Selected parish / Wild Places / Public footpaths / Parish boundaries
To find out more about featured Wild Places in and around the parish (red boundaries on the map), visit the Wild Places page. Contact NatureSpot if you have an idea for any additional Wild Places.
Bottesford parish is at the northern tip of Leicestershire, bordering both Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. It lies in the Vale of Belvoir and is part of the Borough of Melton.
The village of Bottesford was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 and developed around a ford through the River Devon. The river runs through the centre of the village and around the church.
The Neighbourhood Plan lists over 20 green open spaces which are important to the parish. These include the banks and areas surrounding the River Devon, the wooded 'Railway Triangle' (a Local Wildlife Site) and several fields around the village which have significant ecological value.
Total species seen in this parish:
Thanks to the following for supporting this page:
Parish Councils are being encouraged to take over the management of selected road verges in their area in order to improve their value for wildlife. So far, over 70 verges have been adopted. Verge surveys by NatureSpot have revealed a surprising diversity of flora with an average of over 30 different wildflowers and grasses on each verge. More information can be found here.
Welcome to the Bottesford NatureSpot page which gives local residents the opportunity to find out about, and contribute to our knowledge of, the wildlife in our parish. Just click on the headers of these news stories to read more.
We would like more wildlife observations from the parish. So, if you've seen a species you recognise, from a Blue tit to a Bluebell, click on the header to find out what to do.
The Peach-leaved Bellflower is a rare plant in Leicestershire but was found by the duck ponds in Bottesford in 2020.
Bottesford has joined the Leicestershire Verge Biodiversity project by taking on the management of an area on Muston Lane, Easthorpe. The verge will be re-surveyed during 2021 to monitor changes from last year and to help decide the best management. Read more on the verge Wild Place page.
The images and records below are all from the parish/ward and have been submitted by members of the public.
The latest images and records displayed below include those awaiting verification checks so we cannot guarantee that every identification is correct. Once accepted, the record displays a green tick.
In the Latest Records section, click on the header to sort A-Z, and again to sort Z-A. Use the header boxes to filter the list.
| Species group | Total no. of species | Total no. of records | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 935 | 4063 | |
| Moths | 481 | 2564 | |
| Wildflowers | 160 | 387 | |
| Birds | 71 | 528 | |
| Trees, Shrubs & Climbers | 23 | 34 | |
| Butterflies | 21 | 163 | |
| Beetles | 19 | 35 | |
| Dragonflies and Damselflies | 19 | 137 | |
| Bees, Wasps, Ants | 18 | 39 | |
| Slugs & Snails | 18 | 29 | |
| Grasses, Rushes & Sedges | 15 | 20 | |
| Bugs | 13 | 16 | |
| Hoverflies | 11 | 16 | |
| Flies | 8 | 11 | |
| Craneflies, Gnats & Midges | 8 | 13 | |
| Fungi | 7 | 8 | |
| Mammals | 7 | 13 | |
| Sawflies | 7 | 9 | |
| Caddisflies | 5 | 6 | |
| Ferns & Horsetails | 5 | 11 | |
| insect - true fly (Diptera) | 3 | 3 | |
| Mites, Ticks & Pseudoscorpions | 2 | 2 | |
| Grasshoppers & Crickets | 2 | 2 | |
| Spiders | 2 | 3 | |
| Mosses & Liverworts | 2 | 2 | |
| Algae, Bacteria, Virus | 1 | 1 | |
| Fish | 1 | 1 | |
| acarine (Acari) | 1 | 1 | |
| harvestman (Opiliones) | 1 | 2 | |
| Lacewings & Scorpionflies | 1 | 2 | |
| Lichens | 1 | 1 | |
| Centipedes & Millipedes | 1 | 1 | |
| Amphibians | 1 | 1 | |
