Quantock Education

Ranger's notebook - Heath

Open, high, exposed land. Small windblown trees.birch , hawthorn, blackthorn
Wild, quiet and lonely. Old tracks. Prehistoric remains. Views!
Thin soil, no hedges, no walls or buildings to be seen.
My favourite multi coloured Quantock mixture (called maritime heath) of whortleberries, birch, gorse, ling, bent bristle grass and bedstraw heather, dodder (rare!) and the famous Flowers: whortleberry (tasty)
And of course bracken (has to be cleared each year or it takes over), and the dreaded rhododendrons (worse luck for us - we have to get rid of them)
Heather - attracts insects, moths, heath butterfies and grayling.
Small creatures ( mice, field voles, snakes and lizards) shelter in the bracken and heather - and provide tasty meals for birds of prey ( buzzard, kestrel)
sheep, cattle, ponies, rabbits, deer, all help keep the grass short (and then the ragwort grows).
Wet, boggy patches, small rivulets, bog asphodel, sundews, ragged robin, purple moor grass - great for heath butterfies and grayling.: tortoiseshell, peacock, red admiral.
Look up and listen out for whinchat, stonechat, meadow pipit, skylark, linnet, wheatear, raven, dartford warbler, buzzard.