Since Lime Kiln Wood was taken over by the LKW Trust, we have tended to focus on the plant life, mainly because of the need to reduce shading in order to encourage the ground flora. However, the ultimate point of our management activities is not only to improve the biodiversity of plants but also of the animals which depend on them.
We are now starting the long process of finding out what animals live in the wood. First of all, we have been helped by a number of experts in the South Westmorland Bat Group who have already identified three species of bats in Lime Kiln Wood – pipistrelles, soprano pipistrelles, and brown long-eared bats. We are beginning to find out about potential bat roosts, but there are relatively few suitable tree holes and crevices, so we suspect that most of the bats hide during the day in gaps between stones in the drystone walls, and maybe even down the limestone grykes.
Of the larger mammals, roe deer are common and exert a degree of grazing pressure, which is why we have starting temporarily fencing off the coppice coupes to protect the re-growing hazel. Badgers use the wood, but we don’t think there are any setts within our boundary. Foxes traverse the glades on a regular basis, and we have a resident population of grey squirrels – no reds have yet been sighted, unfortunately.
Now we are turning our attentions to the birds, with the help of a local expert – Jamie Green. We plan to conduct a regular bird census, and would welcome any reports of interesting bird sightings that wood users make. This spring, Jamie has so far carried out two bird surveys, and the list is already of respectable length:-
| Blackcap | Long-tailed tit |
| Blackbird | Marsh tit |
| Black-headed gull | Missel thrush |
| Blue tit | Nuthatch |
| Buzzard | Robin |
| Carrion crow | Rook |
| Chaffinch | Song thrush |
| Chiffchaff | Swallow |
| Coal tit | Treecreeper |
| Goldcrest | Wood pigeon |
| Great spotted woodpecker | Wren |
| Great tit |
We hope that later surveys this spring and summer will lengthen this list considerably. We know that our programme of bird box installations is already beginning to attract occupants – those put up last year have been used by a variety of species, and we are also planning to install some bat boxes. Finally, we plan to start surveying some of the invertebrates (especially butterflies and moths), and would like to get in touch with any local experts who could help…..