Tweed Meadows Project Update!

Read about the progress of our Tweed Meadows Project written by our Project Manager Apithanny!

The Tweed Meadows project is celebrating its first flowering season with Yellow Rattle and other

lovely wild flowers appearing across most of our project sites. Over the last few weeks, we have

been revisiting meadows that were grazed, harrowed and seeded earlier this year and were

delighted to find that good progress has been made. On some sites, simple changes in management such as removing summer grazing, has allowed beautiful Common Spotted-orchids and Meadow Cranesbill to appear. At other meadows, the introduction of winter cattle grazing has broken up a thick layer of thatch, allowing wildflowers like Common Knapweed, Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Red Clover and Yarrow to thrive. We are also pleased to see the diversity of native grasses increasing and a delicate little white flower called Eyebright (which like Yellow Rattle, is a hemi-parasite) has done particularly well.

Some species spotted during site visits! Left to Right: Small Skipper butterfly, Yarrow, Common Knapweed, Ringlet butterfly, Meadow Cranesbill, Meadow Buttercup, Meadow Brown butterfly, Common Spotted-orchid.

The butterflies most abundant at our meadow sites so far are grassland specialists such as Ringlet,

Meadow Brown and Small Skipper. However, the purple flowers of Common Knapweed are now

beginning to bloom and are a fantastic nectar source - attracting a variety of bumblebee, hoverfly

and garden butterfly species late into the year. Overall, butterflies have been less abundant this year due to a very wet spring and cold temperatures throughout early summer. Be sure to take part in Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count, which runs until 4th August and helps gather important data on butterfly populations.

Tweed Meadows Sites that didn’t perform as well were typically nutrient-rich, improved fields. Here, we will continue cutting and grazing regimes to gradually reduce nutrient levels and we hope that Yellow Rattle will appear in greater abundance during spring 2025. Removing vegetation at the end of summer is an important step in meadow management – so, we are hoping for some sunshine over the next month to allow cutting and haymaking to begin.

Thank you to all of the enthusiastic volunteers, seed sowers, gardeners, land managers and

landowners who have taken part in the project so far. It has been a pleasure to see you all enjoying your meadows and discovering new wildflower species. We still have a few sites to visit and prepare before autumn, so don’t worry if you haven’t heard from us yet and we’ll be in touch soon!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Saturday 3rd August @ 10am – BioBlitz at Selkirk Deer Park with Bright Green Nature

Saturday 24th August @ 2pm – Merlindale Nature Festival

FACEBOOK GROUP

The Tweed Meadows Project now has its own Facebook Group for participants and anybody else

interested in meadow restoration. We would love everybody to join the group where you are

welcome to post photographs, ask for advice or identification help or post any interesting articles

you come across. We hope to see you there!