Wildlife

We try to maintain the churchyard to allow wildflowers and wildlife to flourish, while preventing the graves from becoming overgrown. Although it is not always easy to achieve both objectives, we are encouraged by the amount of wildlife appearing in the churchyard. The grass is cut twice a year and as much of the cut grass as possible is raked and removed, to encourage the growth of other plants. Paths and the seating area receive additional cuts as required. A copy of the Churchyard Management Policy can be found here.

A survey of plants in June 2014 recorded 70 species (not including bryophytes, fungi or lichens) and the species list can be downloaded here as a PDF file.

Surveys of lichens have been performed by the British Lichen Society in 1992 and in 2015 as part of a nationwide Churchyard Survey. These surveys have shown more than 100 species in St. Tudno’s churchyard.

Limpet shells on a grave.

Birds most frequently seen in the churchyard are jackdaws, which often gather in the churchyard at dusk, and herring gulls. However during 2015 a pair of swallows nested under the eaves of the church and successfully raised three chicks and the birds could be seen hunting insects above the churchyard. Other birds bring seafood meals from the shore to eat in the churchyard and while limpet shells are the most common remains, crab shells and fish bones have also been seen. The suspected culprits are crows but while the shells build up we have not yet spotted the birds which bring them. More unusual birds which have been reported include firecrests in the black pine trees.

Nests of buff tail bumblebees have been found in the churchyard but these can be hard to spot as the bees nest in holes in the ground and the only sign may be bees going in and out of the nest entrance.  Nests of the yellow meadow ant are easily seen as large, grass covered mounds and the plants growing on the mounds may be different from those in the surrounding area. In the early morning, in particular, rabbits may be seen scampering about the churchyard and the Great Orme goats visit the churchyard from time to time.

In the churchyard this month: leaves of wild arums beginning to unfurl.

Some examples of the churchyard wildlife are shown here. Click on a photograph for a larger image. We would be delighted to receive reports of other wildlife seen in the churchyard.

Flowers
Spring
Wild arum	Lesser celandine	Violet
Summer
Thrift	Yarrow	Pyramidal orchids
Autumn
Ragwort	Knapweed with hover fly	Blackberry
Fungi
Mosses
Lichens
Lichens on limestone	Lichens on tree	Lichens on sandstone
Insects
Meadow brown butterfly	Skipper butterfly and six spot burnet moth	Cinnabar moth caterpillars
Buff tail bumblebee	Common carder bumblebee	Red tailed bumblebee (male)
Birds
Jackdaw	Swallows	Herring gull
Goats
Nanny goat with new born kid	Nanny goats and kids	Billy goats