East Berkshire Living Landscape

The East Berkshire Living Landscape (EBLL) scheme, established in 2020, covers 240 square kilometres of land in what used to be the historic Royal Hunting Forest of Windsor. It includes Windsor Great Park which has the largest continuous tract of woodland and parkland in Berkshire, and one of the largest collections of ancient and veteran oak trees remaining anywhere in Northern Europe.

Over an eighth of the project area is designated as important for wildlife, locally, nationally or internationally. The Living Landscape has records of over 170 threatened or endangered species including hazel dormouse, barbastelle bat, violet click-beetle and stag beetle. Wood pasture and historic parkland are important features in the landscape, alongside the River Thames and its associated wetland habitats. Making a difference for threatened wildlife

The aim of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust is to protect, restore, enhance and maintain the ancient and internationally important habitats and species of the East Berkshire Living Landscape, to create an environment rich in wildlife, valued by all.

Our nature reserves in the East Berkshire Living Landscape area include:

• Chawridge Bank Nature Reserve, a small area of old Berkshire grassland dotted with large anthills and home to the rare grizzled skipper butterfly.

• Hurley Chalk Pit provides a sheltered site for many species of butterfly and bee, and fragrant orchids.

• Woolley Firs, a 300 year-old farm at the heart of the East Berkshire Living Landscape. The Environmental Education Centre here has fantastic outdoor learning spaces in the woodland and meadows.

• The Environmental Centre at Windsor Great Park, an education project together with the Crown Estate.

The violet click beetle is an incredibly rare species of beetle only found in three places in the UKincluding within the East Berkshire Living Landscape.

As with many of our landscapes, climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation are among the main threats to biological diversity and reversing these impacts is a high priority.

Bee Orchid

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust are working with key stakeholders including local landowners, local authorities, and specialist groups, bringing communities together to re-build nature and allow it to flourish across a well-connected, resilient landscape for generations to come.

Current Work in the Living Landscape

Habitat Management

We give advice and support to landowners and land managers with the aim of enhancing habitats for wildlife and maximising climate change resilience. We are working with local groups including Wild Cookham and Wild Maidenhead, and wildlife groups including the Berkshire and South Bucks Bat Group, Berkshire Mammal Group and Berkshire Ornithological Society.

We are currently developing projects to help woodland bats, stag beetles, dormice, turtle-doves and the habitats they depend upon.

Training

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust work with partners, including the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, the Bat Conservation Trust, and The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire, to deliver training to our volunteers to help them look after our rare habitats and species.

Get involved

The volunteer teams operating out of Woolley Firs carry out habitat management tasks at EBLL reserves and on the nearby Thames Basin Heaths Wildmoor and Broadmoor sites.

If you are interested in any other aspect of the EBLL please contact us info@bbowt.org.uk.

Moths and Butterflies Family Event

Windsor Great Park

Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 August 10am- 2pm

Discover the marvels of moths and the beauty of butterflies at Windsor Great Park this summer with our family friendly event!

Windsor Great Park Environmental Centre, The Great Park, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 2BY (access is via Forest Gate off the A332 between Windsor and Ascot)

Using moth traps, nets and pots we’ll discover what lepidoptera (moths & butterflies) live in Windsor Great Park and learn all about them through activities, games and crafts.

Further information is available on the website: bbowt.org.uk/events

Butterflies & day flying moths

Butterflies and moths depend on particular plants for their caterpillars to feed on, and an abundance of nectar sources which the adults feed on. The following are just a selection of the species you can see in Windsor Great Park and the wider Estate.

Six-spot Burnet

The only British burnet moth with six red spots on each forewing, although care must be taken with identification, as in some cases the outermost spots can be fused. Rarely the red colour is replaced by yellow. It flies with a usually slow buzzing flight during sunshine and is attracted to a range of flowers including thistles, knapweeds and scabious. The burnet moth frequents flowery grasslands, including downland, cliff-edges, woodland rides, roadside verges and sand-dunes.

Speckled Wood

Pararge aegeria

The aptly named Speckled Wood flies in partially shaded woodland with dappled sunlight. The male usually perches in a small pool of sunlight, from where it rises rapidly to intercept any intruder. Both sexes feed on honeydew in the treetops and are rarely seen feeding on flowers, except early and late in the year when aphid activity is low.

Cinnabar

Tyria jacobaeae

Cinnabar moths start life as yellow and black caterpillars and are particularly fond of munching on ragwort plants. Their bright colours warn predators that they’re poisonous, but they only build up their poison after feeding on the ragwort. The caterpillars spend the winter as cocoons on the ground before emerging as moths in the summer. Cinnabar moths can be seen flying during the day and night and are often mistaken for butterflies.

Silver-studded Blue

Plebejus argus

Males blue with a dark border. Females brown with a row of red spots. Undersides brown-grey with black spots, a row of orange spots, and small greenish flecks on outer margin. Males are similar to Common Blue, which lacks greenish spots. This small butterfly is found mainly in heathland where the silvery-blue wings of the males provide a marvellous sight as they fly low over the heather. The females are brown and far less conspicuous but, like the male, have distinct metallic spots on the hindwing. In the late afternoon the adults often congregate to roost on sheltered bushes or grass tussocks.