At Tidgrove, rabbits and hares offer clues to grassland recovery on former arable land. The post explores how their grazing and activity may support regeneration, or sometimes slow it, through close observations of a changing landscape.

At this time of year, one of the most eye catching sights in our meadows and scrubland is the Cinnabar moth caterpillar (Tyria jacobaeae). With its distinctive black and orange stripes, it is hard to miss as it feeds on its favourite food plant, common ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris). Many people know ragwort as a troublesome weed, particularly in farming, and with good reason. At Tidgrove, we do not encourage ragwort in areas where we are harvesting our chalk downland wildflower seed. Allowing it to spread into these production areas could affect the quality and purity of the seed crops that we work so hard to establish. However, nature is all about balance. Away from our seed harvesting areas, we deliberately leave areas of ragwort to grow in our scrub and wildlife habitats. These patches provide an essential food source for the Cinnabar moth, whose caterpillars rely almost entirely on ragwort to survive. The relationship between the two species is remarkable. The caterpillars feed on th

A butterfly survey at Tidgrove recorded an extraordinary 20 species in one visit, signaling improving habitat quality as grassland restoration matures. The results included Brown Argus, Small Copper and Small Blue.