Roesel's Bush-cricket (c) Bruce Shortland
Wildlife wonders from magical meadows
Attention-grabbing insects steal the show in summer – bright blue butterflies, burnished burnet moths and rattling grasshoppers – but how many of us look for other surprising stars of the sunshine? The Wildlife Trusts offer 10 top meadow and grassland species to look out for. The Wildlife Trusts’ Meadow Wildlife Weekend: 14/15 June 2014 is a great opportunity for discovery Summer is by far the best time of year for exploring your local meadow – whether it’s an upland hay meadow, a river valley water-meadow, a patch of waste ground on the edge of town or a priceless chalk grassland nature reserve. Now wildflowers are blooming, butterflies are on the wing, grasshoppers are singing and birds are raising their young.
Sensational species to look out for include:
3. Bush-crickets
Roesel's Bush-cricket (c) Bruce Shortland
Some wildlife is best found by sound. Bush-crickets are related to grasshoppers, though they have much longer antennae. Several species live in UK meadows, including two which have recently colonised large areas of the country. In the late twentieth century both Roesel’s bush-cricket and the long-winged conehead exploded across the southern UK and they are still spreading. They are the ultimate kids’ insects as, without the aid of a bat-detector, their whining late summer songs (made by rubbing their wings together) are inaudible to most adults. Once heard, the next challenge is to locate the green insect in the long grass without scaring it into falling silent.
Meadows and grassland are – who would have thought it? – dominated by grasses. Yet, somehow we ignore the grass; preferring to look at the pretty flowers or the brightly-coloured butterflies which live with them. This summer why not look at the grass too. It’s no surprise that in grassland there are many species; indeed wherever you are in the UK there are species which define your local grassland type. So get out and look for the slender foxtails of timothy grass, the bristly heads of cock’s-foot, the shiny green leaves of ryegrass and many local rarities. Since these habitats were largely shaped by centuries of grazing, conservation organisations continue the same management today. As meadows are more open than woods they generally favour sun-loving species of flower and invertebrate. Because of the way they are managed they are also great places to look for our tough native breeds of domestic sheep, cattle and horses. The Wildlife Trusts’ Meadow Wildlife Weekend (14/15 June 2014)
