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Reserves - Andrew's Wood
Key Information
Entrance Grid reference
SX 713 520
Location
Five miles north of Kingsbridge
Size
32 hectares, 79 acres
Main Type of Habitat
Secondary broad-leaved woodland, unimproved rush pasture, acid grassland, semi-improved field.
Sponsor
Fowlescombe Farm
DWT gratefully acknowledges the generosity of Richard and Barbara Barker in supporting the management of Andrews Wood Nature Reserve. www.fowlescombe.co.uk
Biffaward have generously donated nearly £50,000 to help with management on the reserve for the next three years. The money will help restore 15 ha of grassland encouraging the rare heath lobelia to thrive.
www.biffaward.org
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Andrew's Wood
The woodland is mainly composed of relatively young, even-aged pedunculate oak and downy birch with a locally dense understorey of hazel and holly. Along the boundary banks are more mature oaks and occasional beech trees and a diverse flora of bilberry and ferns.
The reserve supports a good bird population with whitethroat, garden warbler, tree pipit, marsh tit, chiffchaff, willow warbler and nuthatch all breeding regularly, whilst woodcock use the wood for overwintering.
The wood and scrubby areas within the grassland support large numbers of dormice. Fifty dormouse nest boxes were put up on the trees in 1992 and these have been surveyed every year since then as part of the National Dormouse Monitoring Scheme. Surveys have also recorded Brandts, whiskered and pipstrelle bats. In summer 2012 we had our first record of a greater horseshoe bat. There is a large greater horseshoe breeding colony about 4km north east of the reserve so it was probably a bat from there using the woodland edges and grassland areas for foraging. Barbastelle and lesser horseshoe bats have been recorded close to the reserve at Blackdown Cross and although they haven’t been recorded on the reserve itself it is likely that they do use Andrew’s Wood for foraging also.
The unimproved grassland areas contain a colourful array of plants such as fleabane, ragged robin, southern marsh orchids, purple loosestrife, Devil’s bit scabious and wild angelica. The rarest plant is the heath lobelia which is now only found in six locations in the UK, with the population at Andrew’s Wood being the largest. This can be seen flowering along the path edges in July and August.
Download a guide to this nature reserve here.
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