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25 September 2007
Local people enjoy wildlife roadshow
Northamptonshire nature reserve hosts wildlife event
Local people who visited Old Sulehay Nature Reserve on Sunday 23 September enjoyed a fantastic morning of wildlife activities held by The Wildlife Trust, thanks to support from Natural England through Defra’s Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund grant scheme and the Rockingham Forest Small Grants Scheme.
Children had a great time building bug hotels and mini-beast hunting with sweep nets, then examining their catch in bug boxes to see what exciting specimens they had found. Experts were on hand to help with identification and some children got to see their catch of the day magnified to 300x their original size.
Guided walks, led by Wildlife Trust volunteers, also took place to show people the diverse range of wildlife this beautiful local nature reserve has to offer and to highlight the ongoing improvements being made at the reserve. Some visitors were lucky enough to see red kites slowly gliding overhead.
Terry Smithson, conservation manager for The Wildlife Trust said “We hope to encourage more people to get out and enjoy their local greenspace and the diversity of wildlife on their doorstep. This fantastic nature reserve supports a wealth of wildlife and during the summer months you can see a variety of butterflies, beetles and wildflowers”.
Old Sulehay Nature Reserve consists of limestone quarries, grassland, woodland and wetland. The limestone grasslands are important habitats due to the rich diversity of plants and associated invertebrates they support. Over the last 60 years it is estimated that up to 80% of limestone grasslands have vanished, largely due to changes in agriculture.