Bird and Butterfly Boon project at Bicester MOD

by | Sep 16, 2019 |

This project began in 2015.  Thanks to the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE2) who awarded funds from Grundon Waste Management, we worked on the Bicester Bird and Butterfly Boon project at MOD Bicester, St Georges Barracks, Arncott.  This is a military site and therefore not open to the public.  We created a 10 year management plan with Paul Watts and this particular project ran until March 2018.  The habitat at this site has a significant amount of rough grass and scrub which is ideal for warblers and turtle doves and is one of the last remaining local strongholds for nightingales.   As well as the more common species of butterfly, a number of less common species were recorded in 2016 such as Purple Emperor, Purple, Black and Brown Hairstreak, White Admiral, Dingy and Grizzled Skippers.

Have a look below at the time lapse video taken at our session in January 2017.

In order to preserve the habitat for these species the scrub must be managed to prevent it reverting to woodland which would be unsuitable for many of the species mentioned above.  To do this we engage with volunteers from the MOD, Butterfly Conservation Upper Thames BranchBucks Bird Club and involve our local volunteers from High Wycombe.  We are also grateful to staff from Atkins Gobal who took part in Be a Ranger for a Day team building session.