Discovering Nature⠀

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• Before we head off into the more wild areas of the Park we cross through the formal Orangery gardens. This is the Chapter House it was built in the 11th century.
  
  
  
• You may not expect any wildlife to live here in the gardens but you will be surprised.
  
  
  
• The mature trees provide perfect nest sites for song and mistle thrushes. This is a song thrush feeding its young.
  
  
  
• The Orangery building itself provides a winter roost and summer maternity site for Pipistrelle bats.
• The summer flowering plants that look so attractive provide many species of insect with nectar which helps the plants with pollination.
• Look at the old walls many are covered in lichens.
  
  
  
• Hedgehogs love the formal gardens, they spend the daytime sleeping in a leafy bed hidden away to appear at nigh to feed. Earthworms, slugs and beetles are its favourite.

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