Bee Hives, Bug Hotels and Bird Boxes

Foxglove provides important habitats to well over 2000 species of wildlife. Most of these build their homes in natural places but several are given a helping hand with an artificial abode! The Richmondshire Beekeepers will be running one of their courses at Foxglove over the next few days and have placed wooden beehives on the heathland. These are a welcome site and any resulting heather honey will also be in demand as honey bees are suffering nationwide due to many factors.

A recent project undertaken by Colin was the construction of a new 'bug hotel'. This involved building a wooden frame that could then be filled with a variety of materials for invertebrates to live in.

Natural materials were gathered and arranged inside the individual compartments before Colin fixed the wire onto the front.

The wire will prevent the material from falling out.

An ideal sheltered location was chosen on the edge of the heathland and supporting posts were installed.

 The 'hotel' was then mounted on the posts and the end result is a beautiful feature close to the main access road.

Finally, this unusual photograph of a female Tawny Owl inside her nest box was taken by Adam earlier this week. Tawny owls usually fly out of the box when the ringers approach it but this dedicated mother refused to leave her eggs which must have been on he verge of hatching.

A rare sight indeed!