At this time of the year it is particually important because it gives shelter to the countless over-wintering eggs and pupae of moths and butterflies, next year's generation in other words. The rarer Ground Lackey moth caterpillars normally favour this area to pupate as well.
It is also home to thousands of various spider types, as this photo taken in the mist this week shows.
Fantastic you might say, everything a nature reserve should be - fantastic that is, until a tractor mower from the Environment Agency turned up yesterday and reduced the vegetation to the state it is below. All that loss of insect life, and for what purpose? Does anybody have any idea why the EA finds it necessary to go out to a remote nature reserve and spend the public's money causing such environmental vandalism in the name of seawall management?
Excuse me if I'm wrong, but didn't you say in a very much earlier post that you spent weeks at a time employed in the summer mowing the sea walls yourself? Did you not feel you were doing a bit of 'environmental vandalism' back then?
ReplyDeleteGrass needs to be cut at least once a year or your seawall will eventually become a scrubby, brambly mess. Just my opinion though, I could be wrong...