Promoting & Enhancing The Natural Beauty of the Sid Valley
Darters, skimmers, chasers, golden-ringed and emperors, with their stunning colours and amazingly agile flight, dragonflies are probably one of the most thrilling groups of insects, and Devon is one of the best counties in which to see them. Fossil records show that insectsRead More
Leave a comment It is hot and dry, last month saw local records broken, some love it, others can’t cope with it, but what about our local nature? As I move around the valley I can see clear impacts, some positive, but mostly negative. Nature will respondRead More
Leave a comment It looks as if this year is a good year for seeing another beautiful butterfly that migrates to Britain from the Mediterranean area. Back in May I wrote about Painted Ladies, now there are plenty of Clouded Yellows around too. Migrants fromRead More
Leave a comment If you go up to Mutter’s Moor or on to Aylesbeare Common as it gets dark at this time of year, you might hear an eerie churring and clicking sound. The RSPB describes it as like a strange clockwork toy unwinding. If you lookRead More
Leave a comment Many people around the town are looking out for butterflies, they are taking part in the Big Butterfly Count, a citizen science project organised by Butterfly Conservation. Each year volunteers spend 15 minutes at a time recording how many butterflies they see in theirRead More
Leave a comment The River Sid is a thread of life through the valley supporting so many different animals and plants. If you walk quietly you might be lucky enough to see one of its most delightful residents, a small dark brown bird with a white front known as the Dipper. They are waryRead More
Leave a comment July is the month where, if you walk through a meadow, you hope to see insects pinging left and right to get out of your way. In the daytime these are most likely to be grasshoppers, but we have plenty of crickets and bush-cricketsRead More
Leave a comment There is a field of barley growing near Salcombe Regis. There is nothing apparently remarkable about that, but this crop is remarkable for two reasons, it is specifically for thatching and its perimeter is a haven for nature. Much is made these days aboutRead More
Leave a comment As we come to the end of June, our hedgerows and meadows are filling with yellow and white froth as members of the bedstraw family come into flower. Bedstraws are members of the Rubiaceae family, a name which translates as red plants because theRead More
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