| Wildlife |
Lathkill Dale is one of the country's finest limestone valleys. Its
steep sides enclose a world of crystal clear streams and mossy rocks,
precipitous woodlands and grasslands, making it a haven for wildlife.
This is the reason for its reputation as a nature reserve of national
significance, one of five such valleys in the White Peak area that
together make up the Derbyshire Dales National Nature Reserve.
The Reserve is perhaps best known for its abundance of wildflowers.
It's the woodlands which see the first spring flush, with wood anemone,
primrose and yellow archangel alongside the rarer nettle-leaved bellflower
and lily-of-the-valley. As May arrives, early-purple orchids and cowslips
colour the open dalesides a gaudy combination of purple and yellow.
The showy heads of Jacob's ladder, a rare plant indeed, are best in
mid June.
Butterflies - over 20 species - are very numerous in the summer. Look
out too for the shimmering green cistus forester moth fluttering near
rock-rose flowers. The dipper is arguably the bird of Lathkill Dale.
Several pairs breed along the river, where their distinctive chubby
outlines are a common sight perched on rocks and hopping in and out
of the water. |
Dippers
Lathkill Dale has to be one of the
easiest places in the country in which to see dippers. |
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Water
vole
The 'plop' of water
voles diving into the river was a familiar sound in the Reserve until
the 1990s, when for some reason they disappeared from this part of
the valley. |
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Crayfish
The River Lathkill is home to many
fascinating animals, not the least of which is Britain's native white-clawed
crayfish. |
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Cistus
forester
If the brightly
coloured array of flowers, the bumblebees and the butterflies weren't
enough, a warm June day on Lathkill Dale's south-facing slopes provides
another visual treat - the cistus forester. |
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Brown
argus
This small brown
butterfly can be seen on sunny open dalesides anywhere from Carter's
Mill up to Ricklow Quarry. |
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Common
rock-rose
An indispensable
member of the classic daleside grassland of the Peak District, common
rock-rose is an important plant to brown argus butterflies and cistus
forester moths. |
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Jacob's
ladder
If Lathkill Dale
has an emblem, it's a toss-up whether it is the dipper or this showy
northern flower. |
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Milkwort
A diminutive flower of the sunny
daleside, coming in three quite distinct colour forms: a bluish mauve,
a bright magenta and a Persil white. |
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White-letter
hairstreak
The larvae
of this rather rare butterfly have a partiality for elm trees. |
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Redstart
This cheerful bird is a summer visitor
to Lathkill Dale. |
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Lily-of-the-valley
Several patches of this fragrant
flowering bulb grow deep in Lathkill's leafy woods, but take some
finding. |
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Ash
The name of Monyash, the village
at the west end of the dale, may be a reference to 'many ashes' but
it's the woods near Over Haddon which hold most of these trees in
the valley. |
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Wych
elm
Of the various British
elms, wych elm is the smallest species, and like all of them, it suffers
at the hands of Ophiostoma ulmi, the fungus commonly known as Dutch
elm disease. |
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Sycamore
This tree is one of the most frequent
in Palmerston Wood, where it's been planted as well as seeded itself.
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Curlew
Although many people associate it
more closely with the Peak District's wild open moorlands, the curlew
is also at home in the gentler landscape of the White Peak. |
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Harebell
The harebell is just one of the
plants that appeared as if from nowhere when we began to manage the
fields at the western end of Lathkill Dale |
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Hare
Although not a native of Britain
- they were probably introduced, since there is no evidence of their
presence in Britain before Roman times. |
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