The hot weather has continued throughout July and the heathland is looking pretty dry. It’s still beautiful though with the heather coming into flower, turning the heath purple. Butterflies have been abundant, enjoying the tasty nectar of the heather. We’ve recorded really good numbers of silver-studded blues this year which is great to see. Their flight season will soon be over but it has been lovely seeing so many out on the heath. One lucky young visitor was given the special honour of having a silver-studded blue land on her which was a lovely moment.
Our sand lizards in our enclosure have been loving the sun and showing off to their adoring public. Our bat specialist has also been out checking the bat boxes around the site and found them being used by soprano pipistrelle bats which is great to see. This is really encouraging as it means that the boxes we’ve put up are in the right places and have been deemed suitable real estate by the bats.
This month we have welcomed several school groups to the site to learn about why heathlands are so special and how we can protect them. The kids have loved meeting the rangers and exploring the heathland. The ranger team has also been joined by a couple of work experience students. During their time with us, they got involved in a range of tasks including putting up new fencing and carrying out wildlife surveys. It has been really nice to pass on our knowledge and experience to the next generation of rangers.
The team has also been getting the site ready for the big school summer holidays! The start of the holidays has seen lots of visitors enjoying the park and our fun range of events and activities.
We’ve got:
- archery
- birds of prey
- flower art
- moth traps
- evening bat walks
- the return of mad4animals shows
- our popular summer activity trail
There’s so much for local visitors and holiday makers to do. We anticipate a busy summer and so are very thankful that our overflow car parking area is now open and usable meaning that we can cut queuing times for our visitors.
In response to the very hot weather we’ve been having this year, we have installed 2 new sunshades in the play area. These have been super popular from day one and are offering a very welcome relief from the sun for our visitors.
Finally, we were absolutely delighted this month to once again receive a Green Flag Award! This award is a mark of excellence for our dedication to the environment and our fantastic visitor services. The rangers and volunteers work hard to make Avon Heath such a special place and so it is wonderful to receive this recognition.