Ashford Hill NNR facts for kids
Ashford Hill is a British national nature reserve next to the village of Ashford Hill in Hampshire. Part of the reserve is a designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The site is one of Natural Englands nature reserves
Geography
The reserve is 23 hectares (57 acres), of which 20.36 hectares (50.3 acres) is SSSI. The area of the national nature reserve which is a SSSI is part of the much bigger SSSI of Ashford Hill Woods and Meadows which is 142.1 hectares (351 acres) in size.
The reserve is a series of low-lying meadows in the valley of a small stream and also features woodland areas. The meadows area mix of London Clay and Bagshot beds.
The stream is called Baughurst Brook and eventually drains into the River Enborne.
History
The wooded areas are believed to be part of the medieval royal forest of Pamber.
Fauna
The nature reserve has the following fauna:
Birds
- Common kingfisher
- Common buzzard
- European goldfinch
- Eurasian treecreeper
- Common reed bunting
- Red kite
- Common chiffchaff
- European green woodpecker
- Eurasian bullfinch
- Water rail
- European turtle dove
- Garden warbler
- Dunnock
- European greenfinch
- Common chaffinch
- Common blackbird
- Common wood pigeon
- Eurasian blue tit
- Great spotted woodpecker
- House sparrow
- Western jackdaw
- Common house martin
- Goldcrest
- Common kestrel
- Eurasian blackcap
- Eurasian wren
- Eurasian siskin
- Western yellow wagtail
- Tree pipit
- Eurasian woodcock
- Great tit
- Eurasian jay
- European robin
- Song thrush
- Common moorhen
- Mandarin duck
- Snipe
- Eurasian nuthatch
- Common whitethroat
- Eurasian magpie
- Common raven
Invertebrates
- High brown fritillary
- Orange tip
- Purple emperor
- Pearl-bordered fritillary
- Green hairstreak
- Mother Shipton moth
- Burnet companion
- Emerald pot-bellied beetle
- Brimstone
- Narrow bordered bee hawkmoth
- Peacock
- Four-spotted chaser
- Small copper
- Small yellow underwing
- Scorpion fly
- Green-veined white
- Common blue
- Speckled yellow
- Straw dot moth
- Painted lady
- Yellow meadow ant
Flora
The nature reserve has the following flora:
Trees
- Alder
- Hawthorn
Plants
- Yarrow
- Bugle
- Garlic mustard
- Marsh foxtail
- Meadow foxtail
- Bog pimpernel
- Wood anemone
- Wild angelica
- Sterile brome
- Sweet vernal grass
- Cow parsley
- Fool's water cress
- Lesser burdock
- Daisy
- Hard fern
- Marsh marigold
- Wavy bitter-cress
- Cuckooflower
- Lesser pond-sedge
- Spring-sedge
- Brown sedge
- Star sedge
- Glaucous sedge
- Hairy sedge
- Oval sedge
- False fox-sedge
- Carnation sedge
- Pale sedge
- Greater tussock-sedge
- Pill sedge
- Remote sedge
- Wood sedge
- Bladder sedge
- Common knapweed
- Common mouse-ear
- Greater celandine
- Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage
- Enchanter's nightshade
- Creeping thistle
- Meadow thistle
- Marsh thistle
- Pignut
- Beaked hawk's-beard
- Crosswort
- Crested dog's-tail
- Broom
- Cock's-foot
- Heath spotted-orchid
- Tufted hair-grass
- Foxglove
- Field horsetail
- Marsh horsetail
- Common cottongrass
- Hemp-agrimony
- Red fescue
- Lesser celandine
- Meadowsweet
- Heath bedstraw
- Lady's bedstraw
- Wood avens
- Marsh cudweed
- Floating sweet-grass
- Dyer's greenweed
- Yorkshire fog
- Water violet
- Bluebell
- Cat's-ear
- Slender St John's-wort
- Square-stalked St John's-wort
- Yellow iris
- Toad rush
- Soft rush
- Bitter-vetch
- Perennial rye-grass
- Common bird's-foot trefoil
- Greater bird's-foot trefoil
- Heath wood-rush
- Hairy wood-rush
- Gypsywort
- Common cow-wheat
- Wood melick
- Water mint
- Three-nerved sandwort
- Water forget-me-not
- Hemlock water-dropwort
- Greater broomrape
- Marsh lousewort
- Green alkanet
- Mouse-ear-hawkweed
- Ribwort plantain
- Rough meadow-grass
- Solomon's-seal
- Meadow buttercup
- Bulbous buttercup
- Lesser spearwort
- Creeping buttercup
- Great yellow-cress
- Wood club-rush
- Tall fescue
- Water figwort
- Figwort
- Red campion
- Ragged robin
- Woody nightshade
- Bog stitchwort
- Lesser stitchwort
- Greater stitchwort
- Marsh stitchwort
- Devil's-bit scabious
- Large thyme
- Lesser trefoil
- Red clover
- Marsh arrow grass
- Bulrush
- Gorse
- Marsh valerian
- Common valerian
- Brooklime
- Germander speedwell
- Wood speedwell
- Heath speedwell
- Thyme-leaved speedwell
- Bilberry