Nature at Ravenfield Park
The Park is an oasis of wildlife in a ‘desert’ of agriculture. It has been left comparatively undisturbed, while much of the surrounding countryside has been intensively managed for agriculture. The nearby sites of Firsby Reservoir and Gold Wood along with the Hooton Brook, make the site extremely important ecologically.
The hedgerows emanating from the site act as corridors to 'feed' the park with fauna species and maintain the site's importance as an oasis for wildlife. As a result, it is rich in wildlife and contains a number of plants and animals which are otherwise hardly known in Rotherham.
The slopes of the valley are well-drained and sandy, providing homes for plants and animals which can no longer exist in the more intensively managed parts of our countryside. For example, the Green Tiger Beetle and Green Grasshopper are normally found in the uplands while the Adder is becoming increasingly rare as its habitat is destroyed and is not known to exist anywhere else in Rotherham. Trailing St John's Wort is only known in one or two places in the area.
The open grassland is a good local example of unimproved acid grassland, comprising of, for example, Wavy Hair Grass, Plicate Sweet-grass, Red Fescue, Sheep's Fescue, Crested Dog's-tail, Rough Meadow-grass, Creeping Bent, Heath Bedstraw and Creeping Cinquefoil.
The wooded areas are particularly good for birds and a variety of tits, finches and thrushes occur here. Tree Pipit is a regular, but uncommon summer visitor, while Siskin can often be seen feeding on the Alders in winter. Great Spotted Woodpeckers can also be seen while the saw fly, which feeds on alder cannot been found elsewhere in Yorkshire.
The ponds, stream and wetland areas support a large number of birds and insects in addition to the fish. Trout, Bullhead and Stone Loach have been recorded in Hooton Brook while the various fish species in the ponds provide food for herons and kingfishers. Orange tip butterfly and Mullien Shark moth breed here while the list of crane flies include many which are rare in the North of England, while the soldier fly is a national rarity.
Among the birds which may be seen are Little Grebe, Pheasant, Kingfisher, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Song Thrush, Grey and Yellow Wagtails, Little and Tawny Owls, Jay, Grasshopper and Willow Warblers, Goldcrest, Great Tit, Tree Creeper and Reed Bunting.
In the evening Noctule and Pipistrelle bats can be seen feeding on insects.
Once present as stock animals, wild deer now visit the Park again, while frogs and toads can be found in spring and grass snakes in summer. Other animals include hares, foxes, stoats and weasels, and squirrels.
During the hour that it took to take the original photos for this website, a large variety of bird life was observed around the site. Besides herons, robins, wrens, chaffinches, coots, moorhens, Canada geese and mallards, a pair of red-legged partridges, a jay and a tree creeper were seen.
A new addition this year are the sheep. These are actually an earner for us, as we receive a grant for grazing them. Just another example of the imaginative ways that the committee are finding to keep the club solvent !!