By the time you are reading this article there will be livestock present on the Hills and Holes again. If all goes to plan this will include ponies as well as sheep this year. The mix of different types of livestock should help to improve the grassland quality and increase biodiversity.  The impact of grazing, on the number and spread of rare plant species, is illustrated by the fact that we continue to see an increase in Pasque flower numbers in the monitored plots. These flowers have also now spread right across the reserve. Without annual grazing the coarser grasses and plant species will quickly take over followed by scrub and eventually trees. 

If you grow Valerian or Buddleia you will almost certainly have had the pleasure of seeing a beautiful little moth in your garden, which, with its long proboscis, its hovering behaviour and its audible humming noise you could be forgiven for thinking was a hummingbird.

This little imposter is a hummingbird hawkmoth, Macroglossum stellatarum.

Have you seen the newly arrived Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)? It is very distinctive, being orange at the head end, then black and it has a white tail. It flew in from France and was seen first in southern counties.

It feeds on nectar and pollen and prefers open flowers like daisies to tubular flowers such as foxgloves.