{"id":45043,"date":"2025-08-05T07:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T07:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/45043\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T07:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T07:02:13","slug":"rare-species-seen-at-cheshires-wybunbury-moss-nature-reserve-after-restoration-project-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/45043\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare species seen at Cheshire&#8217;s Wybunbury Moss nature reserve after restoration project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alex McIntyre<\/p>\n<p>BBC News, West Midlands<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6937dd30-6eff-11f0-8415-3f856a662103.png.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Natural England A yellow bird perches on the top of a branch and opens its beak while looking up at the sky.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Natural England<\/p>\n<p>The yellowhammer was one of the rare birds spotted at the nature reserve<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A number of rare animals have returned to a nature reserve after a restoration project aimed at improving its biodiversity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Natural England leased the fields neighbouring Wybunbury Moss, near Crewe, Cheshire, from the Church Commissioners for England in September 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">As part of its work to restore them, the organisation stopped the use of fertiliser on the fields, reintroduced grazing by livestock and restored hedgerows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Since then, 169 species have been recorded at the site, Natural England said, with several locally rare and threatened birds, mammals and insects among them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">These included the red-girdled mining bee, yellowhammer bird, brown hare and soprano pipistrelle bat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A spokesperson for Natural England said the transformation had &#8220;exceeded expectations&#8221; and was the result of their restoration work to cut nutrient pollution at Wybunbury Moss \u2013 one of only three known floating peat bogs, created by subsidence in the UK.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">These rare types of wetland have a thick layer of peat floating on top of a body of water.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/630939f0-6ef4-11f0-8415-3f856a662103.png.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Natural England A close-up of a bee with a red girdle standing on the leaf of a plant.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Natural England<\/p>\n<p>The red-girdled mining bee cannot be found anywhere else in the area, experts say<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Zara Gower, of the Church Commissioners for England, said she was delighted to see the &#8220;remarkable biodiversity improvements&#8221; over the last two years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;The rapid return of rare and threatened species demonstrates the value of this partnership approach to land management,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Wybunbury Moss, along with the surrounding woodland, reed swamp and  meadows, covers an area of approximately 16.5 hectares (41 acres), forming one of England&#8217;s most unusual national nature reserves, according to Natural England.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The reserve was first designated in 1955 with further land acquisitions added to the site between 1957 and 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex McIntyre BBC News, West Midlands Natural England The yellowhammer was one of the rare birds spotted at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-45043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}