A Wonderful Year of Flowers

Wed 15th Sep, 2021

YCN Wild Flower Walks Help Wildlife

Our Wild Flower Walks were a great success this year. We introduced 35 clients to the wonderful variety of wild flowers in our area and identified an amazing 282 species of plants on the five events. Our expert guides Clare Bending and Amy Primavera thoroughly enjoyed leading the days and we would like to thank our clients for being such great company on the trips.

Flamborough Wild Flower Walk June 2021 © Richard Baines

We visited four nature reserves owned and managed by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and one privately owned farm in the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Birkdale Farm Terrington.

YCN Wild Flower Walk at Flamborough with Claire Bending leading the group © Richard Baines

At the end of the season, we made a donation of £400 to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to support habitat conservation at Fen Bog which was one of the walk venues. Here is a lovely review from one of our clients.  

"A wonderful day,  finding so many less common flowers  which we wouldn't have spotted without our expert guides. They were keen to teach us about botanical and geological features and conditions that were necessary for different species to thrive. It's great to know that YCN are making a contribution to help support the Yorkshire wildlife trust to protect and maintain the natural habitat , ensuring others can enjoy for many years to come"

Jean Welsh 

Wood Sorrel. Ancient Woodland Wild Flower Walk © Richard Baines

Kate Yates, Living Landscapes Officer YWT takes up the story;

Lots has been going on at our wonderful Fen Bog nature reserve on the North York Moors this year and the donation from Yorkshire Coast Nature helps with our funding for this work - so a big thank you to YCN and all your clients!

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust volunteers carrying out habitat work at Fen Bog

The car parking area at Fen Bog has a great many visitors; tourists, naturalists, walkers and rail enthusiasts too. With the aim of providing a safer and more welcoming entrance to Fen Bog, contractors have resurfaced the area and installed drains to prevent water running over and washing out the stone. We have also put in a new gate and some low-level fencing to stop unauthorised vehicles driving onto the nature reserve. This follows on from some work in 2020 to improve the sloping footpath down to the bog crossing, part of the popular Lyke Wake walk.

New fencing closer to the railway sidings allows the grazing sheep to do their work nibbling grasses and young scrub over a larger area. We are looking into working with the North York Moors railway to map the advancing willow scrub on the Western edge of the bog and in the future carry out some work to reduce it. This will benefit the railway sightlines which are so important, and also help to maintain the hydrology of the bog as it is.

Fen Bog view © Richard Baines

Again, this year, many staff and volunteer hours have been spent cutting and pulling bracken on the area North of the car park and on the Eastern slopes of the bog. It is clear to see the impact this is having in allowing a varied upland heath habitat to remain - plenty of reported sightings of large heath butterflies and seemingly an abundance of dark green and small pearl-bordered fritillaries this year.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary © Richard Baines

Staff also took part in a short training session and identified some of the rare sedges to be found, including white beak-sedge and slender sedge. Bog sedge evaded us! Beautiful keeled skimmer dragonflies were seen mating and egg-laying around the flushes. We hope the improvements will enable you to enjoy the wildlife of this super site more easily! Thanks again, Kate Yates, YWT."

Heath Spotted Orchid © Richard Baines

We have four Wild Flower Walks already planned for 2022 with more to follow. To see all the details and book Click Here

Richard Baines, Amy Primavera, Claire Bending Yorkshire Coast Nature and Kate Yates YWT