Antisocial Butterfly

It was the last day of Biodiversity Week and I didn't feel competent at all to run the wildlife survey session for my team in the Southall Tiny Forest later in the day. I believe that experience is the best teacher, so I decided to get up earlier on Sunday to run to Trinity Way Open Space in East Acton where I had been planting another Tiny Forest three months ago.

It was a nice 5 km run and I was lucky to dodge the rain which started just when I arrived to the Tiny Forest. I waited under a tree until the shower passed, then got my survey kit on my phone ready. I entered the mulched ring for an endurance trial certainly more difficult than all the running I was planning to do that day. The butterfly survey required me to sit or stand still for 15 minutes. Can you imagine: 15 minutes?! Spoiler: there were zero butterflies. Maybe it was the recent rain, maybe the time of the day before midday - but that was the data I collected: zero butterflies.

Next up, I did the pollinator survey. That one was time-boxed for 10 minutes which was another mammoth trial of patience for me. It was also more successful. No bumblebees or bees visited the patch I surveyed, but I recorded some flies, small insects and a ladybug.

I saved the best for the last: the ground dwellers count. Quick and easy. Find a paving slab, lift it, count woodlice, slugs, centipedes, worms, spiders, ants and other cute wonders of the underworld, record the number on the Tiny Forest website, submit the results and you're done! I enjoyed that survey the most and repeated it for several slabs at the site before I left.

The results didn't show much biodiversity in the Trinity Way Tiny Forest at the time, but given that it is just a baby forest, it probably doesn't have trees mature enough to produce flowers and rich soil to attract more worms. Hopefully with time it will contribute to developing diversity of local wildlife.

I certainly developed some confidence in surveying wildlife at the morning task and was ready to share the experience with friends at Southall Tiny Forest. But first, I had to do a 12 km run!