Wildlife
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Birds
Birds
The park is a great place for bird watching. Herons, kingfishers, ducks and swans are regularly seen along the river. There is a heron colony in the wetlands and we are frequently visited by a little white egret. Rarer birds like warblers shelter in the hedgerows, and woodpeckers and owls live in the woodland.
© National Trust
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Mammals
Mammals
Squirrels are a prominent visitor to the park, especially in the autumn when they can be seen collecting conkers. In the evening you can see pipestrelle bats flitting between the trees. In the meadow, areas of long grass are deliberately left to provide shelter for small mammals like the short-tailed vole.
© NT Morden Hall Park
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Fish and invertebrates
Fish and invertebrates
The park supports a host of insect and other invertebrate life. Grasshoppers and crickets can be heard 'singing' in the meadows. Dragonflies and damselflies dart around the river and the river teems with freshwater invertebrates.
The rich invertebrate life of the river provides food for a variety of fish species.
© NT Morden Hall Park
Birds
Mammals
Fish and invertebratesMeadows
Conservation of these meadows is carried out by a traditional system of annual hay cutting enabling plants to seed. The grass has never been sprayed with artifical fertilisers but allowed to grow.
Wetlands
An area of marshland lies to the north of the park, where in winter and spring this area is allowed to flood for wading birds and invertebrates.
Woodland
There are native trees such as oak, beech, ash, birch and some fine riverside willows and alders. It is important there are trees of different ages forming a patchwork of habitats to encourage different species of birds.
Roses
The rose garden comes alive each summer with 25 varieties of florabunda roses displayed across 38 flowerbeds.
Wildflowers
The meadows are managed to provide a mixture of natural grasses and wild flowers during summer. The marshes and rivers edge provide wetland habitats for marsh flowers, like yellow iris and marsh marigold.
Trees
Many of the trees in the park were planted in the 19th and 20th centuries by the Hatfeild family. There is an ornamental avenue of lime and horse-chestnut trees, a mulberry tree said to have been planted by Huguenots in the 18th century and one of the oldest yews in England.