What's happening at Nashenden Reserve this Autumn?

Amazingly, it's already been ten years since Kent Wildlife Trust acquired the site and five years since our volunteer team started work. As the reserve matures, we are continually finding new species of wildlife. Here are a few of the recent highlights.

 

~ Written by Dave Watson, Nashenden Down Volunteer Warden

 

As well as the usual flocks of skylarks and linnets on the arable field last winter, a number of reed buntings were spotted amongst the chaffinches along the hedgerow.

Last year, as part of the habitat quality assessment programme, a ground beetle survey was carried out. One of the finds was this Bombardier Beetle Brachinus Crepitans. Classed as nationally scarce, it’s a beetle of calcareous grasslands and arable field margins.

A very exciting sighting in 2017 was a single Shrill Carder bee (left below). This is one of the very rarest bumblebees in the country and is a focus of the ‘Making a buzz for the coast’ project run jointly with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Since then another single bee has been seen.

Project officer Rosie Earwaker visited the reserve in July and recorded 10 bumblebee species (there are only 26 in the country!) including another rarity Brown Banded Carder (middle). A number of solitary bee species were also recorded including the Variable Nomad Bee (right), a recent arrival from the continent.

A number of Small Blue butterflies have been seen on the North side of the reserve in the last two summers. These are dependent on Kidney Vetch, a plant in the pea family with yellow flowers, the only food plant of its caterpillars.

Out in the fields

Following the expiration of our agreement with local graziers, we are now grazing the fields with our own livestock. At different times of the year, you will see our flocks of sheep, in the spring with lambs, and some of our cattle. Our sheep are Hebrideans and Herdwicks, hardy breeds that are ideal for conservation grazing as they are happy with the coarser vegetation that commercial breeds find unpalatable.

Learn more about our nature reserves

Bob and the other Longhorns sitting in a field

Bob the Longhorn

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Bob is the most striking and charismatic of our longhorns; he is well loved by our staff and volunteers. He is good natured and respects the 10-metre distance that should be kept between people and livestock. Bob can sometimes be quite stubborn; if he is…

small copper butterfly on the grass

June on Hothfield Heathlands

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We have had the driest spring since 1956, with river and stream flow already well below average for the time of year, a worry for everyone. Area Manager Ian Rickards reports that “this crazy weather has been beneficial for some insects, but the vegetation…