What wildlife can I see in Woodbury Common during summer?

In East Devon there are many areas of common land, these are collectively known as the pebblebed heaths and contain a mix of dry and wet heathland with an amazing array of wildlife, some of it quite rare.

Woodbury Common is probably best-known for its castle, an Iron-Age hillfort with ramparts and ditch system now surrounded by beech trees, but the area around the castle is a fascinating place to explore in summer.

During July we can see a number of butterflies including dark green fritillary, grayling, silver-studded blue, silver-washed fritillary, small heath and small pearl-bordered fritillary, with an even more impressive selection of dragonflies and damselflies on the wet patches, the rarer species are keeled skimmer, downy emerald, hairy dragonfly, migrant hawker, small red damselfly and southern damselfly. Vegetation includes a few interesting species, most obviously heather, bell heather and cross-leaved heath with bog asphodel and sundew found in damp spots.

For many it will be birds that have the greatest interest and at Woodbury they don’t disappoint. Breeding birds include nightjar, Dartford warbler, stonechat and hobby but there are many other species found here in the different seasons.

WHAT TO SPOT

The nightjar has incredibly effective camouflage when it stays still on the heath (c) David Chapman

NIGHTJAR

The nightjar is a nocturnal summer visitor to the heathlands of Devon. It nests on the ground laying two eggs and having two clutches each summer. It remains motionless all day and begins to fly, and crucially call, at dusk. Its two-tone churring is one of the most wonderful sounds of nature making any experience of this bird an exciting one.

READ MORE: Why the nightjar is also known as a goat sucker or a corpse-fowl

To identify a silver-studded blue butterfly have a good look on the underwings to spot the silvery-blue studs (c) David Chapman

SILVER-STUDDED BLUE BUTTERFLY

The silver-studded blue butterfly is a scarce species found mostly on heathland in Devon (try Woodbury and Bicton), also regularly spotted at Bolt Head. The males are blue on their backs, females sooty brown, but we must see them with their wings closed to make sure of their identity. Under their hindwings both males and females have silvery-blue studs, after which they were named.

The sundew is an insectivorous plant of wet peaty ground (c) David Chapman

SUNDEW

The sundew is an exciting plant because it eats insects! Its leaves have long thin filaments with droplets of sticky ‘dew’ at the ends. These drops attract insects which land and get stuck. Over time the leaves curl around the unfortunate insect and the sticky dew begins to digest it. This is a plant which can be found growing in peaty bogs on heathland and moorland.

To see more of David’s photography see: www.davidchapman.org.uk