Blakehill Farm Nature Reserve - Wiltshire Wildlife Trust

About

Blakehill Farm is a former military airfield which Wiltshire Wildlife Trust is turning back into wildlife-rich hay meadow. 

In World War II, Dakotas took off from here carrying troops and equipment to the battlefields of Europe. The old runways are long gone but they can still be traced by the changes in vegetation. Now the grassland is home to brown hare, roe deer, kestrel and skylarks.

Living in the margins, hedgerows, ponds and damp ground are many wildlife species, including bullfinch, lapwing, grass snake and 14 species of dragonfly.

Through the summer, adder’s-tongue fern, great burnet, oxeye daisies, lady’s bedstraw and bird’s-foot-trefoil flower in the grasses. Above the flowers fly small copper, brown hairstreak, common blue and marbled white butterflies. Birds include wheatears, whinchats, stonechats, partridge, barn owls and tawny owls. During winter, the nature reserve often receives sightings of short-eared owls and snipe.

The reserve is very flat and easy to navigate on the tarmac tracks.

A variety of events take place at Blakehill Farm throughout the year including War to Wildlife Walks.