Have you ever watched a beautiful nature documentary (or perhaps looked through my stunning articles 😉 ) and felt slightly disconnected from the material because although it’s wonderful and insightful and showing you the majesty of our planet, they are all things you haven’t seen, places far way, animals you might never encounter?
If you’re thinking “Wow Ani YES! You are a genius” then, why thank you, and I might have the very thing for you! Urban spaces are full of small ecosystems, hidden flora and fauna that grace the grass next to concrete, the hedges behind a fence, and the wildflowers sewn by the side of the road.
The truth is, even if you live in a built up urban environment where your wild spaces are maintained dog parks or hedges on road sides, or the stuff that crawls about your garden stealing BBQ crumbs, there are still a huge variety of animal and plant systems right by your doorstep.
For this article, I’ve teamed up with Jane Cockman, a keen environmental protector from the UK who has been kindly sharing her expertise with me to photograph and identify the plethora of species in urban spaces.
For this article over a couple of days, myself and Jane went to a dog walking path situated next to a 40mph road, and I got a lesson in identifying creatures and uncovering the hidden ecosystems in urban environments. The first place we looked was actually the very edge of the grounds, at the fence of the car park, where you can hear the road, feel the wind of the passing cars, and you’re as on the boundary of urban and nature as you could be.
I present, our site:
As you can see, this is no sprawling national park of rolling hills and lush landscape. The area we managed to find wildlife in included a bit of chopped grass in full sunlight in front of the fence where people walk, and in the hedges behind the fence. And this really is where we searched: this little bit of grass and a hedge, to bring to light some of the wonderful bits of nature that might be hiding under your nose.
So what did we find?
The Comma Butterfly, or Polygonia c-album, is named after the comma like white spots on its underside. They are characterised by jagged wing edges that help it blend in and look like a dead leaf when still.
They are fond of nectar and rotting fruit are usually found across England & Wales.
The speckled bush-cricket, or leptophyes punctatissima, gets its name from the tiny speckles over its body, and the cricket song is produced by males who rub their wings together to sing to females.
The Red Bug, or Deraeocoris Ruber, feeds on small insects and is visible between July-September.
In this photo, you can see the Enoplagnatha (little spider) having a nap in a leaf that it has fashioned into its own little cave by using a web to pull the side over!
The species, as you can tell from the label, is hard to separate from an Enoplognatha latima because they typically need very close up examination.
If you happened to look at this and think “dragonfly” don’t worry, I did the same. This is a Damselfly.
There are several types of Damselfly, including Variable, Azure, Emereld, Red Eyed, Blue Tailed, Common Blue, Willow Emerald, Large Red, and Beautiful Demoiselle, though between you and me that last one seems like favouritism.
And isn’t that cool! One patch of ground and a hedge and all these little creatures found! And of course, every creature has it’s unique and wonderful benefits to our ecosystem.
Butterflies for example, spotted above and quite common in urban environments, have ecological value in several areas. They are considered “model” organisms as they are useful to helping scientist learn about things like navigation & population dynamics. They are also indicators for the presence of other invertebrates, making their presence a key indicator of environmental health, and make necessary prey for animals up the food chain.
Spiders provide several benefits such as breakdown of organic matter, creation of habitats, and of course, food for other predators. Spiders, although many fear or dislike them, have even been described as “
“the unsung heroes of our ecosystems, contributing to the well-being of the planet and humanity by providing a wide range of ecosystem services” (article here)
Not only do spiders provide many benefits to the ecosystem they live in, their silk and how they generate it is of technological fascination; studies in robotics have used spider mechanics as inspiration!
And then there’s the cricket we found! Crickets actually provide the potential to supplement our diet during increased times of food stress, feeding on organic waste and creating low methane emissions, but providing high nutritional benefit.
So the next time you’re looking wistfully through magazines, wondering why all the amazing places are far away, you can be rest assured, there are beautiful and wonderful ecosystems right under your notes. Even in dense urban environments with all the sounds of traffic, these species were found in their own little world, providing their quiet and wonderful ecological benefit.
There are ecosystems all around us, all you have to do is look.
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