THE WILTSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST’S VERA JEANS NATURE RESERVE 269 
April and May to the many Cuckoos which used to 
visit the reserve in the eighties and early nineties. 
Beetles 
by Michael Darby 
More than 200 species of beetle have been found at 
Jones’s Mill. They include representatives of most 
of the main families as one would expect given the 
wide range of habitats. This number, however, is 
based on a handful of observations only in 2001 and 
2002, and will certainly increase in future. One Red 
Data Book (RDB3) and ten nationally notable (Nb) 
species have been recorded. 
The RDB species is the small water beetle 
Eubria palustris which lives in flushes and wet 
hollows and was found in the South West Fen 
together with the Notable leaf beetle Plateumaris 
affinis, usually associated with sedges, and Stenus 
niveus, a Notable rove beetle living on reeds and 
other vegetation at the fen edge. Another unusual 
water beetle found here is Paracymus scutellaris, 
more commonly a denizen of moorland. 
The wide spread but local Notable species 
Scaphisoma boleti, Eledona agricola, Orchesia minor 
and Gyrophaena angustata, were all found in their 
preferred habitat in fungi on dead trees in one of 
the more heavily wooded parts of the middle of the 
Reserve. Here, too, the rare ‘soldier and sailor’ 
_ beetle Rhagonycha translucida also occurs. 
Perhaps the most spectacular of all the beetles 
found at Jones’s Mill is the black and yellow 
Longhorn beetle Strangalia quadrifasciata, which 
has been observed on several occasions running 
about on a log pile in which the larvae were 
undoubtedly living. This is a rare beetle nationally 
which has been expanding its range recently and it 
is now not uncommon in Wiltshire. Care must be 
taken however not to confuse it with the similar S 
aurentula, the female of which is larger and redder, 
another species which is also rare but expanding. 
The handsome weevil Grypus equiseti, the only 
Notable weevil found on the Reserve to date, was 
_ discovered after an intensive search, in a patch of its 
preferred food plants Horsetails, Equisetum species, 
close to the river in the east. 
Because Jones’s Mill supports a large number of 
old and decaying trees, and management has 
allowed for the retention of fallen and dead wood on 
site, it is certain that further sampling will increase 
the number of saproxylic beetle species recorded. 
To the important species living in this habitat 
already mentioned may be added the cardinal 
beetles Pyrochroa coccinea and P serraticornis, and 
the wood borer Prilinus pectinicornis. 
Birds 
The birds have been recorded for as long as Jones’s 
Mill has been a reserve. In particular the SSSI has 
been studied using the methods of the British Trust 
for Ornithology Common Bird Census during 1984 
— 1994, 1999, 2000 and 2002 — present. 
Including winter visitors, 66 species have been 
recorded, of which 43 are known to have bred. Six 
of these 66 have not been detected in the last ten 
years. One, the Lapwing Vanellus vanellus, is said to 
have been often seen on the reserve but there is no 
record of breeding; the other five, however, did. 
These were: Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis, 
Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos, Grasshopper 
Warbler Locustella naevia, Willow Tit Parus 
montanus, and Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella. 
Although regrettable, most of these losses are only 
in line with the national picture and there have 
been no further losses since 1988 (but a few gains, 
for example Buzzard Buteo buteo). Several of the 
nationally endangered birds (British Trust for 
Ornithology, 2003) are found regularly: 13 on the 
Amber List (9 breeding) and 6 on the Red List (3 
breeding). 
There used to be ‘any amount’ of drumming 
Snipe Gallinago gallinago up to the late 1940s (Wall, 
1999) but they last bred in 1982. However they still 
come regularly as winter visitors. There was a wisp 
of ten last winter, of which two birds stayed until 
early May. This might suggest that there is a chance 
they will breed again on the reserve, but the vast 
majority of snipe wintering in England are 
migrants from northern and eastern Europe 
(Wernham et al., 2002, 316). 
Water Rail Rallus aquaticus and Woodcock 
Scolopax rusticola visit in the winter. The former 
may be resident — they are notoriously difficult to 
observe in the breeding season — or in any case local 
birds. Breeding Woodcock, on the other hand, are 
so easy to detect from their roding flight that we can 
be confident that they do not breed on the reserve. 
As English birds are sedentary these are probably 
Scandinavian migrants (Wernham et al., 2002, 319). 
Kingfishers Alcedo atthis sometimes nest on the 
reserve in rootplates and regularly fish in the 
ponds, river and leats throughout the year. Last 
year on several days they could be seen repeatedly 
flying across the fen to their favourite stream, and 
then returning with beakfuls of fish to a nest just 
