Our Successional Habitat Flagship Contenders!

As part of our Flagship species rundown, we are celebrating our most popular Successional habitat species! We asked you to vote, just for fun, and you did in your hundreds! So let’s kick things off with our first Successional habitat contender…the Slow Worm!

Slow worm (Photo credit: Jim Higham)

Slow worm (Photo credit: Jim Higham)

The Slow Worm is neither a worm, nor is it particularly slow! And, despite appearances, it also is most definitely NOT a snake! In fact, the Slow Worm is a type of legless, burrowing lizard, most commonly found in scrubby areas, woodland edges, and also in places like allotments and mature gardens. Like all cold-blooded reptiles, Slow Worms need external sources of warmth to heat up and become active, so you might find them in your nice warm compost heap, or beneath a sunny log – they are shy creatures so you’re more likely to find one underneath something than out in the open!

Slow Worms can live for a surprisingly long time – up to 20 years! They feed on insects, slugs, worms, and snails – we can help slow worm populations by not using insecticides and slug bait in our gardens and allotments, as these can also poison Slow Worms.

Lizard Orchid (Photo credit: eastlondonnature.co.uk

And finally, the winner of our Successional habitat flagship species is one of our most beloved and famous songbirds – the Nightingale!

Nightingale (Photo credit: RSPB)

Whilst they could be described as fairly unremarkable in appearance, with a plain brown plummage, the same could not be said of their song – Nightingales can produce over 1000 different sounds, and their lengthy and rich song can be heard up to a kilometre away on a quiet evening! Only the males sing, and we hear them in the Spring when they arrive back with us for their breeding season. They will remain in the UK all summer, before setting off on a lengthy migration back to Africa in the Autumn.

Nightingales depend on the scrubby, successional habitat between woodland and open land, where they forage and nest close to the ground whilst remaining protected from predators.

Nightingales are already here for the summer and in full song! Have you heard one yet this Spring?