic much of it breaking down into small pieces. I guess that is a positive, that we then have the opportunity to remove it as it is left on the shoreline by the outgoing tide.

 A bucket of small plastic

Carol Hurst, coordinator for Plastic Free Helford categorises and weighs all we collect and the last count bagged 9.4 Kgs of general waste, 2.4kgs of Council recycling and 14.1 Kgs for the Ocean Recovery Project.
Clearly there is a need to keep plugging away at this job, it can be a nice social event though, some fresh air, a sense of achievement and the chance to catch up with friends and make new ones.
Another task with no end in sight but nevertheless essential is the regular tapping of the Non Native Invasive Pacific Oyster when they appear on the rocks and slipways. There is also a good crop to be found on the beaches attached to small stones and shells or ‘cultch’ as they call it. There is a small but growing market for these ‘wobbly’ Oysters, the misshapen or odd sized are now being used in restaurants as the environmental benefits of using these is becoming apparent.

Do not disturb! Watch seals well - admire from a distance

The Lizard natural attractions are its wild coastlines and amazing marine life, including our globally rare grey seals. A glimpse of a seal makes a holiday. In Cornwall this summer, disturbance hit record levels with seals at one site being subjected to 10 stampedes caused by walkers in 70 minutes and 13 boat visits in 85 minutes– spooking seals into the sea every seven minutes!

Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust (CSGRT) are members of the Seal Alliance (SA), a UK partnership protecting seals across England, Wales and Scotland. CSGRT’s Katie Bellman and Sue Sayer have written a new SA report ‘Please Do Not Disturb!’ documenting serious incidents at critical sites where seals rest, socialise, pup and moult. Shocking films show the growing harm we’re having. Disturbance is always a waste of energy, sometimes it results in serious injury and occasionally it’s fatal.

At activity hotspots like the Lizard, CSGRT’s amazing volunteer ‘ID Hub’ teams help to monitor the overlap of people and seals, that can result in chronic disturbance by motorised vessels, kayaks, paddle-boarders, wildlife tours, anglers, walkers, dogs, drones, planes, helicopters and photographers.

Seal Alliance (SA) wants legal protection of seal habitats and met with DEFRA to act before it is too late. Most disturbance is unintentional, so a NATIONAL MARINE WILDLIFE CODE OF CONDUCT is urgently needed to raise public awareness. With many complex challenges facing our marine environment, disturbance is unusual – the solution is SIMPLE – we all need to ADMIRE FROM A DISTANCE. CSGRT’s ‘Watch seals well’ guide shows you how!

Published: Nov 2019
Author: Sue Sayer, Director Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust (CSGRT)

Romano-British settlement at Boden, near Manaccan

Meneage Archaeology Group - The excavation of a Romano-British settlement at Boden, near Manaccan.

Following the excavation of an Iron Age fogou and Bronze Age house MAG are currently focussing their attention on two areas of apparent Romano-British date, where finds suggest activity between circa AD50 – AD200. Chronology is tentative at this stage, pending specialist analysis of finds and scientific dating.

Romano-British structure

Excavated features include the remains of a stone structure with the appearance of a stone rubble foundation or collapsed wall. Material accumulated over this ‘wall’ has produced large quantities of pottery and part of an amphora (large jar for transporting oil or wine) imported from Spain. A series of postholes associated with the wall suggest an associated timber structure, one of which contained a fragment of granite rotary quern for grinding wheat. Part of the wall covered a steep-sided pit containing numerous sherds of pottery, burnt stones and large fragments of charcoal, representing in situ burning.

The digging team on 2019 Day 1 - Romano-British structure in the foreground

Fragment of rotary quern for grinding wheat

Amphora handle imported from Spain

C-shaped enclosure with central stone-lined pit

To the south are two steep-sided gullies forming a ‘C’ shaped enclosure surrounding a deep pit lined with large stones, possibly ‘robbed’ from the fogou entrance. The function of the pit is unclear but it is hoped that analysis of the soil samples will shed some light. Finds from the central pit and gullies include pottery thought to be Late Iron Age or Romano-British in date (late 1st century BC to 1st century AD) including cordoned wares and Trethurgy-type storage jar sherds (possibly 3rd century AD). Also in the pit were fragments from another rotary quern and a stone spindle-whorl. Part of a stone mould for manufacturing a pewter dish was also recovered (two smaller fragments have been found from deposits nearby). Only three other moulds of this type exist in Cornwall, from St Just, Tintagel Castle and St Mary’s, Scilly.

Dragonflies on The Lizard

It may seem odd to some of you that there is an article in Autumn about Dragonflies on The Lizard however there are still some on the wing. Furthermore there is a chance of a particular Dragonfly species in any month of the year. About 10 years ago a friend of mine (Andy Pay) found three Vagrant Emperor Dragonflies at Windmill Farm – these records represented the 18th, 19th and 20th records nationally. Since that time Vagrant Emperor sightings have become more common – though still rare. I have seen 14 individuals at Windmill Farm – 7 of which were this year (2 of them in October).

Male and female Vagrant Emperors

So when is the best time to look out for these wonderful insects? Vagrant Emperors are a migratory species that can travel a long distance – they mainly reside in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. The most likely time they travel this way is when we have had a period of strong southerly winds. They are about 6cms long and generally the body is beige/brown in colour with a blue patch on the second abdomen segment (this is the part of the dragonfly behind the wings). See https://british-dragonflies.org.uk/species/vagrant-emperor/.
The most likely species that you could confuse this with is Lesser Emperor (these are rare on The Lizard – in fact I have only seen 3 of these at Windmill Farm). Lesser Emperors are slightly bigger (7cm) with Green Eyes, darker body and a much brighter blue saddle (second segment) and fly between May and June. To be fair if you see any medium-large dragonfly in the period from December to March it is likely to be a Vagrant Emperor. Therefore keep your eyes open! Windmill Farm is one of the few places in the UK that you can see 3 species of different Emperor dragonflies.

Lesser Emperor (male)

Emperor (male)

Windmill Farm is a great place to find Dragonflies – there are still a few on the wing now. These species are Common Darter, Red Veined Darter, Emperor, Southern Hawker, Common Hawker and Migrant Hawker.

Published: Oct 2019
Author: Dougy Wright

The importance of temperature for rare butterfly

Exeter University research investigates the importance of temperature for rare butterfly.
2019 is proving to be a year of climatic extremes. Hot, sunny weather back in February saw the mercury hitting 20°C in some parts of the country, while in July the UK’s all-time maximum recorded temperature was exceed with a new record of 38.7 °C. Current research at the University of Exeter is helping to uncover how temperature affects our wildlife, with a special focus on one of the Lizard’s threatened species butterfly.

A male Silver-studded Blue butterfly

The Silver-studded Blue is a scarce butterfly in Britain, that can be found on the heaths and coastal grasslands of the Lizard. Elsewhere in Cornwall, it also occurs on sand dunes and some of the former mining sites in the region. This butterfly has a rather unusual lifecycle in that it has a special relationship with certain species of ant. The caterpillars produce a sweet, sugary liquid to reward ants, which in return protect it from predators and even let it live inside their nest. Because of this close association between butterfly and ant, Silver-studded Blues can only be found in places where the right species of ant occurs at high enough densities.

A black Lasius ant – the host species associated with Silver-studded Blues

Our research is investigating how both habitat conditions and temperature constrains the distribution of the butterfly and its associated ants. Temperature can vary greatly on a scale of centimetres or metres due to the influence of topography and vegetation. For small, cold-blooded insects, this fine-scale variation in “microclimate” can be very important in determining where they can and can’t live. We are studying this relationship with temperature at sites across Cornwall, looking at where the Silver-studded Blue and its host ants can be found, and what the habitat and microclimate conditions are like in these locations. One such site is the National Trust’s Penrose estate, where we are also looking at how the activity of Silver-studded Blues varies with different weather conditions and the time of day. This should help to give us a more mechanistic understanding about how environmental conditions directly affect the butterfly. By better understanding the factors important for allowing species to persistence within landscapes, we can improve our ability to predict how these species are likely to respond to future environmental changes.

Published: Sept 2019
Author: Marcus Rhodes (Exeter University)

Blame the jet stream

What a strange and capricious place the Lizard can be. At this time of year, I usually go and camp at Tenerife Campsite outside Mullion. It is a National Trust campsite characterised by its tranquility, calm and beautiful starry skies visible at night because the light pollution is at a minimum.This year, I chose a week that was bookended by two big low pressure systems sweeping in from the Atlantic, with a more modest yet sufficiently wet and windy mini-storm in the middle. Between these unseasonable weather events the sun shone, a gentle breeze ruffled grass, hair and dog fur, and all was well with the world. I arrived on the Monday, when the worst of the first storm had already slipped away east, its magnitude only evidenced by the soggy ground and my brother's diminishing stock pile of tent tape, to mend the rips forced open by 60mph gusts.On Tuesday we mooched over to Kennack Sands (the easterly, dog-friendly beach) and sat with our backs against the wall, marvelling at the rich colbalt sea and pretty fluffy clouds while Treacle snoozed with her nose in the sand. But higher up, beyond the benign cotton wool clouds, I could see higher, fast moving clouds, and I knew the balmy weather wouldn't last. Sure enough, Wednesday night treated us to a dowsing, with a soggy start to the morning.