R Rabbit Banks
Topography
Steep hillside
Aspect
South facing
General Description
An open heath like hillside forming the top of the incised valley of the River Wear with gorse and broom and fine grasses and some trees. There is a plantation of trees on the crest of the hillside and another below.
Features
Footpaths down the hillside, some badly eroded by motorcycle use. The western boundary is a ditch and bank of some antiquity now overgrown with trees.
Soil
Grasses
- Bents (Agrostis spp)
- Cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata)
- Tufted hair grass (Deschampsia caespitosa)
- Field wood-rush (Luzula campestris)
Ferns
Mosses
Lichens
Fungi
Trees and Shrubs
- Oak (Quercus robur)
- Silver birch (Betula pendula)
- White willow (Salix alba)
- Crack willow (Salix fragilis)
- Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
- Elder (Sambucus nigra)
- Ash (Fraxinus excelsior)
- Bramble (Rubus fruticosus)
- Gorse (Ulex europaeus)
- Broom (Sarothamnus scoparius)
- White poplar (Populus alba)
Plants
- Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica)
- Creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense)
- Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)
- Broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius)
- Rosebay willowherb (Chamaerion angustifolium)
- Sheep’s sorrel (Rumex acetosella)
- Ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata)
- Heath bedstraw (Galium saxatile)
- Tormentil (Potentilla erecta)
- Daisy (Bellis perennis)
- Bird’s foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus)
- Bulbous buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus)
Invertibrates
- St Mark’s fly (Bibio markii)
Mammals
Birds
- Willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus)
- Linnet
- Yellowhammer
- Bullfinch
How could the area be improved
More tree planting could be undertaken in blocks where the vegetation is not interesting whilst leaving the heath-like vegetation intact. The prevention of access by motorcyclists would enable the badly eroded tracks to be re-vegetated. Securely fenced blocks of tree planting across the line of the tracks might be effective.
Updates
Birds 7 May 2005:
Linnet
Yellowhammer
Willow Warbler
Bullfinch
11 May 2014:
Willow Warbler
Collared Dove
Jackdaw
Wood Pigeon
Crow
Whitethroat
Magpie
Mute Swan
Song Thrush
Chiff-chaff
Blackcap
Chaffinch
Bullfinch
Resurveyed on 7th June 2015 by Anne Quigley, Katie Self and Catherine Gough.
Also present:
sycamore, rowan, wild rose
stitchwort, vetch, comfrey, speedwell, dandelion, Himalayan balsam
bumble bee
swallow
