Latest Wildlife Site News

A lot more information has been added about the species of wildlife found on the Wildlife Site. Interactive tables and charts now show all of the species of creatures and plants that have been seen here over the last decade. Many more species photographs have been added, all taken on the Wildlife Site. Links are provided to other websites with general information about each of the species. We hope you will find the additional information interesting.

We do not often see Barn Owls on our wildlife site so we were surprised and delighted to see and photograph this one today, in broad daylight, resting on the fence in the entrance drive to Downlee Lodge. What beautiful creatures they are, but those talons look like serious weapons.

The hay meadows (Fields 1 & 2 on the Map) were cut on the 6th August 2020 because this gave us a few dry days to produce hay. We left a strip of meadow uncut next to the footpath at the top of our hay meadows, near the railway line, so that anyone interested may still be able to see some of the wildflowers pictured on the Species page of this website.

Walkers using the footpath next to the railway line have seen hundreds of Meadow Brown butterflies in the wildlife site hay meadows and a variety of other species including Painted Lady butterflies feeding on brambles next to the railway (see photo). Also seen and photographed from the footpath was a White Letter Hairstreak butterfly feeding on a thistle in one of the Downlee fields. This is a species of butterfly I have not seen before.