Yesterday, a small group of 9 volunteers met to undertake habitat enhancement work at Granby Disused Railway, in order to improve the site to the benefit of grizzled skipper butterfly and other invertebrates. We had a very successful day clearing the recently mown arisings from the disused railway track bed and then followed this up by weeding many of the ballast piles that have been installed at this site in recent years. The ballast piles are ideal for creeping cinquefoil (a key foodplant of the grizzled skipper) to colonise and in turn create good egg laying opportunities for the butterfly’s larva. In addition, we were able to plant up several agrimony plants (another food plant) as it is currently not common on this site. We worked throughout the day under the constant threat of rain, but apart from a few light spots of rain we luckily managed to avoid the bad weather predicted. It was a very successful day and a really good way to kick off this winter’s work parties. Many thanks to all of you who gave up your time to help out.

The next work party of this winter period will take place on Tuesday 28th November. We will be revisiting the Disused Railway at Saxondale in South Nottinghamshire. The aim of the work party will be to continue our work to clear the old railway line track bed of scrub and to improve egg-laying opportunities for the grizzled skipper butterfly.

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.

Notts Grizzled Skipper Project - the flight season will soon be upon us!

After all the hard work during the past winter, the grizzled skipper flight season is nearly upon us.

During the winter the project undertook work to maintain and enhance sites across south Nottinghamshire in which grizzled skipper butterfly are known to be present.

It’s now time to visit sites across the county and see if our efforts are continuing to have the positive impact we are all hoping for. During the past few years the first sightings of grizzled skipper from year to year have been variable, as would be expected, but perhaps with the good weather that is coming next week, may be an opportunity for us to see the first few grizzled skipper of the year on the wing in Nottinghamshire.

Looking at Butterfly Conservation’s First Sightings 2023 page on their website, it appears that grizzled skipper have not yet been recorded nationally (as of today - 15/04/23).

Please report all your sightings via the iRecord App but if you could also let me know when you see a grizzled skipper then I will do my best to try and keep everyone posted on where and when we are seeing the butterfly across the county.

Once we have started to receive information about the first few sightings in Nottinghamshire, we will also be looking to run an ‘open your eyes’ event, once again at Staunton Quarry Nature Reserve to encourage those people who are not so familiar with the butterfly to get more involved in recorded this wonderful species. The short event will be a chance to see the butterfly on the wing and familiarise yourself with its characteristic flight. I will keep you all posted on when this will happen. Unfortunately due to the nature of butterflies we will not be able to set a date for this event well in advance and we will have to set something up based on when sightings are reported and also on the weather forecast.

Best wishes

Chris

Yesterday, a small group of volunteers met to undertake work to improve another grizzled skipper site, this time at Flawborough in the east of the county. We worked hard in a wonderful spring like sunny day managing a clearing just to the north of Flawborough village. Our work involved clearing scrub from the grassland and reinstating some of the low dry stone walls that were installed a few years ago to create suitable conditions for egg laying female grizzled skipper. It was a very successful and rewarding day of work. Many thanks to all of you who gave up your time to help out..

Yesterday (Thursday) the project volunteers along with staff from the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust visited Staunton Quarry Nature Reserve to help to manage the site in preparation for the spring emergence of the grizzled skipper butterfly. A group of 17 people work in glorious sunshine throughout the day clearing scrub, managing the central area of calcareous grassland (where the majority of grizzled skipper have been seen in previous years) and extending the small clearing at the entrance to the site. We made good progress and all being well we will be rewarded between April and June with an increase in grizzled skipper sightings? Many thanks to all of you for your hard work.

We also were treated with a couple of early emerging butterflies, including a brimstone flying across the sun warmed calcareous grassland - very rewarding!

On Tuesday (24th January), we undertook another work party to assist our efforts to support the grizzled skipper butterfly in Nottinghamshire. We met at a site near to Granby to undertake work to open up the site and to improve egg laying opportunities for grizzled skipper at this site. A small group of 10 volunteers work tirelessly throughout the day and made a big difference in the winter sunshine. Many thanks to all of you for your hard work.

On Sunday, our work parties continued the work to enhance sites supporting grizzled skipper butterfly in Nottinghamshire. We met at Flawborough to undertake some work on an important site close to this small village. Our efforts involved cutting back regenerating scrub, cutting and raking off a proportion of the open grassland areas (about 50-60% cut) and also enhancing some of the sheltered scallops that we have created at this site over recent years. We had a small but dedicated team and managed to achieve some great results. Big thanks to everyone who gave up their time.

(See the photos below...)

Yesterday we had the final work party of the year, working along the Great Central Railway, Lime Sidings to Barnstone Tunnel. We had a really good turnout, with 20 volunteers. We were joined with volunteers from Nottingham Trent’s Conservation Society as well as Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust’s ‘Keeping it Wild’ group. It was a very productive day, cutting back scrub, weeding through potential egg laying areas and also planting up some more agrimony plants (all grown on from seed collected at the same site).

It’s been a very good start to the winter season and I am confident that the work we have done will help to bolster grizzled skipper populations at the four locations that we have worked at so far this winter. The sites are all in much better condition than they have been for some time, probably back to the level of management that we had seen on the sites, pre-covid (2019).

I would like to say a big thankyou to everyone who has taken the time to join the work parties so far this winter and hope that all of you have a well-earned break over the festive period.

Yesterday, we held another successful work party at Saxondale Disused Railway Spur. We were lucky enough to be joined by 11 volunteers, who all worked hard to clear the scrub from some sheltered south facing locations which will hopefully benefit grizzled skipper in the coming spring. Once again we were able to uncover and create some areas of bare ground into which we planted agrimony, one of the butterflies food plants. Another positive day of work. Many thanks to all of you for your efforts.

At the weekend (Sunday just gone) we held another successful work party along the Great Central Railway Line (in the cutting just to the south of Rushcliffe Halt). We were lucky enough to be joined by 11 volunteers who worked hard and managed to clear an important sunny spot which will hopefully benefit grizzled skipper in the coming spring. We also uncovered some nice banks of ballast into which we planted patches of agrimony, one of the butterflies food plants. A great days work – many thanks to all of you who came along.