Bennett’s Patch and White’s Paddock
Wildflower meadows, native woodland and wildlife ponds house bats, badgers, hedgehogs, and abundant plant, bird and butterfly species.
Wildflower meadows, native woodland and wildlife ponds house bats, badgers, hedgehogs, and abundant plant, bird and butterfly species.
A well-travelled migrant, the painted lady arrives here every summer from Europe and Africa. This beautiful orange-and-black butterfly regularly visits gardens.
The beautiful pink and white bands of a Painted topshell make it easy to see where this little sea snail got its name!
An old allotment transformed into a reserve by the local community, now an excellent spot for birds and butterflies.
This slim fish is usually found on gravelly parts of the seabed, close to shore, but can turn up in rockpools.
Look for the unusual flowers of lords-and-ladies in spring woodlands: a pale green sheath surrounds a spike of tiny, yellow flowers. This spike eventually forms a familiar, short stalk of striking…
In summer, the 'frothy' flowers of lady's bedstraw can carpet the grasses of meadows, heaths and coasts with yellow and fill the air with a sweet, honey-like scent.
Piddocks are a boring bivalve. No, we don't mean dull... we mean that it bores into soft rock, creating a burrow. In fact, they're the opposite of dull - they glow in the dark!
At night, the pretty, white blooms of white campion produce a heady scent, attracting feeding moths. Look for this wildflower along hedgerows and roadside verges, and on waste ground.
The small white is a common garden visitor. It is smaller than the similar large white, and has less black on its wingtips.
Neill, Kay and the other volunteers at Bennett's Patch and White's Paddock have been monitoring the slow worms at the site for the past five years. Read on to find out what they've…
So-named for the silvery-white appearance of its leaves, the White willow can be seen along riverbanks, around lakes and in wet woodlands. Like other willows, it produces catkins in spring.