Making Wythenshawe wild again

In every area of the North West there are green oases, Cris Davenport proves they can be really important with a little TLC.

Seen by many as an area of Manchester defined by major urban infrastructure such as the airport, motorway, Metrolink tramline and other major roads; in reality Wythenshawe has some of the most important wildlife sites in the city.

Stretching from Brooklands and Northenden down to Woodhouse Park, it includes 15 Sites of Biological Importance (SBI’s), which are locally valued areas with designated protection because of their wildlife diversity, as well as 19 council-owned parks and many more important greenspaces.

Do you want to make a difference for wildlife? Check out our volunteer page on the website

These greenspaces create a string of pearls through this community offering opportunities to connect with semi-ancient natural woodlands filled with bluebells, open grasslands above which kestrels hunt and where ponds are home to amphibians and insects.

Community groups, Manchester City Council and environmental charities such as your Wildlife Trust and City of Trees, have been quietly working to improve the quality of these sites, whilst also “rewilding” other areas of greenspace to make Wythenshawe even more wildlife-friendly and lessen the impact of climate change.

Loss of biodiversity and the range of wildlife in an area, is one of the biggest threats of the changing environment. A complex network of species is essential to keep an ecosystem healthy and able to survive threats such as disease - once biodiversity is lost can be very difficult to restore.

On the northern border of Wythenshawe, connected to Chorlton Water Park is Kenworthy Woods which has just been designated a Local Nature Reserve, partly to recognise this fantastic site but also in celebration of the newly declared Biodiversity Strategy for Manchester.

Kenworthy Woods has the River Mersey running alongside it and one of the most exciting wildlife stories has been the recent re-emergence of otters along this stretch of the river. Confirmed sightings nearby are bringing hope of repopulation of such an important and beautiful species. The council have been driving forward work to make areas of greenspace more valuable for nature. For example at Cotefield and Foxfield the team have taken some areas out of their regular grass cutting schedule and sown wildflowers to create areas of meadow in the heart of our residential areas.

These new meadows may look more unmanaged and wilder but they provide lots of flowers for pollinators such as bees and butterflies, which in time will bring in more wildlife species such as the birds and bats that feed on them.

Through the Rewilding Wythenshawe project Manchester City Council has planted over 1.3km of native hedging including reinstating existing hedges, planting sections of fruiting species to benefit people and wildlife, and planting new hedging with volunteer school children.

Hedges are proven to be an effective method of capturing pollutants and storing carbon, an important asset to our parks and greenspaces in our changing climate.

Wythenshawe Waste Warriors (WWW) is one of the key community groups taking action for the environment in Wythenshawe. WWW have and continue to work alongside us at LWT, the council and other groups to plant spring bulbs, clear encroaching scrub in valuable meadow areas and maintain paths.

Grace Buczkowska from WWW said:

“We hope that the funding for nature maintenance and recovery will continue well into the future so the great work done so far, as well as LWT's plans will create a lasting legacy in Wythenshawe and Manchester.”

As part of the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, City of Trees have hosted public volunteering days in the Wythenshawe woodlands, conducting both pond and woodland management. One of the key species which will benefit is the hedgehog. There are recent records highlighting that hedgehogs are present in many areas of Wythenshawe but we know that more action is needed for these iconic mammals, as well as other wildlife species, if they are to thrive in our communities.

Delicate, vibrant, enchanting: these might not be words you normally associate with slugs, but sea slugs have no respect for normal. There are several groups that you may come across on UK shores and even the most familiar looking of these, the sea hares, are quirky. These plump brown slugs have tall ear-like rhinophores (scent-sensitive tentacles) and a hidden shell. They lay a tangle of eggs that resemble pink spaghetti and produce a ‘smoke-screen’ of violet ink if disturbed. The solar powered sea slug, on the other hand, belongs to the sap-suckers group. It eats seaweed, retaining the photosynthesising parts – the chloroplasts – in its body, where they supplement the slug’s diet with sugars, like a built-in snack bar.

The largest group of sea slugs, the nudibranchs, are the strangest and most visually stunning of all. With dozens of species to be found in our rock pools and shallow seas, they have become my delight and obsession.

Heather Buttivant is a Cornwall Wildlife Trust volunteer, proud ‘nudi’ fanatic and author of the award-winning blog, cornishrockpools.com

She has published two books: Rock Pool and Beach Explorer

Gills and frills

Nudibranchs, or ‘nudis’, as they are affectionately known by their evergrowing fan club, are shell-less sea slugs. Their name comes from the Latin, nudus branchia, meaning ‘naked gill’. Nudibranchs are a flamboyant bunch, so they turn their gills into stylish accessories.

One of our most common rocky shore nudibranchs, the sea lemon (Doris pseudoargus), is a case in point. When underwater, this bumpy yellow animal unfurls a glamorous, feathery circle of honey-yellow gills on its back. Other nudibranchs, like the bright purple Edmundsella pedata have spiky projections called ‘cerata’, providing a large surface area through which they breathe in oxygen.

Tiny Doto spp. slugs win my prize for the craziest body shape. Their white cerata, shaped like towering jelly moulds adorned with cherry-red spots, are so high that they wobble precariously. Their heads sport two tall rhinophores sheathed in a wide dish, as though they are trying to detect alien radio signals.

Amphorina spp. slugs inflate and deflate their cerata, Facelina spp. have ringed rhinophores like unicorn horns, while Polycera spp. slugs’ heads are fringed with colourful tentacles. Anything goes when you’re a nudibranch.

You are what you eat

If you are used to peaceable garden slugs, it can be unsettling to discover that nudibranchs are devout carnivores. While each species has a preferred diet, between them they eat sponges, barnacles, hydroids, anemones, bryozoans, sea squirts and more.

Some nudibranchs change colour. The sea lemon, for instance, turns into a ‘sea orange’ after eating orange sponges. Great grey sea slugs (Aeolidia spp.) dive in headfirst to feed among the treacherous stinging tentacles of anemones, their pale grey bodies and cerata often turning bright pink as they eat. Inside their cerata, great grey slugs retain the anemone’s stinging cells, which fire toxic harpoons at any predator that tries to bite them. Other slugs, like Geitodoris planata, have acid glands that burn attackers.

Most incredible of all are the Calma slugs. The vivid blue and yellow Calma glaucoides feeds on clingfish eggs, while its relation, Calma gobioophaga has cerata the shape of goby eggs, allowing it to evade the male goby’s efforts to guard its brood. The fish eggs are so efficiently digested that Calma slugs have no anus and never poo.

Slug safari

For the best chance of finding sea slugs, join an organised event or Shoresearch survey, where experts will be on hand to help you discover more. Look for pale spirals of sea slug spawn on rocks and favourite foods, but even the brightest slugs can be well camouflaged. If possible, place your nudibranch in water and watch it magically puff up. Be gentle as sea slugs are delicate. Always put the nudibranch back where it came from, leave everything as you found it and watch the tides.

Finding your first nudibranch is like discovering a sparkling gem. Their exquisite colours and eye-catching shapes make them true treasures of the rock pools.