The 3rd of July marked National Meadows Day. We were fortunate to spend the day with the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Rangers, as they celebrated their success at the Skrinkle Haven Wildflower Meadow.
Green plants are the producers at the bottom of all food chains, without them the whole chain is under threat, The flowers of these plants are the main source of food for insects. As these insects fly from one flower to another, they pollinate the flowers enabling the plants to produce seeds. Without insects our supermarket shelves would be empty, as insects pollinate a vast majority of our food; from the grains and fruit that we eat directly, to the grains that are fed to our livestock.
Wildflowers Meadows are like a banquet for insects, they ensure that pollinator populations stay healthy, as well as providing a habitat for other wildlife.
Our park ranger, Chris, gave us a guided tour of the wildflower meadow. He was very knowledgeable and clearly had a passion for his job. He also had a very keen eye and was able to point out lots of different wildflowers and insects.
We saw many different plants and flowers in the meadow;
Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum), which seemed to be a haven for Red Soldier Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva), who’s red-orange bodies stood out against the plants white flowers,
Yellow-Rattle (Rhinanthus minor) which is very good as it keeps grasses at bay and lets the wildflowers flourish,
Tall Ox-Eye Daisies, Red Champion and Orchids to name a few.
We then had a go at ‘sweeping’ (the process of using a giant net to ‘sweep’ across the grass to catch insects).
Using the nets, we collected quite a few Southern Green Shield Bugs (Nezara viridula). They were very cool, for if you touched their backs, they jumped high into the air!
We caught two Six-Spotted Burnet (Zygaena filipendulae). moths. The moth is the only British Burnet moth with six red spots on each forewing. It is mostly spotted flying around during the day and is sometimes mistaken for the Five-spotted Burnet and the Scotch Burnet moth.
Rather surprisingly, the site where the wildflower meadow now grows, used to be part of the army camp (which is located further down the road). The National Park was given the site in the 1970’s by the MOD, they had to demolish the concrete buildings and foundations that stood there and let the grasses and flowers take over.
The National Park cut the meadow later in the year as this gives a variety of flowers chance to grow.
The cuttings are removed so they don’t decompose and increase the nutrient levels in the soil. Wildflowers thrive in poor quality soil!
They also remove any large areas of ferns and gorse, as these plants take over.
It was amazing to read that the meadow has been a MASSIVE success. There is now such an abundance of flowers and seeds that they can take some of the seeds from the flowers and grasses to other wildflower meadows to increase the diversity of flowers there.
National Trust Pembrokeshire are also using some of the seeds at Southwood Estate to create wildflower meadows.
The rangers showed us two apps called Look Wild and its sister app I-Naturalist. Using the camera on your phone, the app can identify flowers and insects. It shows their names (Latin and English) and useful information about them.
I really enjoyed the day, and it was incredible to see the amazing conservation the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park (and its rangers) are doing!
Sadly, over the last 75 years we’ve lost over 95% of our wildflower meadows due to intensive farming.
This summer I will be walking the length of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path (186miles) to raise money for the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Trust, whilst recording my journey and drawing attention to some of the projects they are working on.
One of their current appeals ‘Make More Meadows’ aims to raise £10,000 to help protect and restore the existing meadows in the National Park whilst working with landowners to create new ones.
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