Wildlife
Report

The long grass and vegetation such as the hemlock water dropwort and meadow sweet is an ideal place to look for invertebrates such as grasshoppers and crickets. Easily distinguished from each other by the length of their antennae. Grasshoppers have short, stubby antennae whereas those of the cricket are long and bend back over their body. Look out for the great bush cricket, which is a local specialty and reaches 8 cm at maturity.

Due to the dark nature of the woodland carr, butterflies are fewer in number. The edges and glades, wet meadows and the open grassland areas adjoining the woodland are more fruitful. Gatekeeper, ringlet, common blue, painted lady and clouded yellow are but some of the species to be seen.

The paths through the wet woodland lead you to each pond in turn, all of which have a slightly different character which means the diversity of the wildlife in the area is increased. There are four ponds in total, two have fish; carp, tench, rudd and roach.

The vegetation consists of yellow flag iris, marsh marigold, typha, fools water cress, water figwort and water mint. The ponds are regularly visited by the heron, which can be seen standing motionless ready to take an unsuspecting fish or frog. Look out for the electric blue flash of a kingfisher as it flies past often accompanied with its high pitched ‘peep peep’ call.

The branches of the alder and willow trees overhanging the ponds are excellent perching post for the kingfisher.

Moorhen can be seen scuttling in and out of the vegetation and dashing across the grassed areas and little grebe may also be seen particularly in the lily ponds. Mallards are a common sight too along with Canada geese and even little egret. Grey wagtails with their grey and yellow plumage can also be seen around the ponds.

The ponds are excellent habitat for the insects, diving beetles and freshwater hoglouse and shrimps and therefore the ideal home for reptiles and amphibians including frogs, toads, grass snakes and newts. There are plenty of tadpoles to be seen particularly in the lily ponds where on sunny days the shallower areas will be a black writhing mass.

Look out for the young grass snakes which are no thicker than a pencil, swimming across the water or slithering through the undergrowth. In the summer months look out for dragonflies and damselflies flying around the area.

Damselflies are daintier and fold their wings behind them at rest whereas dragonflies are much more robust and hold their wings out at rest. Damselflies such as blue-tailed, common blue and small and large red can be seen flying around along with dragonflies such as golden ringed, emperor, black tailed skimmer and southern hawker.

Look out for the beautiful demoiselle particularly by the running water of the stream. At first glance it could be mistaken for a butterfly due to its fluttering flight, it is in fact a damselfly. The male has a blue iridescent body with dark navy wings whereas the female has a green iridescent body and copper wings.
The hedgerows bottoms in the spring and summer are full of wildflowers such as foxglove, primrose, lesser stitchwort, lesser celandine, red campion, lords¬and-ladies, herb robert, garlic mustard, violet and wood sage. Many species of fern including hart’s tongue, hard shield-fern, male-fern, lady-fern, broad buckler and soft shield-fern can all be found in the hedgerows as well.

Autumn is a good time to look for fungus; many different types of fungi can be found on the dead wood in the hedgerows and carr, including orange peel fungus, dead man’s fingers and candle snuff fungus and on the woodland floor earthballs can be found, you may come across the putrid smell of the stink horn, they are hard to find as their smell travels some distance.