Volunteers delighted at headland’s recovery

Les Tielles had been overrun by sour fig, an invasive plant, which swamped other plants and stifled biodiversity.

The Guernsey Conservation Volunteers have been working on the site for three years. And on Saturday, in their first meeting in 11 weeks, they were surprised to see how part of the area had recovered since last year’s clearing.

The headland has come to life with an array of wild flowers and plants, including red campion, ox-eye daises and sea beet.

‘It’s the biodiversity that comes back, which is what we want,’ GCV co-ordinator Angela Salmon said.

Despite a biting wind, the group had a great turn out.

‘We had 18 people on site and that is the highest number of people at a work party since 2014,’ Ms Salmon said.

‘We had eight people trying GCV for the very first time and we haven’t had that many new people at a single work party since 2008.

‘I’m convinced lockdown has had a positive impact on the number of people wanting to do their bit for nature. This is our first work party in 11 weeks and the number of people who came along was amazing.’

The group was joined by the Pollinator Project, which promotes supporting pollinators like bees and butterflies. The volunteers were socially distancing while they worked to remove pernicious new fig growth amongst the new wild flowers.

The group has been working on the site regularly since 2017 and in that time have removed 15 skip loads of green waste.

Ms Salmon said that after such a long break, it was lovely that this long-term project was the first working party back.

One person who has been following the march of the fig carpet has been Pollinator Project member Andrew Smith, who has been monitoring butterflies since 1998.

The south-facing, slightly protected area at Les Tielles is a favourite for the Glanville fritillary butterfly. In the British Isles, the orange and brown chequered butterfly is virtually restricted to coastal landslips on the southern half of the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands, along with a few coastal locations on the mainland.

It primarily lives on ribwort plantain, as well as sheep’s-bit. Unfortunately the butterflies’ preferred habitat is the same as the figs. And unfortunately the fig is not a suitable food sources for the butterflies and caterpillars.

It is not easy for butterfly eggs to make it to adulthood. Mr Smith counted nearly 300 larvae in the area earlier this year. But just 10 to 15 will survive to become butterflies.

. For more information on the GCV work and how to get involved visit https://gcv.org.uk/.