Tisbury Natural History Society
  • Home
    • About the Society
    • Committee
  • Blog
  • Talks
  • Field trips
  • Young Nature Watch
  • Resources
    • Wildlife identification and recording >
      • Local wildlife >
        • Mammals
      • Identification
      • Recording
    • Other useful websites
    • Reading list
  • Contact us

Blog

Field trip to Grovely Wood

12/7/2022

 
White Admiral
Chalkhill Blue
Essex Skipper
18 members visited the western end of Grovely Wood on Saturday 9th July.   This ancient woodland is of considerable size and our walk only took us through a small part of it. Although on arrival at the wood it had clouded up, as the morning progressed the sun broke through and soon good numbers of butterflies were active along the sunlit rides. Banks of blooming brambles proved an attraction at which they could nectar, and soon there were some splendid Silver Washed Fritillaries chasing around as well as numerous Skippers. We were fortunate to get good views of a White Admiral and to get in the right position to make a positive identification of an Essex Skipper.

It was really heating up by the time we got to the "downland" of Middle Hills and this may have been the reason we saw so few Dark Green Fritillaries which are normally quite numerous here. Although three had been seen in the wood that day, we failed to spot a Purple Emperor but an early Chalkhill Blue - possibly a vagrant from more suitable habitat outside the wood - was identified as was a Brown Argus.

Although, surprisingly, we did not see either a Small Tortoiseshell or a Speckled Wood, between us we identified 19 different species during our 3 hour walk:
​Small Skipper
Large Skipper
Essex Skipper
Brimstone
Large White
Small White
Holly Blue
Chalkhill Blue
Brown Argus
White Admiral
Red Admiral
Peacock
Comma
Dark Green Fritillary
Silver Washed Fritillary
Marbled White
Gatekeeper
Meadow Brown
Ringlet
as well as a number of Scarlet Tiger Moths and a Hummingbird Hawk Moth.

We were lucky with the weather and agreed we were lucky to have such a diverse butterfly fauna on our doorstep.

by Andrew Graham

Comments are closed.
    Photo: Avocets ​(Izzy Fry)

    ​The headers display photos taken by our members. Do get in touch via the Contact Form if you'd like to submit a photo for selection.
    Get our website news by email:
    Also go to our pages at:

    Facebook
    Instagram
    Twitter

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018

    Categories

    All
    Birds
    Butterflies & Moths
    Conservation & Biodiversity
    Field Trips
    Film
    Fish
    Focus Magazine
    Fungi
    Identification & Recording
    Insects & Molluscs
    Mammals
    Oysters Coppice
    Plants
    Special Events
    Surveys
    Swifts Project
    Talks
    Trees

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
    • About the Society
    • Committee
  • Blog
  • Talks
  • Field trips
  • Young Nature Watch
  • Resources
    • Wildlife identification and recording >
      • Local wildlife >
        • Mammals
      • Identification
      • Recording
    • Other useful websites
    • Reading list
  • Contact us