I
love living in Worcestershire. One of the many reasons is the
proximity to the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. On a
spring day when the sun shines there is nothing better than to go for
a walk in the Cotswold Hills and admire the beauty of the natural
world. The soft rolling hills, the orange stone and the idyllic English villages. What more could you ask for?
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| High Street, Broadway |
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| Walking up the Broadway Tower |
The
Cotswolds are an area of hills that rise up from the Severn valley
and are made of an outcrop of oolitic limestone. It is this Jurassic
limestone that gives the villages their characteristic appearance and
it also gives the hills a unique ecology. This means there is often
something interesting to see from a wildlife point of view. Our
recent walk up Broadway tower was no exception. The tower itself sits
at the top a the limestone escarpment (313m above sea level) above
the picturesque Worcestershire village with houses built from the
Cotswold stone. The walk is pleasant and it gave us plenty of
opportunity to enjoy views across the Severn valley and
of the village of Broadway.
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| Broadway and the Seven valley |
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| Enjoying the View |
It
is the rock that gives the area their appearance and their ecology.
It was formed in the Jurassic period 150-200 million years ago in
warm shallow seas. Like all limestone they are made predominately of
calcium carbonate. This will have formed from the shells of dead sea
creatures that were deposited on the sea floor. It can be fun to put
this to the test. Pour a few drops of vinegar onto the rock and if
calcium carbonate is present it will fizz. The acid is reacting with
the carbonate to produce carbon dioxide.
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| Red-tailed bumble bee Queen |
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| Common Field-speedwell. Small blue flowers with triangular leaves |
From
an ecological perspective the area is primarily made of rare
limestone grass land broken up by arable fields and beech woodland.
In fact the Cotswolds hold 50% of the UK's unimproved limestone
grassland. It is therefore a haven for a range of plants and insects
that are not found anywhere else. Unfortunately we were a little
early in the year to spot the Chalkhill Blue and the Duke of Burgundy
butterflies!
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| Dandelion and hoverfly |
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| Forget-me-knot. Seen everywhere in the Cotswolds |
However,
there was still plenty to see. The flowers that predominated on our
Broadway tower were Forget-me-not's, Ground Ivy, Cowslips and in the
woodland there were Dog-violets and lots of Bluebells. All of these
are species that can be found on any bare patch of ground or road
verge. It was nice to see them and the range of pollinators that they
rely on to produce seeds for the next generation.
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| Ground Ivy: Creeping plant with Small Blue |
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| Dog Violet: Small blue flower with heart shaped leaves |
There
were plenty of bees and hover flies. In fact I spotted one of my
favourite flies the Bee Fly. They are identified by being a fly
(short antenna and one pair of wings) that looks like a bee and
having an impressively long probosces. They feed on nectar and
pollen, it is that long probosces that they have evolved that gives
them the advantage. It enables them to reach the nectar in flowers
that have long and narrow floral tubes, such as cowslips and
bluebells. The larvae stage is a little more sinister. The adults
will lay their eggs in the nests of solitary bees, such as the mining
bee, the it will consume the bee larvae before hatching out into the
stunning bee fly adult. Therefor the bee flies need to live in an
area rich in flowers like cowslips and where mining bees live.
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| Bee Fly. Notice the long ridged probosces |
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| Cowslips. Perfectly evolved for Bee Flies |
It
is great to see this range of plants and animals. I sometimes feel
that in Britain the countryside is very sterile. This is as a result
of the intensive farming that takes place across most of it. Indeed
the cotswolds are not exempt from that. There is a lot of sheep
grazing and that has a detrimental affect on the range of wild
flowers present. This then has a knock on effect up the food chain.
Sheep do have a negative effect on biodiversity as they eat a much
wider range of plants than other grazing animals.
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| Broadway tower and the heavily grazed grassland |
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| The Cotswolds. Sheep eat everything! |
The
key word is biodiversity: the more species of flower the more variety
of insects there will be to pollinate them. An increase in the
numbers of invertebrates will give rise increases in birds and small
mammals. We all benefit from the existence of pollinators as without
them the majority of our crops can not produce fruits and seeds. It
is also fascinating to learn and understand the complex and
interwoven lives that all these animals and plants live. No species
lives in isolation and the interactions between cowslips, mining bees
and bee fly highlight that.
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| Bluebell |
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| Cuckoo Flower |
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| Hawthorn |
