Last month, on a hot sunny Saturday I spent the day studying the wildlife at the Park. The area has diverse types of habitat from open grassland, young tree plantations to established woodland which contains many mature oak trees and a very fine stand of hornbeam. The woodland is also managed to attract owl species including tawny, barn and little owls all nesting annually.

Starting in the meadows there were several damselflies in evidence and also many male common blue butterflies with the iridescence of their wings shimmering in the sunlight. There were also sightings of the much drabber females and the similar brown argus.

Walking along one of the grass paths leading to the wood I noted that a dead common shrew was ‘moving’ on the side of the path. On further investigation it was apparent that sexton beetles were ‘burying’ the animal, the females would eventually lay eggs in the corpse with the insects also feeding on it.

As the sun started to set I moved into the wood where pipistrelle bats were hunting insects under the tree canopy with noctule bats flying high above and diving down to catch insects in the treetops. With the light continuing to fade the evening became alive as tawny owls started to call to each other; barn Owls ‘screeched’ as they hunted small mammals on the meadows followed by a roebuck ‘barking’ in the winter barley surrounding the wood.

Once darkness fell I became aware of ‘figures’ moving into the wood from the south. In the dark the best way to study ground borne wildlife is to get down to their level so I took to the ground and watched as the figures came closer and closer! Suddenly the advance stopped and there were many movements from left to right, it transpired that the ‘figures’ were two roe deer females who were checking that the area was safe to make a ‘scrape’ in the debris on the woodland floor in which to bed down for the night.