Animals
“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” John Muir.
Earlham Cemetery is home to many species of animals, ranging from larger animals like Foxes and Muntjac deer, to tiny invertebrates such as springtails and mites.
The plants in the Cemetery are key to animal life, providing food and shelter. Insects such as bees, hoverflies and butterflies need nectar and pollen from flowers as food, the greater the variety the better. Trees provide places for birds and bats to nest and roost, as well as homes for beetles and some hoverfly larvae in dead, rotting wood.
Birds such as Jays, Goldcrests, Sparrowhawks, Blackbirds, Wrens, Robins, Nuthatches, Tits, Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers nest in Earlham Cemetery. Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps can be heard in the spring, Swifts, House Martins and Swallows can be seen overhead in summer and Waxwings sometimes visit in winter. There have been occasional sightings of many other species, including Hawfinch, Firecrest, Wood Warbler and even a Great Grey Shrike!
The mix of grassland and trees is home to many insects, including moths, butterflies such as the Speckled Wood, Brown Argus, Common Blue, Ringlet and Orange Tip, ladybirds and other beetles, true bugs (Hemiptera), bees (including the rare Large Scabious Mining Bee Andrena hattorfiana) and hoverflies.
Mammals include the increasingly common Muntjac deer, Hedgehogs, Grey Squirrels and Foxes.
It is easier to record some animals than others. Birds, butterflies, dragonflies and bees are easily observed during the day, but bats and many moths only fly at night, when the Cemetery is out of bounds. To find out what species occur, members of our group have used bat detectors or run moth traps in gardens backing onto the Cemetery.
Sometimes animals leave clues behind, such as galls or leaf mines on plants or tracks and droppings of mammals. These help us to obtain more information on life in Earlham Cemetery.
