Crow's claw

	Crow's claw IUCN Category IV - Habitat / Species Management Area
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location	Baden-Wuerttemberg , Germany
surface	5.3 ha
WDPA ID	164223
Geographical location	48 ° 46 ' N , 9 ° 20' E Coordinates: 48 ° 45 '55 " N , 9 ° 19' 43" E
Setup date	1993

The Krähenhäule is a nature reserve (NSG number 1.197) in the area of the city of Esslingen in the Baden-Württemberg district of Esslingen in Germany that was designated by the Stuttgart Regional Council of December 10, 1993 .

Location and purpose of protection

The 5.3 hectare nature reserve lies between 480 and 495 m above sea level north of the city of Esslingen, above (north) the districts of Wiflingshausen and Wäldenbronn in the natural area of Schurwald and Welzheimer Wald . The area is bordered on three sides by forest and on one side by a glider airfield. The area, which was fenced in from the start, was created as a shooting range in the 1930s . After the Second World War, it served the US Army as a training ground. In 1991 the US Army withdrew. The former shooting range was partly dug into the terrain and partly filled in. This means that there are three different geological layers to be found here. In the upper part of the Jura, followed by Rätsandstein and in the lower part of the marl . Dry, moist and wet biotopes exist in a narrow space of the small structured succession area .

A nationwide endangered butterfly species, the clover ram (Zygaena trifolii) occurs as well as various dragonfly species, e.g. B. the horseshoe azure damsel ( Coenagrion puella ) , the blue-green mosaic damsel (Aeshna cyanea) and the common darter (Sympetrum vulgatum) . The crow's claw is also important as an amphibian habitat and spawning habitat for potentially endangered species such as the yellow-bellied toad , common toad and common frog. The 110-year-old mixed beech and oak stand on the southern edge of the former shooting range is no longer cultivated, its undergrowth and dead wood represent a further enrichment of the nature reserve and a valuable habitat for many animal species, including reptiles (slow worm, sand lizard, forest lizard and a species of snake) Several species of birds (eg red-backed killer, black-backed warbler , marsh warbler and tree pipit ) also live here. The rock piles and the sand trap of the shooting range are dry habitats with occurrences of ant lions , wild bees and sand bees . Also worth mentioning are ground beetles and numerous species of grasshoppers, including the common sickle insect .

literature

Reinhard Wolf , Ulrike Kreh (Hrsg.): The nature reserves in the Stuttgart administrative region . Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7995-5176-2 , pp. 461-462