Wildlife at Lydcott Glamping

We’re so happy to share our beautiful place with wonderful wildlife, as well as wonderful guests!

We do all we can to encourage wildlife and nature to flourish here, and we’re delighted that our efforts over the years are really paying off.

We scooped a ‘Wildlife Friendly Business of the Year’ Award in the 2023/24 Cornwall Tourism Awards, and aim to continue to stay among the most wildlife friendly tourism businesses in the region, by always looking at ways we can encourage more wildlife here, and share it with our guests.

We’ve recently invested in a wildlife camera!

Having realised we have badgers, polecats and hedgehogs trundling around at night, we wanted to see if we could capture any in action.

This has been the most fun toy ever – every morning is like Christmas morning to see what animals we’ve managed to catch on film!

So far we havent managed to get footage of the badgers, but one night we did get 5 different species in a single night – check out our YouTube channel to see footage and subscribe to stay updated on new discoveries!

Our wildlife pond is teeming with life!

We dug this pond by hand over 2 days in late summer 2023. We wanted it to just do it’s own thing, so we lined it, filled it with water, added a couple of plants, and just left it to establish its own ecosystem naturally. We are amazed every time we go to check on it – we have so much life in there now. Frogs & tadpoles, waterboatmen, and dragonflies amongst many other types of insects have made it their home and are thriving. Birds come to drink and bathe daily – it’s their little social meeting spot. The plants are naturally keeping it clear and filtered, and it’s just a lovely place here at Lydcott Glamping now to just sit and watch nature doing its thing.

Badgers at Lydcott?

Having consulted the hive mind of social media when we were bamboozled at finding little truffle holes all up the sides of our pathways each morning, we were SO excited to discover they were in fact ‘BADGER SNUFFLE HOLES!’ – YES THIS IS AN ACTUAL THING – and our tiktok video really did capture my excitement – our kids still take the mickey to this day, quoting ‘badger snuffle holes! thats exactly what they are!’ at me for their own amusement. (if you want to see the infamous post in question, click here)

We also have evidence of lots of badger setts around the perimeter of the field, so we’re really pleased. We do appreciate they aren’t a farmer’s best friend – but they are a protected species, and we’re happy theyve found a happy place to thrive here at Lydcott Glamping.

Hedgehog Glamping

We love hedgehogs, and have many living in and around the field here. Last year (2023) we sadly found a young hoglet out during the daytime – which we know means trouble as they are nocturnal creatures. We contacted the Cornwall hedgehog rescue centre to help it – and as a result of that, applied to be a hedgehog release site for them. Although our natural environment here at Lydcott Glamping is perfect for hedgehogs, the rescue centre has a policy that any release sites must have at least one purpose built hedgehog house. So of course, we duly set to work building one – a lovely luxury hedgehog glamping pod no less! Needless to say, we havent yet had any hedgehogs move in, as there are so many places here for them to naturally hide and hibernate – but you never know, one day they may move in!

Birdspotting (& listening!)

Birdsong is the background music to your holiday here at Lydcott Glamping. We love the ‘Merlin Bird ID‘ app, which can listen and identify all the birdsongs it picks up.

Download the app and try it for yourself here

We are lucky to have buzzards, swallows and swifts, and even a resident Barn Owl in the barn next door, who we’ve named ‘Gerald’, and can sometimes be seen venturing out at dusk if you’re lucky.

Our No-Mow policy

It all started when we participated in ‘No-Mow May’ a couple of years ago, and everything looked so lovely we’ve never looked back! In the past 2 years since we’ve stopped mowing the field here at Lydcott (we now only mow essential areas for guests to move between cabins and explore the site), we’ve noticed so much more wildlife flourishing. The un-mowed areas of the field are full of voles, and we have noticed many more badger setts around the perimeter of the field. We also have quite a lot of moles, who like to make themselves known by leaving us enormous molehills!

Another benefit of no mow, is that the ground stays a lot cooler and retains more moisture, so the grass and wildflowers love it.

And it looks gorgeous too!