From Cave crevices to small fissures, Creswell Crags is a piece of history in its own right! A limestone gorge honeycombed with habitats and remnants dating back to the last ice age, straddling the borders of Nottingham and Derbyshire, including stone tools and animal remains uncovered by archaeologists. All provide a fascinating insight into the sites history, dating back to the last ice age some 50,000 and 10,000 years ago and some of the sites past inhabitants. Below an artistic impression of what the Crags is believed to have looked like during the last ice age taken from the Crags website.
However, present day has an equally interesting ecology if you dare to delve deep enough, consisting of an array of elusive invertebrates that call Creswell home, and have done for a number of years. One rare and specialist inhabitant that has taken up residency in the sites numerous caves is the European Cave spider, known to specialists in the field as Meta Mernadi .Striking in appearance, and ferocious looking to the human eye (yet harmless), a long jawed orb-weaving spider, generally dark brown in colour with impressive amber markings to the abdomen. Named after their liking for living in places of total darkness, such as caves, railway tunnels and cellars. One of the two species of Cave spider found in the UK, the latter been Meta Bournetti, both similar in appearance and difficult to distinguish with out a microscope and incredible expertise, which is why it was a good job we had just the company who could share an insight on the spiders exact identity and habits. Trevor and Dily's Pendleton of Eakring birds had just the expertise required to solve the mystery, which had been playing staff at the Crags, who had wondered which species of spider out of the two was calling Creswell home..... Bournetti or Mernadi? a mouthful to say the least, and an easy case of mistaken identity.
A photo I took of Meta Mernadi, during the pre-tour survey of the caves, impressive to say the least in appearance
The caves were Pre-surveyed by myself, with help from Eakring birds, close friend and fellow enthusiast of Trevor and Dily's, Richard Rogers and Gary Joynt of Nott’s County Council in order to establish the population on site and the exact species in preparation for my upcoming ‘Cave Critters of Creswell’ event as mentioned in my previous blog back in May. A partnership event with the Creswell heritage Trust and the RSPB, with funding kindly donated from the Sherwood Forest Trust, the first of many fantastic partnership events to come with all concerned. An RSPB event of a slightly different nature from birds, that much of the general public previously and solely associate our work with, without realising that we are all nature, and always have been. Concerned in all flora and fauna, in order to maintain and build a fully functioning, healthy ecosystem and food web. Which hopefully more people will be aware of with our re-brand and new strap-line all about 'Giving Nature a Home', in addition a further attempt to bring people closer to local wildlife to teach them to value and love their local landscapes as part of the RSPB's newer Futurescapes projects, which I manage for Sherwood, Trent and Tame.
The gang ready to pre-survey the caves
The event took place on the 26th May and what a success it was! The weather was definitely on our side, a gorgeous, warm summer’s day where the wildlife came to life, birds singing in the background, the suns rays beaming, with a steady and building influx of visitors to the Crags throughout, of enthusiastic children and families, some with phobias, hoping to overcome there fears and others excited to have a possible encounter with the rare cave spider! Three guided cave tours took place throughout, led by local expert Trevor and his wife Dily's, who specialise in invertebrates . Keeping in theme with the day, centred on all things creepy crawly, was a mini-beast trail for families to do on site equip with magnify glasses, bug collection pots and ID charts. Along with a ‘build your own Minibeasts’ workshop, where children could make there very own mini beast, in which we had some fantastic creations of all colours, adaptations, names,sizes. Some poisonous, others friendly, some that could fly others that swam, feathers, stingers you name it we had one! it seemed a great day was had by all!
Some of the children's very own mini beast creations!
Akira and his father Jason making there very own creation in which Akria said "it was the best part of his weekend!"
A big thank you to all that made the day such a huge success! but the fun doesn't stop there, the next big event coming up at Creswell is my 'RSPB Big Wildlife Weekender' taking place on the 6 and 7th July, 11-4;30 pm. For a family weekend full of fun, inspired by the local wildlife in the area. Meet experts who will reveal more about the creatures of Creswell, from butterflies to water voles. Activities include crafts, trails, games, archaeology , tree art, field craft, sweep netting, mini-beast hunts, habitat building and a bird ringing demonstration, one date not to be missed this year! For more details check out the BBC website, as they are featuring the event on there 'Summer of Wildlife', or the RSPB 'whats on' page for more details, in which I hope to see many familiar and new faces throughout.