Battleby Meadow and Pollinator Trail leaflet
In Spring and Summer the Battleby meadow is a haven for pollinating insects especially bumblebees, honey bees, hoverflies, moths, and butterflies.
Wildflower meadows provide food for pollinators and the range of plants in our meadow was selected specifically with pollinators in mind. In summer you can expect to see bird’s-foot trefoil, oxeye daisy, common knapweed, red clover, cow parsley, greater yellow-rattle … and much more besides.
If you enjoy our meadow, try our Pollinator Trail where we explore species, nesting, shelter and habitats.
Helping our pollinators
Scotland’s pollinators are a vital part of our biodiversity. Species such as bees and hoverflies are a familiar sight in our gardens, parks and countryside. They play a crucial role in our food and farming industries, as well as contributing to our enjoyment of the outdoors and our health and wellbeing
But our wild pollinators are under threat. Faced with pressures that include habitat fragmentation, changes in land use, disease, pesticides and climate change they need our help.
The Pollinator Strategy for Scotland is the work of many partners. Delivering a wide range of activities it draws together the expertise and enthusiasm of a wide range of organisations, government agencies and businesses.
Our main objectives are to:
- Make Scotland more pollinator-friendly;
- Improve our understanding of these vital insects and the services they provide;
- Raise awareness of and encourage action to help bees and other pollinating insects; and
- Monitor and evaluate whether they are thriving.
We have lots of information on how to help pollinators on our website at Helping Scotland's Pollinators.
Follow us on twitter @ScotPollinators
And read our regular blogs @ scottishpollinators.wordpress.com/
Battleby wildflower meadow map
Click for a full description
Our wildflower meadow is the focal point of our work to help pollinators at Battleby. However, once you have admired the meadow, why not enjoy our Pollinator Trail? This leaflet points out some of the highlights – the numbers refer to what you could look out for at various points.
The Battleby meadow can be a good spot for seeing red-tailed bumblebees — a very distinctive bumblebee with a black body and bright orange tail.
The seemingly chaotic pile of logs at the top of Battleby meadow is a valuable ‘wild’ spot where pollinators can shelter, nest and hibernate.
The hoverfly is a much misunderstood pollinator. Harmless to humans, it has markings that suggest it may be a wasp and give it a better chance of being left alone by predators on the lookout for a juicy morsel but not willing to risk being stung.
This oak was home to a colony of honey bees recently. Most ‘bee trees’ have large inner hollows and are cosy micro-ecosystems where bees are better able to handle extremes of temperature. In coming years this hole might attract the tree bumblebee.
Man-made nesting boxes for solitary bees are a relatively new thing. Solitary bee species such as mason bees favour nesting in cavities such as hollow stems, holes in masonry or wood.
Our small orchard demonstrates a couple of key points. The early flowering blossom is a great food source for a range of bees, and the pollinators in turn enable the trees to produce a rich crop of apples by transferring pollen from flower to flower.
Our Living Wall is intended as a demonstration of what can be achieved where space is at a premium and vertical growing has real appeal. Our wall is south- facing and contains only locally-sourced species.
A lawn may look nice, but it isn’t the best habitat for many of our bees. Leaving a patch of bare soil can be a real bonus for some mining bees.
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