Writtle Wildlife Watch returns for June! Alan Roscoe is at it again and once more keeps track of the fascinating wildlife on campus!
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I hope most of you caught up with the recent Springwatch
programmes from Minsmere. Apparently the visitor numbers were up a staggering
50% as a result of the TV coverage although you do have to wonder whether the additional
visitors were more excited about seeing Chris Packham than the wildlife!
It is good to see the BBC committing so much resource to
programmes like this although (curmudgeonly grouch face on) just occasionally I
wonder whether there is an overemphasis on the birds and the mammals – which,
of course, the public enjoy – at the expense of the plants and other groups
such as lichens and mosses. These are just as fascinating as the popular animal
groups but, perhaps because they do not move, they are less appealing to the
general public.
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| Pyramidal Orchid, Writtle College estate, 26 June 2014, Copyright Alan Roscoe. |
We monitor a range of animal species on our own College
estate but we also keep an eye open for unusual plants and now is the best time
of year for many orchid species. We are lucky enough to have both Bee Orchid
and Pyramidal Orchid on our estate and, due to the sharp eyes of a colleague
(well spotted Roy), we have found a new site for them this year. Pyramidal is pollinated by moths and butterflies which visit the plant not for nectar, but for a watery liquid which is found inside the ‘spur’ part of the flower. Grains of pollen are then picked up on the insect’s tongue and the perfect symbiosis of this particular species and its pollinating insects was even remarked upon by Charles Darwin himself.
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