This area contains some unique habitats, flora and fauna, including the small cudweed and the sand martin, a migratory bird species that returns from North Africa each spring to breed in the porous sand cliffs along sections of the river valley north.
Cudweed |
It is built by both birds out of the stems of various flowering plants such as cudweed (Gnaphalium) and (Filago), and thyme (Thymus), and lined with whisps of wool, hairs, roots and feathers.
The larvae feed on various plants (cudweed, everlasting, pussytoes) formerly placed in the Gnaphalium genus, including Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium, Pseudognaphalium helleri, and Helichrysum species.