Summer is finally here and the heathland is buzzing with wildlife! The flower beds outside the Visitor Centre are teeming with bees and painted lady butterflies attracted to the sweet-smelling lavender and salvia. Whilst over at the pond, bee orchids are popping up. These distinctive little plants are marvellous mimics having evolved to look like a female bee to attract male bees to them. The male bees, looking to mate with the fake female, end up pollinating the plant! In the UK, however, we don’t have the right species of bee and so our bee orchids are self-pollinating. We’ve seen more bee orchids here than we have in previous years which is great to see them doing well.
Our moth traps have been visited by some stunning moths too. Our favourites so far have been the impressive poplar hawk-moth, buff tip, light emerald, Scare Merveille di Jour and the cinnabar. Some of our youngest visitors helped us release the moths back onto the heath once they had been recorded which is always an enjoyable moment.
Out on the heath the reptiles have been abundant, enjoying the warm sunny weather. We spotted all 6 species, including a gorgeous female adder next to the Visitor Centre and a sand lizard laying her eggs at the edge of the path. We even had a little baby sand lizard pay us a visit in the Visitor Centre. Some of our young visitors had a good laugh watching the rangers try to catch the speedy little lizard to release it back onto the heath!
The birds have also been out in force, with 30 species coming out to say hello to everyone who joined our dawn chorus walk earlier this month led by our grazier, Richard. The highlights were a tree pipit, fire crests, a woodcock and a nightjar plus lots more. What a wonderful experience listening to the symphony of bird songs in the still morning air.
We have also welcomed a new calf to our herd this month. The little fella was born to mum Little Irene who is a Devon Red (she’s the one with the horns that often gets mistaken for a bull). His dad is a British White like the rest of the herd so he has wonderful mixed colours and markings. He was found by one of our lovely visitors peeping out of the gorse. The rangers let Richard know that a new arrival had been spotted and he quickly found the calf and gave him a health check. Congratulations Little Irene!
The lovely hot weather may have bought all the wildlife out, but the park has been very empty of visitors. May half term was one of the quietest school holidays we’ve seen with everyone heading to the beaches rather than the heathlands. Still, at least the wildlife probably enjoyed the peace and quiet!