| Ryton Wood Meadows Reserve (Grid Ref: SP378728) |
The Ryton Wood Meadow Reserve is an old sand and gravel pit that had been used for landfill and capped with clay and topsoil. The developing grassland managed by Butterfly Conservation now supports breeding populations of 32 different species, including Grizzled Skipper and Dingy Skipper, Green Hairstreak and Brown Argus.
Since regular recording began in 1990, it is thought that 33 species of butterfly have been resident or bred on this site. The Wall Brown is however now thought to be extinct on the reserve.
Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire has agreed a 25 year lease for most of the site, with a small part near country park which is under a management only agreement. |
| Above: Three Cows and Calves were introduced to meadow area 2 in July and with their help, the habitat for butterflies and other wildlife on our reserve will continue to improve. Photo by Mike Slater. |
| The Reserve was officially opened on the 28th May 2007 by Dr Martin Warren, Chief Executive of Butterfly Conservation. The event was kindly supported by Barclays Bank and marked the 10th Anniversary of the Warwickshire Branch.
[+] more information |
| History of the Ryton Wood Meadow site |
In the 1960’s an area to the South East of the Leamington Road, Ryton was brought by Steetley Aggregates. The site included approximately 150 acres of farmland and approximately 100 acres of Ryton Wood. During the 1960’s to the early 1990’s the area was mined for sand and gravel. This sand and gravel extraction resulted in the loss of between 40 to 60 acres of Ryton Wood.
From the late 1980’s through the 1990’s, the process of restoring the site commenced. The north east of the site was restored with inert building waste. The rest of the site was in-filled with household rubbish and then capped with sub-soil. The area where the building waste was dumped during the late 1980’s became colonised by a forest of Buddleia bushes. This became a great place to watch butterflies in the late summer especially for migrant species. During the tidying up process the site was bulldozed and leveled in the winter of 1990/91. As a consequence all the Buddleia bushes were lost. In 1995 the site was finally closed as a landfill site although further restoration work still had to take place.
Site ownership changed twice first from Steetley Aggregates to Redland and then to LaFarge. Throughout this time, all three companies allowed a full butterfly and day-flying moth transect survey to take place starting in 1990 and conducted by Mike Slater. This allowed Mike to fully assess the site importance for butterflies and moths. Once the site's importance was realised the owners were notified. Thanks to this liaison, suggestions were made to Redland on how the site should be restored. It was also suggested that the site should be sown with a wildflower seed mix and Mike managed to specify the type of wildflower seed mix to be used. Approximately half the site has been sown with a wildflower seed mix in two areas. A further quarter of the site had been colonised naturally and the last quarter of the site was left fallow. The boundary between Ryton Country Park has also been planted with a native hedgerow mix. In 2000 and 2001 minor management work was commenced by cutting a series of paths through the North East of the site. In 2003 more extensive mowing and raking of areas was started to prepare the site to become a nature reserve. |
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| Habitat Management and Creation |
| In an attempt to enhance breeding habitat for the Grizzled Skipper (Pygus malvae) at Ryton Wood Meadows Reserve, a low dry stone wall was laid to create egg-laying habitat in a herb-rich grassland. During subsequent egg searches, it became apparent that the butterflies preferred to lay eggs on the leaves of Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans) which were growing over stones in the wall. The relatively high egg density found one year after the wall construction suggests that this habitat is now more suitable than a nearby, traditionally used, coppiced ditch habitat. |
| Grizzled Skipper Habitat Report |
Creation of a dry stone wall to create egg laying habitat for Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus malvae at Ryton Wood Meadows Butterfly Conservation Reserve, Warwickshire, England.
by Mike Slater |
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Published in Conservation Evidence (2007) 4, 35–40   (270kb) |
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| Above: Perfect Grizzled Skipper egg-laying site and eggs laid on the leaves of Creeping Cinquefoil. |
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In 1990 a section of transect was set up in the northern area of the site (part of the Ryton Wood and Pool Transect). In 1991 a further section was added along part of the northern edge of Ryton Wood (part of the Ryton North Transect). The landfill site is now covered by a full butterfly and day-flying moth transect.
Part of our reserve will also include a small part of Ryton Wood. To ensure all the reserve is fully surveyed a further section of Ryton Wood to the East of our reserve was started in 2003. To add to the day-flying moth records, Mike Astley and other regular mothers commenced moth trapping on the landfill site and in the small section of Ryton Wood which is part of the reserve. |
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| Map of the Reserve |
| The following map show the reserve in relation to Ryton Pools Country Park and Ryton Wood. The map also shows transects and new fencing erected during spring 2008 which allows us to graze the reserve. Download an A4 copy of the reserve map (616kb) |
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| Ryton Wood Meadows Reports |
| 2007 Transect report (737kb) |
| Working in Partnership |
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| The Ryton Wood Meadows Reserve is owned by LaFarge and managed by Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire. |
| Ryton Wood Meadows Reserve Map |
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| Reserve Map (616kb) |
| Reserve Map (Grazing) (944kb) |
| Field Identification Report |
Jaye Whalley has just completed her first year at Leicester University studying Ecology and Wildlife Conservation. As part of her course.
Jaye, who is a member of Butterfly Conservation decided to produce the report on our reserve after hearing Mike Slater talk about the reserve at the Butterfly Conservation AGM last year.
Read Jaye's report (1,198kb) |
| Rare Butterfly Species at Ryton |
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| Dingy Skipper and Grizzled Skipper occur in small numbers on the meadow but with recent improvements in habitat management, it is hoped that the numbers of these key species will increase over the next few years. |
| Common Butterfly Species at Ryton |
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| Some of the more common species which you are likely to see at our Ryton Meadows Reserve include Common Blue, Small Copper and Brown Argus. |
| Moths of Ryton Meadow Reserve |
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Our Ryton Wood Meadow Reserve contains many important moth species.
The reserve also supports several species of day-flying moth: |
| Cinnabar |
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| Narrow-bordered 5-Spot Burnet |
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| 6-Spot Burnet |
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| Lattice Heath |
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| Burnet Companion |
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| Hummingbird Hawk-moth |
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| Silver Y |
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| Mother Shipton |
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| Supported by |
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| The Ryton Wood Meadows Reserve is supported by Barclays. |
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LaFarge