Making meadows in Eryri (Snowdonia)

This meadow is brimming with wild flowers including devil’s bit scabious, the food plant of the rare marsh fritillary butterfly. Seeds from here have been collected by rangers and scattered in fields in the Beddgelert and Nant Ffrancon valleys. 

A buffet for rare birds 

The Nant Ffrancon Valley is one of the UK’s strongholds for a rare bird called the twite. These small brown birds are part of the finch family, breeding in the uplands but feasting on meadows. Some of their favourite foods include the seeds from dandelion, common sorrel, thistle and autumn hawkbit. 

The new meadows introduced in the valley are rich in the twite’s favourite foods, helping to make sure they have enough food to see them through the busy breeding season. 

Nurturing meadows 

Careful management is required in these new meadows, including scarifying, cutting, and winter grazing before and after sowing seeds in order to give them a good chance at germinating and growing. Some sites require several inoculations of seeds, but meadows are by nature habitats that have developed over years of management - such as the ones on one farm in the Ysbyty agricultural estate.

In addition to creating meadows, wild flowers have been planted around National Trust offices and holiday cottages. These little islands of wild flowers help to bridge the gaps between meadows and it’s something that anyone with a garden can do to provide a haven for butterflies, bees and birds.