Wildlife arrives on time at rewilded chalk grasslands built along HS2 route

The trains may be running late, but the Western Slopes project is already attracting birds and insects on lands around the high-speed railway

The air is scented with the sweet tang of ladies bedstraw and made musical by skylark and blackcap song. An abundance of marbled white butterflies, small skippers and common blue damselflies dart over the flowering knapweed, yarrow and wild carrot.

That the largest chalk grassland in the Chilterns is full of wildlife may not surprise you. But the fact that it is completely artificial, only four years old and has been built by the much-maligned HS2, may do.