Mill Crook and Grafton Regis Meadow
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These traditionally managed hay meadows are an oasis for wildlife in a sea of agriculture |
These are the last fragments of traditional hay meadows in this part of the Tove valley and were created as nature reserves to protect them from modern intensive farming.
Never improved, and still showing evidence of medieval ridge and furrow farming, Mill Crook in summer is a sea of wildflowers, including pepper-saxifrage, meadow sweet bog stitchwort, meadow vetchling and great burnet. It is also alive with insects including orange-tip and meadow brown butterflies and five-spot burnet moth.
Among the attractive grasses, such as quaking-grass and meadow foxtail, you will find yellow rattle, an indicator species of old grassland. This semi-parasite attaches itself to the roots of other species and its ripe seeds rattle inside the fruiting head, hence its name. Look out for kingfishers, nesting along the banks of the River Tove, and listen for the distinctive ‘coor-loo’ calls of curlews. Lapwing, long-tailed tit, bullfinch, yellow hammer and wren are also frequent visitors to these reserves.
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Plants: Lesser stitchwort Birds: Curlew, kingfisher, long-tailed tit, bullfinch, yellow hammer, wren, buzzard Mammals: Brown hare |
Plants: Pepper-saxifrage, great burnet, yellow rattle Insects: Banded demoiselle, five-spot burnet moth Birds: Curlew, kingfisher |
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