Killard Nature Reserve Wild on Water

Rory, this place is absolutely stunning.

-What's so special about Killard?

-Isn't it spectacular?

It's over 100 acres of national nature reserve, Karen,

and you know, it's never been farmed.

It's very thin soils,

pristine environment here and just chock-a-block with wild herbs,

flowering grasses, sedges,

butterflies, bees, you name it!

Every time of year you come down, there's something different to see,

something new.

Definitely a place to come out and enjoy, and stretch your legs.

Look, though, at all the colour and all the plants!

-What's that blue one?

-Isn't it spectacular?

Come on, we'll step off the path and we'll have a look and see.

Oh, even more up here!

Yeah, and it's kind of late on in the year, but this...

This is pretty spectacular.

-This is field scabious.

-Right.

It's a really important nectar plant.

-On the head of it it's got 50 individual little flowers.

-Uh-huh.

And you'll find the butterflies and bees feeding predominantly

-on that at this time of year.

-Ah, that's their favourite.

It's a really good butterflies plant.

This is another fascinating wee plant here.

It's lovely. It's restharrow.

It's called restharrow because of this massive tangle of roots,

and when the farmer would take the harrow through it,

he'd have to lift it up and clean it all out - have a rest.

Great nectar plant too. Feel the texture of the leaves.

-Oh, they're sticky!

-Sticky and hairy.

That's just to keep the... Protect them from the insects.

And it has that long root that you talk about.

Yeah. Kids would've used those years ago - I wouldn't recommend it

but they chewed the roots as a liquorice substitute.

-Did it taste of liquorice?

-It tastes disgusting!

-OK, THAT good!

Well sold!

-What about this peculiar thing?

-That's a lovely wee one.

-That's yellow rattle.

-Uh-huh?

-That's a fascinating plant.

It's what they call a hemiparasite, so that actually

takes the nutrients from the roots of the grasses that are growing here.

And in doing that, it suppresses the growth of the grass,

and you get more species moving in. A more open canopy.

But if you shake it against your hand,

-you'll see where it gets its name.

-Oh! Are they seeds inside?

They're seeds inside. They desiccate off.

And in Norway they'd say when it's at that stage

-it's time to cut the hay.

-So this is a good weed?

-This is a good weed.

-Good conservation weed.

-There we go!

BIRDS CHIRRUP

So, Karen, this is also a spectacular site for butterflies.

If you come down here on a warm day,

particularly early in the season, and it's nice and still,

you'll see clouds and clouds of blue butterflies.

Common Blues, you'll see Meadow Browns, Graylings, whole swathes,

all over this site normally.

It really is worth coming down here to take that view in.

You can just see all the children and all the nets already!

As long as you put them all back, that'd be great!

What's the difference between a butterfly and a moth?

Well, just basically, the moths are mostly night fliers.

Butterflies are day fliers.

You will get some day-flying moths here -

I've seen the burnet six-spot moth

and the magpie moth on the way down the path here.

-Has it been a good season for them?

-Brilliant season.

There've been a couple of bad years, maybe three really bad, very wet -

this year's brilliant. It's stayed dry and very hot.

The plants are up in abundance, and they're all doing really well.

Do you know, I've seen lots of caterpillars too.

-The wee brown and yellow boys?

-Yeah!

-That's the cinnabar moth caterpillar.

They feed on the ragweed here,

and they develop into a beautiful wee moth as well now.

They're quite spectacular.