Cookies

We use essential cookies to make our site work. We'd also like to set analytics cookies that help us make improvements by measuring how you use the site. These will be set only if you accept.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our cookies page.

Essential Cookies

Essential cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. For example, the selections you make here about which cookies to accept are stored in a cookie.

You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Analytics Cookies

We'd like to set Google Analytics cookies to help us improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify you.

Third Party Cookies

Third party cookies are ones planted by other websites while using this site. This may occur (for example) where a Twitter or Facebook feed is embedded with a page. Selecting to turn these off will hide such content.

Skip to main content

Wildflower Verges

Update: September 2022

One year has passed since the Environment Group began the wildflower verge project on Claybrooke Road and Lutterworth Road. It is difficult to assess the success of the areas, partly due to the weather conditions this summer and partly because it is known to take at least a year for some species to appear. There are definite areas where there is more yellow rattle than grass and a wider variety of wildflowers than seen before. The group have been advised not to add any more seed at this stage. Both areas will now be cut very short, the grass raked and removed and there will then be a patient wait until next year to see what emerges. The Parish Council would like to thank the Environment Group and all volunteers involved with the project for their contributions.

2021:

In 2021 the Parish Council and the Ullesthorpe Environment Group, with the support of Leicestershire County Council are trialling two wildflower verges in the village. The sites are located on Claybrooke Road and Lutterworth Road.

Ullesthorpe Parish now has its own feature pages on the Leicestershire and Rutland NatureSpot website. If you haven’t visited the NatureSpot website yet, you are missing out on what has rapidly become the most popular resource for identifying local wildlife. NatureSpot provides a photographic guide to over 7,000 species – all found in Leicestershire and Rutland. In addition, the website invites the public to submit sightings of all wildlife seen – helping to build a picture of what lives where in the two counties.

The website is feature-packed, including pages that highlight the wildlife of parishes. Ullesthorpe Parish is one of these featured parishes. Here you can see a list of all the recent wildlife sightings plus images submitted with these records.

NatureSpot was set up in 2011 and is run by volunteers. All the images have been taken in Leicestershire and Rutland by the public and it is a great example of citizen science in action. Every species has its own page, with photos, descriptions, ID tips and where and when to see it. It also describes how common or rare it is, both in Leicestershire and in the UK as a whole, with live maps showing every sighting. As you add a sighting, a new dot appears on the map. It also keeps track of all your submitted records, allowing you to sort, filter and download any aspect of your list.

Thousands of local people have contributed, with numbers growing every month, and even more visit the website to view what’s been seen and to use the wildlife galleries help identify species they’ve seen. Monthly visits exceed 100,000 per month. The data collected is put to good use and is shared with local and national recording schemes, as well as managers of nature reserves and other sites of wildlife importance. The data helps to inform decision-making about how best to manage land for conservation.

Anyone can submit a wildlife record and the website makes this really easy. Common species are just as important to record as rare species in order to monitor changes in population and distribution over time. Gardens are one of the best places to start your wildlife recording, as well as local parks and open spaces. What visits your bird feeders? Do you see butterflies in the garden? Do you have a pond with frogs? Register with the website and start to record straight away. The form even has a map that you simply click to fill in the grid reference. You can attach a photo to your record if you have one, but this isn’t a requirement. Photos are however a great way to provide evidence of your sightings and can also be emailed to NatureSpot for identification help if you are not sure.

Occasionally species turn up that have not been recorded on NatureSpot before and these are then added to the library and given a new species page. Indeed there have been a significant number of new species seen that are completely new to Leicestershire. So how many more species are there to be found? The truth is that no-one knows and in any case the picture changes all the time with some species expanding their range and others declining. Some of the most commonly recorded species are Little Egrets, Red Kites and Harlequin Ladybirds that would have been very rare sightings just 10 years ago.

The website also has pages highlighting many of the county’s nature reserves, country parks and other significant ‘wild places’, there is a NatureChat forum to exchange views with other visitors – and a new ‘Explore’ feature – an interactive map where you can see a map of your own records or those for a species or a locality that you choose. If you have an interest in wildlife you will enjoy NatureSpot – and why not make your own contribution to science and conservation by submitting records of your own wildlife sightings?

To visit the Ullesthorpe NatureSpot page: Ullesthorpe | NatureSpot