Western Morning News (Saturday)
WILDLIFE TREASURE AMONG THE HEATHER
Charlie Elder goes in search of Westcountry wildlife, starting with a visit to a reserve in the hope of finding one of our most iconic heathland birds
Heathland – it’s what sunny days are made for. From the expanses of flowering foliage and hum of insect life to the dusty tracks and coconut-scented gorse, this open habitat is at its best in the heat of late summer, blazing with colour and basking beneath a blue sky.
A special mix of wildlife calls heathland home, and I paid a visit to East Devon on a clear and warm day this month in search of a bird that is totally dependent on precious fragments of this unique environment.
Dry lowland heaths develop where conditions allow on infertile and acidic free-draining soils. Cleared of trees by humans in past millennia and prevented from becoming reforested by grazing, cutting and burning, the result is an exposed terrain with meagre turf where gorse and heathers thrive.
Much heathland been lost over the last 150 years to neglect and development, ploughed up and fertilised for farmland or converted to conifer plantations, and remaining tracts are now carefully maintained and recognised for the rare species they contain and their recreational value.
They are remarkable places at any time of year, but hard to beat between July and September, when the heather is in flower creating vast vistas of purple.
Covering more than 1,000 hectares, the East Devon Pebblebed Heaths, managed by a conservation trust as part of the Clinton Devon Estates landholding, is the largest stretch of lowland heathland in Devon and among the most highly regarded sites of its kind in Europe.
The protected area, which boasts some 3,100 plant and animal species, is divided into a number of commons and I visited Aylesbeare RSPB reserve at the north of the main heathland ridge, walking the longest of two circular trails.
The first thing you notice is the sandy texture of the path underfoot, peppered with smooth pebbles the size of cobblestones that give this area its name. The stony mix was originally deposited during the Triassic period by a mighty river that ran through the arid lands of the supercontinent Pangaea, long before it broke up into the landmasses we recognise today.
As the Pebblebed Heaths Conservation Trust describes it, this heathland landscape was “240 million years in the making”.
Judging by the picturesque panorama that greeted me, it looked like I had timed my visit perfectly.
The high ground at the start of the trail is knee-deep in heather, interspersed with clumps of yellow-flowering gorse and sheltered by stands of trees that border the reserve.
Much of the wildlife is hidden from view, submerged beneath the heather. Heathland holds its secrets close to its chest – a tantalising assortment of species that range from the well-camouflaged nightjar to the elusive smooth snake.
With patience one can see plenty, but what I came to find is perhaps our most iconic heathland inhabitant – the Dartford warbler.
Warblers are small insect-eating birds and most only visit to breed during the spring and summer rather than endure our colder months.
Dartford warblers are stay-at-home residents all year round. However, southern England is at the northernmost limit of their breeding range and bitter weather causes the population of this warmth-loving species to tumble. The hard winter of 1962-3 saw the UK population plummet to less than a dozen pairs, though they bounced back and now number more than 3,000 pairs.
Named after Dartford in Kent where they were first noted as a breeding bird in the 1770s, the warblers are dark slatebrown in colour with a long thin tail, a chest the colour of red wine
The Dartford warbler is such a distinctivelooking species with its burgundy front and ash-brown back – a glowing ember amid the dense vegetation
and have an orangey ring around the eye. They are also a skulking species, and tend to keep out of sight – as I found. I struggled to spy one as I started out wandering the reserve paths. But one of the joys of looking for a single species is everything else you find along the way... There was another heath-loving bird about – the characterful stonechat. This plump little species, which has a black head with a half collar of white and rusty-coloured chest, doesn’t mind perching conspicuously in the prickliest of places – on top of gorse bushes.
The reserve is known for its butterflies and dragonflies, and I was pleased to come across plenty of the latter at ponds near the western edge, with emerald damselfly and migrant hawker catching the eye.
There were also common lizards – though you need to be patient to actually see them. A rustling sound as they dart from the side of the path into cover alerts one to their presence. If you wait they reappear, returning to the same sunny spot to warm up.
And while the bird list was lengthening as I followed the trail, with siskins aplenty, marsh tits, goldcrests and chiffchaffs among the pick of the bunch, I was starting to wonder whether Dartford warblers would grant me an audience.
Then something resembling a dark version of a long-tailed tit flew very low in front of me before darting into the scrub. I heard a churring sound and it appeared from the sea of thick heather, bobbing to the surface like a fishing float.
This was my first Dartford warbler sighting in many years, and it didn’t disappoint. It is such a distinctive-looking species with its burgundy front and ash-brown back – a glowing ember amid the dense vegetation.
Once I got my eye in I ended up spotting at least half a dozen during my circuit, especially on returning to the areas of heather near the entrance. I should have paid attention earlier on!
The Dartford warbler is something of a conservation success story. From teetering on the brink of extinction in the UK, this protected species is now faring well on carefully managed heathland sites, and gradually expanding its range.
While vulnerable to extreme weather and cold snaps, ‘Darties’ are among the British species most likely to benefit from a warming climate.
Southern Europe, however, is predicted to become more inhospitable, with numbers already falling in Spain, so our heaths will provide a vital refuge in the future.
If you want to see Dartford warblers then Aylesbeare RSPB reserve and Arne RSPB reserve, in Dorset, are among the best places in the Westcountry.
And even if you don’t spot them, they provide the perfect excuse to visit heathland – a magical habitat full of surprises.
Next week: A beautiful garden visitor that would have had Victorian entomologists in a flutter.