Animal Life

The heathland provides the perfect habitat for a diverse range of insects and animals. During the summer more than 30 species of butterfly are recorded each year including the silver-washed fritillary, brimstone and the rare silver-studded blue - the male butterfly provides a marvellous sight as they fly low over the heathland.

Dragonflies are also common and 21 species live on the heaths including the southern damselfly, a rare species in Britain that is confined to just a few parts of the south west of England.

It also provides a breeding ground for many bird species including curlew, yellowhammer, buzzards and kestrels. The area is famed for its population of the rare Dartford warbler which is more commonly found much further south, but the dense gorse provides an excellent habitat which allows it to thrive. The nightjar is a rare summer visitor that nests on the ground. You will need to look hard to see it as it flies at dawn and dusk to make best use of the light in which to hunt moths.

Over 70 species of birds have been recorded here, and indeed the RSPB have for many years leased Aylesbeare Harpford Common from the Estate as a valuable location for monitoring their populations.

Dartford Warbler Survey 2009

This year has seen a drop by about a third of the population, allthough no full survey was done we did do a snapshot of one area to come up with this figure 

Sillver Studded Blue Butterflies 2009

Seem to have held steady this year Jean Turner who organises these surveys has asked us to do some more management work to ensure we keep up a viable population.We intend to do this work in January 2010

Southern Damsel Flies 2009

This year saw a decline in numbers, this could be due to several reasons .  The major one being very bad summer weather with the result that surveying could not be carried out as regularly as in previous years.We also did some swaling this year so that our grazing herd could give the area a good working over

Nightjars 2009

Allthough we did not do a survey this year on anicdotal evidence we had some great sightings. We had them flying around our heads at Wheathills car park