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It's always a privelage to listen to someone who is more knowledgeable than we are and to learn from them. Local ecologist Pauk Ritchie has become a regular contributor to our events and his well illustrated talk on ponds provided an opportunity to learn from his experience and for our nature loving community to come together. 4B residents Kevin Clarke and Suzy Stevens shared their experiences of making and maintaining wildlife ponds and provided a lot of encouragement to just have a go. Their key message - if you put in the effort you will help wildlife and be rewarded for your efforts. In addition to the talk several participants collected their Pond Starter Kits and one generous resident donated around 50 water lily tubers to the ponds for nature campaign. The event was abley compared by Simon Fellowes and well supported by members of the 4Bs biodiversity initiative team. A recording of the talk is provided below.
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Perhaps we think that most of the ponds we see are natural. But this is not the case. Most, if not all of the significant ponds in the 4Bs landscape were not formed by natural processes. They have been constructed by people at different points in time for different purposes. Historically, the pond-scape of the 4Bs is the result of contributions from 5 different sources -1) industrial processes – milling, sand extraction and quarrying 2) the landscaping of estates during Georgian, Victorian and modern times 3) the mitigation of flooding in and around the river Mole 4) farming 5) the ponds that residents install in their own gardens and retained from one owner to another. The most important natural influences on the distribution of ponds in the 4Bs are: 1) the River Mole and its tributaries and drainage system and 2) the geology and mining – sand extraction from the Lower Greensand near Buckland has resulted in significant depressions within the aquifer which have filled with water. Figure 1 shows the more significant ponds in the landscape i.e. ponds that are visible on maps and Google Earth. Figure 1 attempts to categorise the ponds and, where possible, date them. Figure 1 Significant ponds and lakes in the 4Bs This is the first version and it will evolve as more information is added. Please help us improve the information on it. Send comments to [email protected]  4Bs Resident Pond Survey We are keen to expand our knowledge of garden ponds in the 4Bs if you livein Buckland, Betchworth, Brockham or Boxhill and you would like to contribute to our resident survey click here Norman Jackson is the coordinator of the 4Bs Biodiversity Initiative  In 2012 I moved in to my property in Brockham and discovered a geologically improbable stone cairn from the top of which emerged a fountain!  In 2015 I replaced the improbable stone cairn with a water feature with 5 leaves. It was used for drinking and bathing by blue tits and other birds, which I sometimes catch queuing up with face flannels, bars of soap and towels tucked under their wings.  In March 2025 the cobbles and metal grid cover were removed to expose the black butyl liner of what had been the reservoir for the water feature. I’m passionate about hedgehogs and there is a permanent ‘infestation’ of hedgehogs in my garden, so a hedgehog escape ramp was quickly installed!  In June 2025 the pond was planted with a range of floating and oxygenating plants which grew well in the warm weather. Watercress was planted later and first harvested in October. One water beetle and Daphnia infestation so far but I remain optimistic. Richard Selley is a resident of Brockham and President of the Mole Valley Geological Society. He is a self-declared fan of hedgehogs and runs a mailist on their behalf under the nom de plume 'hog whisperer'.
I was one of the lucky people who received a free pond starter kit in 2024 and I would like to share my experiences. Why do I have a pond? This is something I’d had in mind for the past few years but did nothing until inspired by the gardening for biodiversity talk in Buckland in June 2024. How did I select the location? I’d read that the more sun the better and knowing how many leaves fall from my trees I decided to put it in the middle of the garden. The preferred position would allow it to be observed from the house but I’d already converted most of the lawn to a meadow (it’s just a wildflower area really!) which partly blocks the view from the house. How was the hole dug? By me with just a spade. I started in July 2024 but the ground was too hard. I resumed in September but by late October it became too cold (for my poor hands!), so I did nothing more until March 2025. One advantage of having the liner down by October is that the pond filled with rainwater over the winter. What shape is the pond? Roughly circular with a stoney ramp to the wildlife corridor. The centre of the pond is over 0.5m deep with a ledge about 0.25m deep; the diameter is about 2m. The wildlife corridor joins it long grass and shrubs. What happened to the turf and spoil? The turf went around the pond to create a bee bank (turf on top of some building sand). The spoil was scattered around the garden. It’s only have a small garden but managed to recycle everything.  How much did it cost me? Absolutely nothing! The liner and most of the plants were courtesy of the 4B’s gardening for biodiversity. If I had bought these it would have cost me around £40. Pots and aquatic compost came from another 4Bs enthusiast. The surround is rocks that I’ve collected over the past few years (yes, I had a pond in mind for ages!). A few plants have been added and these have been family gifts (I thankfully have a birthday in March!). Freecyle was also a good source! Any wildlife so far? The pond has proved very popular with cats and birds looking for a drink. Of course, the cats aren’t wild but they act like it in my garden! As soon as I added tall flag irises then dragonflies were attracted.There might be a few tiny beasties that over-wintered in the deep section but maybe there’ll be more when word gets around that there’s free accommodation on offer! I put a boulder in the deep section, and together with lots of sunken leaves, this is a perfect combination for hibernation apparently.  What have I learnt? Because I was eager to finish in 2024, I didn’t dig as deep as I wanted and cut the liner too soon. I should have planned the position for the pond before creating the wildflower patch. The amount of evaporation was overlooked in warmer months - this year has been particulary dry and hot. This is reduced by having murky water and minimising the amount of water surface (eg floating lilies are a good idea). I overlooked the need to oxygenate the water but several yellow flag irises are remedying that. I forgot to get a blanket to underlie the liner, so instead I used a lot of towels beneath the liner (to stop sharp stones puncturing it) – I’m sure professionals use bedding sand! Now it is established I have enjoyed contemplating my small wildlife pond. I can honestly say that the benefits to me and to wildlife, far exceed the time, effort and cost in building one. Kevin Clarke is an active member of the 4Bs Nature Group and a recent recruit to the 4Bs Biodiversity Initiative Team  A healthy pond is a living ecosystem and, in the UK, ponds go through a cycle each year that reflects the seasonal changes. These changes affect water temperature, water levels, plant growth, animal behaviour, and overall ecology- the way living and non-living things interact with and depend on each other. Here’s a breakdown of what typically happens in a temperate climate like the UK. Spring
Norman Jackson is the 4Bs Biodiversity Initiative team leader   It's time to sow wildflower seed.
Wildflower meadows typically flower between May and September, so it seems odd to be talking about them at the end of the flowering season. But September and October is the best times to sow for next years crop of wildflowers. Betchworth is well known for its wildflowers. In 2023, 70 residents participated in Re-Betchworth’s, B-Line project. The B stands for biodiversity and B-Lines are an attempt to improve biodiversity within a network of narrow corridors that criss-cross the country connecting different regional scale habitats for wildlife. B-Lines are a simple but powerful idea developed by ‘Buglife’ – the Invertebrate Conservation Trust, to help reverse the rapid decline of wildflower meadows and pollinating insects by encouraging people and landowners to cultivate more wildflowers and protect the wildflowers that already exist. The B-Line project encouraged Betchworth residents to cultivate more wildflowers to help insect pollinators, many of which are in decline. 5kg of perennial wildflower seed containing over 30 species and 5 million seeds was sown, covering an area of around 2000 sq m. In 2025 another 4000 sq m of wildflower cultivation have been added thanks to the significant areas sown by the Betchworth Estate. With the financial assistance of Betchworth Parish Council and the Betchworth & Buckland Society the 4Bs Biodiversity Initiative is providing residents of Buckland, Betchworth, Brockham and Box Hill with free native wildflower seed. The seeds will need to be sown in September or October on to bare soil. Please dig up any grasses or weeds before you sprinkle the seed on the soil. When sown tread the seed into the ground so it makes good contact and water well. The ultimate goal of our More Wildflowers Campaign is to make the 4Bs a place where wildflowers can flourish. TO REQUEST YOUR FREE SEED PLEASE email [email protected] with the size of area you would like to sow and your address. Information about sowing and manintaining a wildflower patch can be found here READ MORE Norman Jackson is the 4Bs Biodiversity Initiative team leader  One in a while something suddenly clicks. The idea of an evening Moth and Bat watch grew out of two things. 1) because these creatures are active when most people can't see them they get overlooked 2) the nocturnal foraging and pollinating activities of moths are closely related to the nocturnal activities of bats that feed on them North Betchworth provides an ideal location for observing this relationship. North Betchworth is formed by the Chalk and Upper Greensand hills of the North Downs and underlying Gault Clay. The area contains a good range of habitats for wildlife including grasslands, woodland and a pond that all support a diverse population of flying insects that provide food for a range of bat species (Figure 1). Figure 1 Habitats for wildlife in North Betchworth. The red area is the location of moth & bat watch. So the final activity of our summer programme was an outdoor event led by professional ecologist and bat survey specialist Josh Brown who introduced a small group of interested residents to moth trapping before showing us how useful bat detectors can be in identifying fast flying bats. A flavour of the bat teatre can be gained from this short movie. Norman Jackson is the 4Bs Biodiversity Initiative Team Leader 4Bs Butterfly Count : Is it a great summer for butterflies or are we just returning to normal?11/8/2025 Early profusion of butterflies A number of people commented in the 4Bs nature group that this is a good year for butterflies. The spring and early summer hot dry sunny weather brought out sightings of clouds of white butterflies in May and June. But butterfly sitings were less frequent in July as more unsettled, cooler, cloudy and wetter weather become the norm. The early summer profusion is in stark contrast to the summer of 2024 the second worst for common butterflies since scientific records began in 1976. We won’t know whether it has been a good year for butterflies until the results from the Big Butterfly Count are published. But our small 4Bs sample will at least provide a pointer to the national picture.  4Bs Butterfly Populations are Recovering in 2025 The annual Big Butterfly Count finished on August 10th. 78 counts were made within the 4Bs area and 910 butterflies were observed during the 15 minute counts. Very few counts observed no butterflies, although on cloudy cooler and windy days you would be hard pressed to find a butterfly in the air. On sunny days counts were typically in double figures with 3 to 5 species being spotted during a 15 minute period and the average of all counts in the 4Bs was 11.7 butterflies per count. This is similar to the overall national average of 10.3 and considerably higher than the all time low of 7 per count in 2024, due to the poor spring weather. Our most abundant butterflies were 1) Large White 2) Meadow Brown 3) Small White 4) Gatekeeper 5) Common Blue. This compares to the national survey where the most abundant butterflies were 1) Large White 2) Small White 3) Gatekeeper 4) Red Admiral 5) Meadow Brown Our Large and Smal White butterflies have done particularly well this year compared to last year where the Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper butterflies were the most abundant. So has it been a good year for butterflies?
One thing is certain - its been a lot better than last year. While the average of 11 per count in 2025 is considerably higher than average of 7 per count in 2024 its broadly in line with the average of 12 butterflies (including day-flying moths) per 15-minute count in 2023. So this year we might claim that our butterfly populations have recovered to 2023 levels. Towards a sustained revovery? For butterflies to really flourish we need a series of back-to-back,climatically favourable years Then flying insect numbers really boom. This happened in the late 1940s and again in 1974, 1975, 1976 as well as 1982, 1983, 1984 and, to a lesser extent, 1994, 1995, 1996. This century, we’ve experienced scattered decent butterfly summers – 2003, 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2018 – but no consolidation of good years. The fluctuations of global heating will probably thwart a run of truly brilliant butterfly summers but here’s hoping 2025 is start of a series of good summers which will enable a more sustained rcovery. Source Butterfly watch: A very good summer for butterflies or a return to average Guardian News Paper Patrick Barkham Norman Jackson is the 4Bs Biodiversity Initiative Team leader Its the first time we have tried to do an evening event, but judging by feedback from the 16 participants, it was a great success. Brockham Quarry Nature Reserve, is one of the jewels in the 4Bs biodiversity crown. 90 years ago it was a busy and noisy industrial site, now its a peaceful haven for wildlife. It teaches us a lesson in how, given time, nature reclaims even the most damaged environments. We are grateful to local ecologist Paul Rictchie for his excellent guided tour and Paul shares some of his thoughts in the rest of this post. Paul's Notes These notes reflect the main topics we considered on our guided walk of the quarry. At the end of the notes you will find a short movie I made with the 4Bs Biodiversity team about the wildlife habitats in the quarry. We talk about biodiversity - but what do we mean? Biodiversity is the variety of life, including species, habitats, ecological processes the natural environment around us. Historically in the UK we tended to conserve species (Giant Panda, Blue Whale etc) until we realised that without the right habitats these species will not survive. Our focus then shifted to managing habitats or homes of species. More recently nature conservation is concerned with whole ecological systems - how biodiversity works in an area because of the interaction and interdependencies of all organisms and their environment. Attention is now focused on understanding environments and exploring ecological processes, such as rewilding, as the way to protect, sustain and enhance biodiversity. Ecological processes In the UK all ecological processes and conservation activity is targeted at semi-natural habitats and ecosystems because there is no natural environment left in Britain. The flora and fauna we see today arrived after the last Ice Age and with the melting glaciers came humans (Homo sapiens) and we are a key species affecting everything we touch and not always for good. Our impact on the environment changed dramatically once we ceased being nomadic hunter-gatherers and became farmers. The first process I talked about at Brockham Quarry was the human activity of quarrying, an industrial process that extracted chalk to burn for lime and left behind exposed chalk cliffs, scree slopes of chalk debris and spoil heaps on the quarry floor. Although highly destructive at the time this commercial activity left a wonderful space for nature to colonise and a legacy of dynamic ecological processes that are leading to the creation of diverse semi-natural habitats. Read more about Brockham Lime Works http://www.brockhamhistory.org/business-and-industry/lime-works/  Next we considered the ecological process of natural succession, which is a dynamic progress from open ground through a series of changes in habitat and plant and animal communities living there, to close canopy woodland in the UK. Nature does not favour bare ground, so bare flower beds, or allotment plots, or in this case bare chalk slopes, scree and rubble get colonised by ruderal plants, which change soil conditions so that other plants such as wildflowers, trees and shrubs can colonise. The final ecological process we considered is grazing by large herbivores such as cattle, horses, goats, sheep and pigs, which are generally missing from most semi-natural habitats in the UK. Historically auroch (wild cattle), bison, red deer, wild ponies and wild boar had a key physical impact on vegetation cover, grazed or browsed on plants and created bare ground habitats. The ‘modern’ concept of rewilding is all about restoring natural ecological processes such as grazing to ecosystems such as at the Knepp Estate near Horsham. Habitats & species The outcome of these industrial and ecological processes in Brockham Quarry is a dynamic ecosystem based on chalk rock covered in places by thin, poor, free-draining alkaline soils. This is reflected by four key semi-natural habitats – rocky slopes (with scree), chalk grassland, scrub and lowland mixed-deciduous woodland. The chalk cliffs provide home to a variety of large nesting birds of prey and crows and are topped by three types of woodland – dominated by yew, beech and oak & ash trees. Where trees and shrubs have managed to get a foot-hold the mixed deciduous woodland has spread down into the quarry with areas of closed canopy woodland and scrub. The scrub comprises young yew, oak, ash, birch, field maple and sycamore trees, as well as whitebeam, dogwood, hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn and holly bushes. Scrub is a maligned habitat, often seen as a nuisance or threat to grasslands but it provides important shelter and food for insects and songbirds. The poor alkaline soils of the chalk grassland do not favour coarse vigorous grasses often found in open habitats, which provides space for a variety of wildflowers such as thyme, wild marjoram, vipers bugloss, hemp agrimony and scabious. These plants are all important food sources for a variety of bees, beetles, bugs, butterflies and moths. The absence of mowing on the quarry floor has resulted in the development of lots of anthills. Management These key semi-natural habitats contribute to the quarry being a Site of Special Scientific Interest but they require human management in the absence of wild herbivores and the large carnivores that control them. To stop or turn back the process of natural succession to closed canopy woodland requires the introduction of domestic herbivores such as the feral goats or human volunteers armed with bowsaws and loppers. 4Bs Nature Movie - Paul Rictchie describes the wildlife habitats of Brockham Quarry  We encourage people to let their gardens ‘grow wild’ so that wildflowers flourish, mature and set seed. Grassland habitats in gardens help provide cover and food for insects, and enable insects to complete key parts of their life cycle. This is a practice we have embraced in our own garden for or ARK. Such habitats need to be managed and every year the time comes to decide when to cut the grass. Cutting too early before wildflowers set seed reduces the biodiversity of lawns and grassland areas. Cutting too late results in a thatch of dead plants that also reduces floral diversity. But not cutting at all is the worse option, almost as bad as constant mowing, with vigorous ‘thugs’ such as bramble taking over. When I cut our grass is guided by the weather. This year, with the hot dry spring and summer, many wildflowers have gone to seed early. But we're also playing catch up as last year we failed to cut the grassland areas because of family commitments. I will cut different areas of the garden each week or so through August and into September, but areas intending for sowing wildflower seed should be started now. I’ve been scything and mowing our grassland areas today and I thought I’d share some photos which illustrate the approach we take in case it is of interest to others. Scything is good method for not eradicating insects or other wildlife and if you cut late summer and autumn the adult butterflies and grasshoppers can escape and you don't kill over wintering eggs, larvae or pupae (photo A below).   I use an Austrian scythe, a grass rake, hay fork and a small lawn mower that has seven settings for the height of cut.
I begin by scything areas of long grass and pull excess nettles and dead-head vigorous wildflowers I don't want to cast seed everywhere e.g. hogweed & ragwort (photo A). After scything the next step is raking up (photo B). I would normally leave cuttings on the ground for a few days to allow seeds to drop in patches with lots of wildflowers. But in this part of the garden, we will spread yellow rattle to reduce the vigour of the grasses and a meadow wildflower seed mix to enhance biodiversity. We rake up all the long grass cuttings and pitchfork into our home-made 'hayricks' formed using 3 hazel poles cut from our hedge last winter (photo C). As well as being a great way to dispose of cuttings these mini hay ricks provide a habitat for slow worms, grass snakes, small mammals & insects. The final step is to mow a short sward close to the footpath with a lawn mower (photo D). I collect and remove cuttings, which go into our compost bins, so that wildflowers such as dandelion and daisy can flourish too. During August I will cut again and scarify before sowing wildflower seed. It is always best to sow seeds in autumn. In the final photo (E) you can see how I've cut alternating patches along the edge of the footpath so that I retain long grass habitat down length of the garden for wildlife. This is important cover for grassland species of insect, slow worm, grass snake, field vole, newt & toads... all of which inhabit our wildlife friendly garden. I don't cut all the long grass and meadow areas at the same time because we have lots of grassland butterfly and grasshopper species in our garden. |
4Bs Nature Group BlogThis blog is maintained by the 4Bs Biodiversity Initiative Team. Its purpose is to provide brief updates of activities and encourage the sharing of experiences and learning. We welcome guests and contributions from members of the 4Bs WhatsApp Nature Group and wider community. To contribute a post please email the editor at biodiversityinititiative1 @gmail.com PagesArchives
January 2026
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