The search for the Marsh Fritillary

Above: Marsh Fritillary

Last week I went on a walk around Chamber Farm Woods near Barney to look for the Marsh Fritillary. This is a butterfly that is in decline, this is mainly because of its habitat. The Marsh Fritillary likes damp flowery meadows where lots of Devil's-bit Scabious grow which is it's caterpillar food plant. This habitat is in decline because of drainage of fields and overgrazing.

Little Scrubbs Meadow within the Chamber Farm Woods complex and surrounding area is the only site in Lincolnshire were you can still seen the lovely butterfly, Butterfly Conservation's Butterfly Report 2021.

The search for the Marsh Fritillary

Above: Informational Sign about the Meadow

As I walked down the path towards the meadow I first come across this sign, which tells you all about the sites resurrection from it's previous life as an old unimproved grassland and conifer woodland. This was reseeded with seeds from existing flower-rich rides from Chamber Farm Wood to create this new area. By doing this the existing meadow was doubled in size. This has been invaluable to the come back of this butterfly.

This meadow has been a golden victory for Chamber Farm Woods and Lincolnshire and not forgetting the butterfly it's self as previous years there has been record numbers of these butterflies at this site in their hundreds.

Above: Marsh Fritillary resting on a blade of grass

This year their numbers were down to previous years, this might be due to last years excessively hot summer which undoubtedly had an impact on the plants which the butterflies rely on.

After hunting about a bit me and my partner managed to find 4 Marsh Fritillaries which is a big change from previous numbers. When hunting around for these butterflies we did find other interesting invertebrates including a variation of caterpillars, an Tortric Moth, Hazel Leaf-roller Weevil and an Swollen-thighed Beetle.