...and DISCOVER your inner David Attenborough!
“The recent beautiful weather has brought forward the spring awakening of flora and fauna at Arrow Bank, Pearl Lake and Rockbridge. Sharing the stunning environment in which we’re located with our home owners, touring and self-catering guests is one of the best bits about owning our three family-run Discover Parks.
“But if you’re not planning on becoming an owner here or even staying with us, as stewards of the local environment we’d still love to share with you some of the wildlife highlights of our North Herefordshire and Welsh borderlands paradise.”
Glenn and Hannah Jones
Lake and River Life
Pearl Lake, a 15-acre Ice Age Pond, formed at the end of the last glacial period, is teeming with life at this time of the year. Canada geese are going about their noisy business with goslings in tow as are the lake’s ducks and you can spot whole families slipping into the water for some paddling lessons! Our swans are moving sedately around the lake, some of the females are on their nests, waiting for their signets to hatch.
Just recently, one of our team spotted a snake swimming in Pearl Lake...almost certainly a grass snake that had been basking in the warm spring sunshine! Don’t worry – grass snakes don’t bite humans!
We’ve just added some more carp to both Pearl Lake and Jennifer’s Pool at Arrow Bank, so there’s lots to spot with their chunky bodies and whiskery barbles as they slowly swim around.
The River Arrow, Afon Arwy in Welsh, rises in Powys in Wales and flows through Lyonshall, Staunton-on-Arrow, Pembridge, Eardisland – where it passes through Arrow Bank Country Holiday Park - Arrow Green, Monkland, Ivington and eventually joins the River Lugg just south of Leominster at Stoke Prior.
The River Lugg runs through Rockbridge Country Holiday Park and then heads east through Herefordshire where it joins the River Wye at Mordiford.
Both the Arrow and the Lugg are rich in willdife. You may see otters gliding by or spot their droppings on rocks where they may have been sunbathing. Small dippers who live near fast flowing rivers, can be seen bobbing up and down - these birds can walk underwater! Kingfishers dart over the surface of the water – if you see a flash of blue...that’ll be one. Bats swoop over the water at dusk catching stray insects.
Hedging your bets
We love our hedges at Discover Parks and they’re bursting with wildlife at this time of the year. We lay our own hedges where we can – cutting the branches nearly all the way through then laying them at an angle close to the ground – it's called pleaching. You’ll find sparrows and bluetits diving in and out of our hornbeam, hazel and hawthorne hedge, whilst hedgehogs find hiding places on the ground and field mice scamper in the undergrowth.
Mammal motorways
We pride ourselves on keeping our parks looking neat and tidy, but we also want to maintain important habitats. As the grass begins to grow in the spring sunshine, we try to keep wildlife corridors uncultivated and uncut. This allows small mammals to have safe passage around the parks. At Arrow Bank we divide our grass camping pitches up with these corridors, so they’re great for wildlife and for visitors too! These areas are also ideal for attracting insects too as the wildlflowers, like daisies, buttercups and poppies, help provide pollinators for bees, and food for other bugs.
Wonderful woodlands
Our woodlands really come alive in the spring and early summer. Under the tree canopy, there’s so much going on around you as you walk through. We have wet woodland areas which can be a bit boggy but where tress like alder, willow and birch do really well. Frogs and toads can also be found here whilst marsh and willow tits flutter in the branches. There are also natural glades formed from fallen trees where many species of plants thrive in the dappled shade and sunlight. Bluebells put on a show at this time of the year, and you’ll also spot campion, foxgloves, blackberries and cow parsnip.
Little bugs and bigger beasts
Our parks see many visitors, and not just of the human variety! Grasshoppers, spiders, dragonflies, crickets, moths and bees are among the little creatures you’ll come across but you’ll also see evidence (mainly from poop!) of foxes, muntjac deer, fallow deer, stoats and badgers.
Screen time to wild times
With so many animals, plants, trees, birds, insects and fish across our three parks, we want to make sure everyone gets a bit addicted to nature. With screen times rising, even for the youngest among us, we’ve launched a nature box scheme for our smallest guests so they can ditch Roblox for rodents and Minecraft for mayflies. In a nature box you’ll find UV light for spotting creatures, bug catchers for catching and having a good look before letting go, mindfulness cards to soak up the wellness that the wild has to offer, plus lots more.