HEDGE WOUNDWORT

Inconspicuous till you get up close, the Hedge Woundwort's foliage has a rather unpleasant, smell.

The tall spikes of purple flowers are a welcome sight on hedgebanks and in other shady places.

 

SKIPPERS

Small, orange butterflies busily flying among long grasses could be the Small Skipper or the Essex Skipper (first recognised as a separate species in Essex in 1889).

The main difference is the colour at the tip of the antennae  - orange or brown for the Small Skipper and black for the Essex Skipper.  In the photos below I would guess the tip is black but I'm not quite sure.

When perched and especially when feeding, Skippers separate their forewings and hind wings.

This is another butterfly whose caterpillars rely on some grass being left long through the winter.

 

GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT

Up above the pylon at Filnore Woods is an area we call the top meadow. 

We are trying to encourage perennial wild flowers but at the moment there are still a lot of coarse grasses and other vigorous plants like hogweed and creeping thistle that threaten to take over and obliterate the smaller flowering plants typical of a hay meadow.

So we are mowing part of it in the time-honoured way with scythes.

Once it is cut it then has to be removed in order to reduce the fertility.  Grass left on the ground would rot down and act as a fertiliser.  Even if it is just left uncut it will fall over and form a thatch that is difficult for plants to seed into.

The action of scything is a rhythmic slicing back and forth at ground level.  The swishing sound is rather hypnotic.  Here are some of our labourers exercising their skill.

Jim is a practised mower

Andy has a prodigiously high work rate

It was the first time with a scythe for Nick but he is clearly a natural.

Mowing is half the job.  Once cut, the grass has to be raked off.  

Then it is carried by pitch fork, sledge (picture 4), barrow, or dumpy bag (picture 1) to one of our stacks.  

This will probably result in a strong growth of nettles as the grass rots down but hopefully the rest of the meadow will benefit.

Without mowing, the field would be overwhelmed with plants like Dock, Hogweed, Brambles, Thistles and Mugwort as in the picture below taken near the field gate.

Then hawthorn and oak trees would germinate creating scrubby woodland, leading eventually to high forest. 

IN THE MONTH OF JULY CAN YOU SPY A BUTTERFLY

Some butterflies are around in spring and autumn but mid-June till mid-August is the peak time.  Up at Filnore Woods there are a few that you can spot easily.  I've mentioned some of them already but this is a quick guide to who is on the wing at Filnore NOW.

A mottled white butterfly in the grassland - MARBLED WHITE

Dark brown flitting feebly in the grass - RINGLET

Pale brown, rather drab, with some orange - MEADOW BROWN

Chocolate and orange, sunbathing on hedgerow leaves and on sunny patches of ground - like gateways, rather smaller and more orange than the meadow brown - GATEKEEPER

Small and bright orange - SMALL SKIPPER (or maybe one of the other skippers)

Very fast, vigorous flier, often on thistles - PAINTED LADY

Brown with cream splashes on wings, preferring dappled shade - SPECKLED WOOD

I've not mentioned the Orange Tip, or the Brimstone which are spring butterflies, nor the Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Holly Blue and Large or Small Whites, which you may see in your garden.

If you want to help butterflies, the organisation Butterfly Conservation is running the annual Big Butterfly Count from 16th July till 8th August.  Here is the link.

JACK-G0-TO-BED-AT-NOON

Among the long grass at Filnore Woods are these extra large seedheads like outsize dandelion clocks.  They belong to Goatsbeard (Tragopogon pratensis) also known as Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon.

You can see two or three buds alongside the 'clock' in the picture above, but to see the flower you will need to be up there on a sunny morning.  

The flowers close up at midday and open the next day as those goatsbeard seedheads.

As well as in grasslands it can be found on roadsides and waste ground.

 

MARBLED WHITE

Here they are, the marbled white butterflies.  They are only around from mid-June till mid-August so hurry up to Filnore Woods to see them flitting amongst the grass, sunbathing with open wings in the early morning and late afternoon or feeding with their wings held together.

They overwinter as caterpillars in the long grass which they feed on when they wake up in spring.

This is my photo - the MW is in the middle of the picture but didn't hang around when I got closer.

And the 'slightly better' photo below was taken by Derek Hore at Charfield.

 You can see not only the marbled white feeding on ragwort nectar but also a soldier beetle.

AARON'S ROD

The bright yellow spikes of Agrimony or Aaron's Rod  (Agrimonia eupatoria) Are appearing now among the tall grasses and beside the paths.

It can be overlooked as in dull weather you might mistake it for a sort of grass.

The five-petalled flowers open at the base of the spike first and slowly spread upwards.  

It is one of those species that produce seeds with little hooks to catch in animal fur or your socks.  This is how it spreads.

Photo: wikimedia commons

Notice the saw-toothed leaves below the flower spikes.  They are food for the caterpillars of the Grizzled Skipper butterfly and the Snout moth.

In pre-Christion times it was known as Fairy's Wand or Fairy's Rod but the early Christians popped Aaron in to replace the fairies.

It is used in herbal medicine and can produce a bright yellow dye.

When gifted in a bunch of flowers it represents gratitude.