North Elmham Cathedral Meadows wildlife

Wildlife at the North Elmham Cathedral Meadows

Introduction

The Cathedral Meadows at North Elmham were acquired by the Parish Council in 1995 with the help of a grant from Breckland Council and a long-term loan. Former hedgerows were reinstated, and re-seeding took place with funding from the Wensum Valley Project. The newly-created fields entered into a Countryside Stewardship Scheme run by the Countryside Commission and through an agreement with English Heritage the meadows are run together with the Chapel ruins as a single countryside access scheme.

view across the Cathedral Meadows looking over the Wensum Valley towards Bintree Wood

In April 2018 the parish council approached a number of people living in the village with interests in wildlife recording and asked if they would help survey the wildlife at the Cathedral Meadows. The survey has uncovered an enormous diversity of animals and plants. The results of this work (which is ongoing) will be documented here (scroll down to see links to each wildlife group page).

The survey has primarily been conducted simply by individual observers visiting the meadows whenever possible and recording all wildlife identified (mainly me, Dave Appleton, but with others contributing). Some more specialist techniques have been employed like light-trapping for moths and other nocturnal insects, netting for day-flying insects, and sound-recording for bats.

Recording area

As well as the Cathedral Meadows themselves, the adjacent sections of track to the south (the continuation of Church Lane) and disused railway to the east have also been included in the recording area. In addition the chapel ruins and the field they sit in (through which the meadows can be accessed) have also been included. All species inside this recording area are included, and so too are those that can be seen (or heard) from within the recording area, even if they are just flying over, or in the surrounding farmland, valley or parkland (the exception is if things can be seen from the recording area but so distantly that they cannot reasonably be identified without closer approach). This map shows the recording area and its constituent fields.

The location of all species identified has been recorded as present in one or more of the six fields, or the track, or the adjacent length of the railway as shown in the map above subject to the following criteria:

Plants making up hedgerows are deemed as being present in the field(s) and/or track adjoining the hedgerow (this does not apply to plants growing at the base of the hedgerow that are clearly on one side rather than the other); similarly birds in these plants that are not clearly one side or the other are recorded as being both sides;
Likewise, birds seen in trees overhanging fields and/or track and/or railway are normally deemed as being present in each of those fields and/or track and/or railway that the tree overlaps;
Any species seen or heard outside of this recording area are counted if they are seen or heard from within the recording area but deemed as being 'offsite' rather than being associated with whatever field the recorder happened to be standing in;
Species seen flying over the airspace of the recording area are deemed as being offsite unless they are showing use of the site, e.g. if they are hunting or displaying over it.

Wildlife recorded

Click on the links to view the pages for each group of wildlife (this is still in preparation - only a few groups ready so far...):

Birds