PLANTS AND ANIMALS
AT THE PARK
FRUIT TREES
There are two small orchards in Caldy Nature Park:
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Long Meadow, beside Celandine Close
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Caldy Orchard and Wildflower Meadow, beside the car park
The orchards include a range of Apple, Pear, Cherry, Plum and Damson trees. In Spring the trees brighten the park with their blossom, and in late summer and early autumn their fruits provide a special treat for people to pick when they are ripe.
Long Meadow Orchard
This small group of 11 trees beside the footpath includes mainly apple trees, with one pear and two damsons. Damsons are a type of small plum.
Caldy Orchard and Wildflower Meadow
In the main orchard in the Nature Park, these trees are planted in a wildflower meadow which is home to masses of bees and butterflies during the spring and summer. If it looks a bit untidy for much of the year, that’s because the insects like it that way! The meadow has to be left uncut for most of the spring and summer, to give the wildflowers a chance to produce the flowers that will feed the bees and the butterflies.
Not all the trees that were originally planted here have survived – it’s tough being a tree sometimes! Of those that remain, 15 are apples, 7 are pears, 3 are plums, and 2 are cherries. Some trees are unknown varieties, while others are known. You can identify which tree is which from the orchard plans, click here find out more.
WILDFLOWER MEADOW
Beside the car park on Caldy Valley road is a community orchard, planted into a wildflower meadow.
At first glance the meadow may seem unsightly, especially in summer, because it grows tall, and in rather a wild manner – as its name suggests! But wildflower meadows are important for wildlife because they provide pollinating insects with nectar and pollen for food, and shelter for small animals. The insects in turn feed the birds and voles, shrews, frogs that live in the Nature Park.
The wildflower meadow at Caldy Valley includes many wildflower species including cowslips, buttercups and yellow rattle.
Unfortunately wildflower meadows have largely disappeared from the countryside, and wildlife populations of birds, animals and insects have declined at the same time. Wherever we can support the establishment of new meadows we can help support our wildlife.
Find out more about meadows and what lives in them:
Wildflower meadows
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/where_to_see_wildflower_meadow
https://www.rhs.org.uk/lawns/wildflower-meadow-establishment
Cowslip: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/wildflowers/cowslip
Buttercup: https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/plant-fungi-species/buttercups
Yellow rattle: https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/plant-fungi-species/yellow-rattle
Pollinating insects:
https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/book/tool/print/index.php?id=154559
https://www.countryfile.com/wildlife/how-to-identify/key-insect-pollinators-of-summer/
Voles: https://www.mammal.org.uk/species-hub/full-species-hub/discover-mammals/species-field-vole/
Shrews: https://www.mammal.org.uk/species-hub/full-species-hub/discover-mammals/species-common-shrew/
Frogs and other amphibians: https://www.wwt.org.uk/discover-wetlands/wetland-wildlife/amphibians/
THE CALDY BROOK
The Caldy Brook is a small tributary of the River Dee. The brook rises near Christleton and Waverton outside Chester, and drains the farmland to the East of the A55 road which bypasses Chester. The brook runs through the middle of the Caldy Nature Park and provides an important habitat for birds, insects and animals. The level of the brook rises and falls significantly, depending on levels of rainfall, and its waters feed the ponds and scrapes in the park.
Wildlife which depends on the brook includes Water Voles (an endangered species in Britain), fish, eels, amphibians, as well as birds such as Moorhen. Other bird species, such as the magnificent Grey Heron or the gloriously colourful Kingfisher can also be spotted in and around the waterways of the Nature Park.
The Caldy Brook joins the River Dee about 100 metres west of the park boundary.
SWEET MEADOW, FEN MEADOW AND REEDBED
Following the Caldy Brook downstream below the pond the Nature Park spreads out into more open meadow again. This is not a wildflower meadow this time, but is more similar to a wetland habitat known as fen-meadow. Here, in the area known in Caldy Nature Park as Sweet Meadow, you will see an extensive reedbed growing on both sides of the brook. The tall reeds make it difficult for people to explore this part of the Nature Park, but the birds and animals that live here are quite happy with that! Best for us to stick to the path, and just look and listen!
If you stop and listen, especially in the spring, you are likely to hear the calls of many small birds, including Reed warblers, Sedge Warblers and Chiffchaff. The Chiffchaff has one of the most recognisable calls in springtime, with its repetitive two note ‘chiff chaff’ call.
Although the reedbeds may seem a little inhospitable to us, this is an important wildlife habitat.
Find out more:
Fen: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/habitats/wetlands/lowland-fen
Common reed (Phragmites): https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/grasses-sedges-and-rushes/common-reed
Reed warbler: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/reed-warbler/
Sedge Warblers: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/sedge-warbler/
Chiff-chaff: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/chiffchaff/
RAILS MARSH
This part of the nature park, which lies at the western end of the park, between the footpath leading to Bramble Close, the brook, and Sandy Lane, is also quite marshy ground, but with denser tree cover. You may see colourful Jays flitting between the trees as you watch from the footpath. In the springtime the fluffy seed from the willow trees can lie like a carpet on the ground.
Jay: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/jay/
THE POND
There is a small pond near the Blue Bridge (Bachelors Bridge) on the cycle path, but the main pond is in the middle of the Nature Park. This pond is a favourite spot for sitting and watching wildlife, or for catching up with friends and family in a peaceful natural environment. The pond is fed by the leat which takes water from the brook where it passes under Bachelors Bridge, feeds it into the pond, and leads it back into the brook further downstream. Whereas the brook is a natural stream, a ‘leat’ is an artificial watercourse, of the kind that was traditionally dug to supply a watermill, for example.
The pond is home to a great deal of wildlife: Mallards and Moorhens regularly raise chicks there, and can be found on the pond almost year round. The Heron frequently fishes from the far bank, and when the water is clear it is possible to see quite large shoals of fish in the water. Insect life depends heavily on the pond, and although much of it may be hard to see from dry land, the butterflies are never far away in spring and summer.
