Upton Bishop Eco Map
“ …a wildlife pond with pond skaters, water boatmen, dragonflies and damselflies; frogs galore in the spring. We also see newts and toads. Our wild flower patch, lavender and hedge germander are benison to lots of bees, mostly different types of bumble but others too. And butterflies (a little blue job flew past yesterday). … log piles, gently rotting, and vast areas of ivy beloved by bees when it finally flowers.
The birds like us too as there is plenty of cover, plenty to eat and places to nest. Usually we welcome wasps early in the spring, who eat the aphids on the plum tree but these didn’t materialise this year so we have had horrid honeydew instead.”
Summer, 2023
Welcome to our map
To help you, we have a simple key:- defined ‘speckled’ areas (e.g. the churchyard, Queens Wood) are those spaces which are particularly Nature friendly.
To help us, would you care to add your own ‘Managed with Wildlife in Mind’ space – like the one sent to us, above? If so please email uptonbishopecomap@gmail.com and we’ll see how many connect up. Or say what you have spotted and we’ll add it to our list of the species variety of the parish.
We live in a rural area with the usual elements: oak, ash, hazel; grasses, nettles, blackberries; rabbits, squirrels, crows; insects too – but fewer than in our childhoods. This map aims to chart the progress towards an ever more intricate, colourful, musical, more vibrant countryside – closer to that which our grandparents knew and enjoyed.
Here is a list of what our parish can boast so far:-
PLANTS:
Bluebells, wild garlic, primroses, violets, field scabious, cowslips, wild daffodils, agrimony, knapweed, lady’s bedstraw, bird’s foot trefoil, burnet, bistort, musk mallow, green-winged orchids, common purple/pyramid orchids, wild marjoram, wild thyme, black poplar trees, sheep sorrel, oxeye daisies, yellow rattle, black medick, wild carrot, weld, meadowsweet, bindweed, scarlet pimpernel, lady’s smock, corn-cockle, ragged robin, mullein, foxgloves, yarrow, bird cherry trees, wild service trees, marsh marigold, spearwort……
INSECTS:
Different species of bumble bee, other solitary bees, honey bees; brimstone, holly blue, tortoiseshell, speckled wood, marbled white, orange tip, gatekeeper, ringlet, small heath, fritillary, red admiral and peacock butterflies; moths tiny to big, including the hummingbird hawk moth; damselflies, dragonflies, hoverflies, wasps and European hornets; meadow ants, crickets, grasshoppers, chafers, beetles of all shapes and sizes, including stag beetles, spiders from long-legged to miniscule…..
BIRDS:
Kestrels again at last, sparrow-hawks, buzzards, red kites, barn owls and tawny owls, nightjars, corncrakes once more, stonechats, kingfishers, a return of the yellowhammer, green finches, chaffinches, gold finches, skylarks, housemartins, swallows and swifts, magpies, jackdaws, crows, rooks and ravens, sparrows and starlings, woodpigeons, blue tits, long-tailed tits, great tits, coal tits, goldcrests, blackbirds, robins, wrens, blackcaps, whitethroats, thrushes, pied wagtails, wheatears, redstarts, dunnocks……
ANIMALS:
Bats, hedgehogs, stoats, weasels, polecats, roe deer, fallow deer and muntjac, squirrels, rabbits and hares, foxes, field mice, shrews, rumours of visiting otter, frogs, toads, newts, grass snakes……
FUNGI:
Ink cap, St George’s mushroom, horse mushroom, earth balls, death cap, wood mushroom, field mushroom, yellow staining mushroom, devil’s finger, boletus, parasol, prince, silky volvariella, bracket fungus, wax caps……
