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.
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.
Hothfield Heathlands is abuzz with life in June! In the sky, on the ground, above the water, and under the surface - the reserve is busy, and so are our volunteers.
The glossy green spears that pierced dense leaf litter in late winter are now transformed into sheets of violet-purple-blue in the woodland edges of the reserve. The magical bluebell weeks began fairly early, a soft scent and a flood of colour that…
We are into full nesting season including the birds who nest on the ground or very low down in scrub, which is over half of Britain’s breeding species including the stonechat, robin, blackbird, skylark, yellow hammer, tree pipit and chiff chaff, not to…
