SHROPSHIRE'S WILDLIFE - ITS ORIGINS AND PECULIARITIES

Anyone living in Shropshire knows that it's a special place. The factors that confer the distinctive feel to the landscape also give us our characteristic wildlife. First and foremost is geology. Below is a geological map of Shropshire. Each colour represents a different rock type. Each rock gives subtly different conditions suited to different plants and animals.

Shropshire also sits at a geographical crossroads. We are at the point where the low-lying English Midlands grow into the Welsh uplands. We are also at the point where north meets south. This is best illustrated in Shropshire's flora, which botanists tell us is made up of plants from fifteen different "bio-geographic elements"; including those that thrive in arctic conditions and those from the Mediterranean.

What about a few examples? The globeflower is a type of buttercup found in Scotland and northern England. Shropshire has one or two sites, including Sweeney Fen nature reserve. If you want to see a silver-studded blue butterfly Dorset or Surrey are the best places. The only place you will find it in the Midlands is Prees Heath. Similarly dormice rapidly disappear northwards of Herefordshire and Shropshire.

Three cheers for the Meres

Travelling through Shropshire these changes are obvious. To the south there is The Long Mynd, The Stiperstones and Clee hills topped with purple heather. The 73 miles of River Severn flowing through the county have carved a broad flat (sometimes flooded, sometimes wooded) plain. But it is to the north that some of our real gems lie. Glistening like jewels are the Meres - lakes created at the end of the last Ice Age. Alongside are the Mosses - once lakes, but now filled with peat from sphagnum moss.

These wetlands are easy to overlook. They are small, hidden in hollows and often obscured by trees. Their wildlife is so special that naturalists put them on a par with the Norfolk Broads and the Lake District. Unusual (and very difficult to identify) water plants are a speciality. The least water lily was the original emblem of Shropshire Wildlife Trust. Wem Moss nature reserve has all three British species of sundew. These insignificant little plants catch insects on sticky hairs to supplement their impoverished diet.

Spiders and snakes

The animals are fascinating too. The raft spider (one of Britain's biggest) walks on the surface of pools and catches prey as big as tadpoles or small fish. Adders and lizards bask in the sunshine. Dragonflies, like the white-faced darter, aggressively hunt other insects and the pale yellow brimstone butterfly flits by, always in a hurry to be somewhere else.

Pools, rivers and canals make Shropshire a stronghold for one of Britain's most endangered mammals - the water vole. This secretive little creature lives in bank-side burrows and eats vegetation. It has declined as habitat has been lost and mink have spread. There is a glimmer of hope. Otter numbers are increasing and they drive out mink which allows water voles to re-establish.

In the north west are the Oswestry Hills with place name more Welsh than English. Here is a large lump of limestone that has been quarried for centuries. Abandoned quarries soon develop a clothing of vegetation and, on the thin limestone soils, wildflowers abound. Wild orchids are always exciting to find. At Llanymynech Rocks and Llynclys Common nature reserves you can expect to find bee orchid, frog orchid, autumn ladies tresses and butterfly orchid to name but a few.

Shropshire isn't a place of big, showy wildlife. But anyone prepared to spend a little time exploring will discover wild places and wildlife in abundance with a little help from Shropshire Wildlife Trust.