Yesterday, the Grizzled Skipper Project volunteers joined the first working party of the season to help to undertake habitat improvement works at Grange Farm near Normanton-on-Soar. The work party focused on the northern clearing, a location where grizzled skipper was seen on the wing earlier this year. Efforts were made to cut back scrub in this clearing and by the end of the day we had made a very good start to this job. Many thanks to everyone who came along - it was a very successful day.

As part of the work party, we also planted up some more agrimony plants (one of three key foodplants of the grizzled skipper butterfly in Nottinghamshire). Another important aspect of the project is asking our volunteers to grow on agrimony seed collected from sites in Nottinghamshire. This year we should be planting out another 100 plants. If you would like some seed to grow on as a means of supporting the project, then please feel free to contact me.

During the work party we were lucky to spot other wildlife enjoying the site, including a smooth newt, dock shield bugs, grasshoppers and we also found one (1) Hound’s tongue plant. Hound’s tongue is an uncommon plant in Nottinghamshire and is listed on the Nottinghamshire Rare Plant register. In the recent past it has also been found on the adjacent Great Central Railway – lots of great finds to make for an interesting day.

The next work party will take place on Sunday 17th November. We will be heading to the Lime Sidings and Barnstone Cutting along the Great Central Railway, just to the south of East Leake. This work party will once again focus on undertaking work to improve the site for the benefit of grizzled skipper butterfly. We will be looking to cut back scrub, enhance suitable areas for potential egg laying sites, and undertake some grassland management in the cutting.

We will be working from 10am to 3pm, so if you are free and you’d like to help, please contact me and I will send you meeting instructions.

Yesterday, the Grizzled Skipper Project volunteers undertook work along the Great Central Railway, just to the south of East Leake. The work party focused on clearing scrub from a low section of cutting, which during the spring will offer a warm and sheltered environment, perfect for the grizzled skipper butterfly (and other invertebrates). The volunteers quickly made light work of this short section of cutting and by the end of the day we were able to look back at our efforts with satisfaction. Another great day and a big thank you to everyone who came along and helped.

The next work party will take place on Tuesday 3rd December. We will be heading to Rushcliffe Halt, another site located along the Great Central Railway, this time just to the north of East Leake. This work party will once again focus on undertaking work to improve the site for the benefit of grizzled skipper butterfly. We will be looking to cut back scrub and to enhance suitable areas for potential egg laying sites.

We will be working from 10am to 3pm, so if you are free and you’d like to help, please get in touch with me and I will send to you meeting instructions.

Yesterday, the Grizzled Skipper Project volunteers undertook habitat enhancement work adjacent to the Rushcliffe Halt station site, along the Great Central Railway, just to the north of East Leake. The work party focused on clearing scrub from a short section of the cutting, focusing on areas known to have been favoured by the grizzled skipper during the 2024 flight season. Work involved clearing scrub and bramble from along the heritage railway line, burning the resultant brash. There were also efforts undertaken to enhance potential egg laying sites within the same cutting, by clearing bramble and planting food plants (agrimony and creeping cinquefoil in this case) into specific locations. The volunteers worked hard and transformed the site during the day and hopefully their labours will assist grizzled skipper numbers at this site in the spring of 2025, when the butterfly emerges from its pupa. A great day and a very big thank you to everyone who came along and helped.

The final work party of the year will take place on Sunday 15th December. We will be heading to Grange Farm, another site located close to East Leake, this time just to the south. This work party will once again focus on undertaking work to improve the site for the benefit of grizzled skipper butterfly. We will be looking to cut back regenerating scrub from across the site.

We will be working from 10am to 3pm, so if you are free and you’d like to help, please get in touch with me and I will send to you meeting instructions..

Yesterday, the Grizzled Skipper Project volunteers were out and about once again undertaking the final grizzled skipper work party before the Christmas break.  A small group headed to Grange Farm, our second visit of the winter to this site, to undertook work to enhance parts of the southern clearing. Once again, the focus of the work party was to clear regenerating scrub on the site and also to try to enhance some areas locally to create features that may encourage egg laying in the spring. During the day we discovered numerous agrimony plants around the site that have been planted up at this here in recent years (agrimony is a key food plant of the grizzled skipper butterfly). We also found many agrimony plants, still holding this year’s seed on their stems, indicating that they had bedded in well and were establishing at the site (prior to the project agrimony wasn’t present at Grange Farm). The volunteers did an amazing job, once again, working hard during the day to transform the site.

The day was broken part way through with a visit from the landowners (who have been very supportive of the grizzled skipper project). They were popping through the site in search of their Christmas tree (the site supports several planted pine trees) and it was good to catch up with them and talk to them about some of the other positive work that they are doing on their farm for biodiversity.

A great day was had by all, and I would like to thank everyone for their efforts.

The work parties will be starting up again in the New Year, with the first taking place on Sunday 12th January. This time we will be heading across to the South East of the county, to tiny village a Flawborough. We will be working on old Gypsum workings, at Flawborough Footpath, on a picturesque site a few miles south of Newark. We will be working from 10am to 3pm, so if you are free and you’d like to help, please get in touch with me and I will send to you meeting instructions. If you haven’t been able to join us yet this winter then it would be great to see you in the New Year at Flawborough, where your help will be very welcome.

In the meantime, have a wonderful break over the Christmas holidays and I look forward to seeing you in 2025.

Yesterday, the Grizzled Skipper Project volunteers were out for the first of 6 work parties planned for the first few months of 2025. A small group of 10 headed across the frozen landscape to help with some scrub clearance work at a site close to the small hamlet of Flawborough, in rural southeast Nottinghamshire. The focus of our effort was to clear scrub from several low dry-stone walls which were created at this site over 10 years ago. These walls have proved to be good areas that attract grizzled skipper butterflies to lay their eggs during the flight season. The walls were purposely installed in areas that support good colonies of creeping cinquefoil, a key foodplant of grizzled skipper larvae. The volunteers did an amazing job, and managed to clear many of the walls that are scattered across the site. It was a great day and resulted in another site being suitably prepared for the forthcoming flight season (mid-April to mid-June).

The next work party will be taking place on Tuesday 21st January. This time we will be heading across to Saxondale, close to the junction of the A46 with the A52. We will be working on an old disused railway line, close to the village. We will be working from 10am to 3pm, so if you are free and you’d like to help, please contact me and I will send to you meeting instructions. If you haven’t been able to join us yet this winter then it would be great to see you, your help will be very welcome.

Today, after an overcast start to the day, the Grizzled Skipper Project volunteers were out enjoying a touch of mid-winter sunshine whilst working to improve the habitat along the disused railway at Saxondale.

11 volunteers helped with the clearance of scrub.  The aim of the work party was to try and restore the open nature of the site, assisting a range of invertebrate communities, including grizzled skipper butterfly. There are good clusters of one of the grizzled skipper’s key foodplants, creeping cinquefoil, already present at this site and it is hoped that by opening up the site it will make it more suitable for the grizzled skipper butterfly to use this location for egg laying in the spring.

I would like to thank all the volunteers for all their hard work and once again they did a wonderful job. Another great day that has helped to put one more Nottinghamshire site into a great condition in time for spring, when grizzled skipper will be back on the wing.

The next work party will be taking place on Sunday 2nd February. This time we will be heading north of Nottingham City to the Country Park close to Newstead village. We will be working clearing scrub from key locations at Newsetad & Annesley Country Park, and the work should benefit a suite of different butterfly species. We will be working from 10am to 3pm, so if you are free and you’d like to help, please contact me and I will send to you meeting instructions. If you haven’t been able to join us yet this winter then it would be great to see you, your help will be warmly welcomed.

In less-than-ideal conditions, yesterday 8 of the grizzled skipper project volunteers made the journey to Granby Disused Railway to undertake work to support one of Nottinghamshire’s rarest butterflies.

This section of the disused railway is an extension of the Bingham Linear Park. Work over recent years has focused on keeping most of the track bed free of hawthorn, blackthorn, rose and bramble, maintaining an open feel to this section of the railway. We have also installed numerous ballast piles as a means of increasing egg laying opportunities for grizzled skipper butterflies, along this section of the railway line. Yesterday we continued working on cutting back the scrub on the main section of the railway as well as undertaking a bit of weeding on the ballast piles. We were also able to start work clearing a section of the site, that had previously been much more open prior to the Covid lockdown (see images below). A fantastic effort from everyone turned a dreary day into an uplifting day for butterfly conservation in Nottinghamshire - a very big thank you to you all!

The next work party will be taking place on Sunday 23rd February. This time we will be heading eastwards towards the county boundary with Lincolnshire. The focus of this work party will to enhance a small section of the Kilvington Lakes site for its very good population of Grizzled Skipper (and other invertebrates). Once again, we plan to be working from 10am to 3/3:30pm, so if you are free and you’d like to help, please contact me and I will send to you meeting instructions.

Yesterday, the Grizzled Skipper Project volunteers were out at Kilvington Lakes, a new site for us, and an excellent site for its grizzled skipper population. Despite a poor weather forecast, a small group of volunteers came out and were rewarded with predominantly dry but windy conditions. The group worked very hard, often a characteristic of a smaller working party, and they managed to clear three substantial areas of scrub and trees.  This site is slowly succeeding to scrub and woodland, so this was an important job, restoring parts of the site to open grassland habitat. The areas of open habitat are dominated by huge volumes of creeping cinquefoil (a grizzled skipper foodplant), and it was easy to see why this site, in rural southeast Nottinghamshire, supports the grizzled skipper, a species with such specific ecological requirements. I was really impressed with the efforts of the volunteers, who did an amazing job. It was another great day (one of many this winter), and it resulted in another site being enhanced in time for the forthcoming spring flight season (mid-April to mid-June).

The final working party for this current winter, will be taking place on Tuesday 4th March. On this date we will be heading back to Flawborough to continue our work to clear scrub and improve egg laying opportunities for the grizzled skipper butterfly at this site. We will be working from 10am to 3pm, so if you are free and you’d like to help, please contact me and I will send to you meeting instructions. If you haven’t been able to join us yet this winter then it would be great to see you, your help will be very welcome.

On Tuesday, the Grizzled Skipper Project volunteers were out for the final time this winter. 17 volunteers came together to make a second visit to Flawborough where grizzled skipper are seen annually. In glorious sunshine work was undertaken to clear scrub from the northern end of this site, uncovering numerous stone piles that had been installed in the past to create potential egg laying sites at this key location for the grizzled skipper butterfly. Many of the stone piles that were uncovered still supported good population of creeping cinquefoil (a foodplant of the larvae of this locally rare butterfly) and as a result the options for egg laying in this location should be greatly increased when the spring flight season finally arrives. Working in perfect spring sunshine, with one of the largest volunteer turn outs of the year, made the session a very satisfying end to the winter work parties. A very big thank you to everyone who gave up their time to come along and help out.

Big thanks to everyone who has given up their time to support efforts to help with the conservation of grizzled skipper butterfly in Nottinghamshire the last few months, your efforts really are valued. Over the coming weeks, we will be looking to try and encourage you all to get out to some of the grizzled skipper sites during the spring flight season.  This is a really important aspect of the project and we depend upon these records to help to inform the work we undertake during the winter work parties. If you have time in spring we would really appreciate your efoorts reporting sightings of grizzled skipper. Once again we are hoping to run an ‘open your eyes’ event early in the season to help to share our experience of how to spot and record this small and flighty butterfly. We will be in touch with more information in the coming few weeks. The flight season usually starts in mid-April and ends in mid-June (depending on seasonal variability).