Topics: Hothfield Heathland

It's been a hot few months on Hothfield Heathlands! Long-time volunteer, Margery Thomas, reflects on recent work and sightings.

• Hothfield Heathland

This year marks 10 years since Margery Thomas began volunteering at Hothfield Heathlands. Since 2016, she's written monthly articles on the reserve's flora and fauna, bringing readers into the heart of the heathlands through rich, observant writing, whatever the season. Here we chat with Margery about her decade with us.

• Bats
• Hothfield Heathland
• Orchids

Hothfield's evening bat and amphibian walk revealed pipistrelles, newts, and a nightingale's song, while rare heath spotted and Southern marsh orchids bloom in the reserve's acid bogs.

• Bats
• Hothfield Heathland
• Orchids

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.

• Hothfield Heathland

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 changes with the light and is tricky to catch accurately in photos since the flowers are not one solid colour.

• Bees
• Heathland
• Hothfield Heathland
• Nature Reserves
• Spring

Kent Wildlife Trust has taken the difficult decision to temporarily remove its Highland cattle from Hothfield Heathlands nature reserve, after sustained visitor pressure in the wake of viral social media content made it impossible for the animals to carry out their conservation grazing role safely.

• Press release
• Grazing
• Hothfield Heathland
• Wilder Grazing

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 mention the migrants such as whitethroats who will arrive from the South in May.

• Amazing Grazing
• Birds
• Hothfield Heathland

Kent Wildlife Trust is urging visitors to Hothfield Heathlands nature reserve to keep a safe distance from its highland cattle, following a surge in visitor numbers linked to viral social media content.

• Press release
• Grazing
• Hothfield Heathland
• Wilder Grazing

It’s all happening, and unlike February, this month you can see and hear the signs, including the welcome trickling of water thanks to leaky dams and, yes, an awful lot of rain, so the squelch of mud on paths as well. Birds are calling, to defend territory, attract a mate, claim their space in roosts or just celebrate the dawn.

• Hothfield Heathland
• Nature Reserves
• Spring

Long-time volunteer Margery Thomas explores the wildlife at Hothfield Heathlands in February, where reedmace tells a story...

• Hothfield Heathland
• Plants
• Winter