Two days of persistent rain followed by a spell of warm sunshine brought a feeling of lushness to the woodland last week. Wandering through the open areas of the wood on recent sunny mornings, I sensed a sudden intensity of growth and life. Abundant greenery, together with prolific flowers, and all buzzing with thousands of insects. Sitting in dappled shade with the sunlight illuminating the fresh green leaves of grasses and herbs and a background of birdsong, watching all these creatures going about their business, was like an immersion in the essence of spring.
A wayleave for a powerline runs through our wood. This gives a strip of open ground about 20-30 m wide, bordered by birch and other native trees. It is one of the areas of remnant ancient woodland, as the powerline meant it was never planted with spruce. This is fortunate because it essentially forms a very long woodland glade with sunlight and dappled shade that favour many woodland plants and insects. At this time of year it erupts into swathes of bluebells, the iconic plant of ancient woodlands. For a couple of weeks it is a joy to meander through woods glowing with the purple-blue light given up by masses of bluebell flowers and to inhale their subtle perfume.
The bluebells dominate the scene, but there are many other flowers here as well, including bugle (another purple flower of ancient woodlands), the six-pointed white stars of chickweed wintergreen, colourful bitter vetchling and the bright yellows of tormentil and yellow pimpernel. Pretty white wood anemones were very abundant a few weeks ago, but have now finished their flowering. The white flowers of a hawthorn bush next to the wayleave were giving off a strong perfume, a classic smell of late spring, and doing a great job of attracting insects, which were buzzing all around the bush.
Bumblebees are a common sight amongst the bluebells and bugle flowers, foraging for nectar. Butterflies and moths also like these sheltered glades. Identification of the very many different insects buzzing about in sunny woodland clearings is beyond me, but butterflies are one type of insect that lend themselves to identification by the casual observer. In the last week I have seen speckled woods, red admirals, peacocks, small whites and orange tips. On recent trips to the wayleave I had also spotted a number of smallish, orange speckled butterflies, flitting around, never seeming to stay still long enough for me to get a good look at them. I was keen to, because I had a suspicion they could be the elusive pearl-bordered fritillary, a butterfly that is in serious decline in the UK, but still has strongholds in parts of northern Scotland.
I had been told by the local RSPB warden that there weren’t known to be any pearl bordered fritillaries round here, but that I should keep an eye out because open woodland with dappled shade is their preferred habitat. Violets (of which we have many) are the food plant of their caterpillar. They use areas with light bracken cover – the caterpillars like to bask in the sun on dry bracken litter. The butterflies have suffered from habitat isolation and fragmentation in recent decades, meaning it is more difficult for them to maintain viable populations. Our wayleave, being a linear feature with a continuous open woodland habitat, provides a good opportunity for creatures that rely on this habitat, such as the pearl-bordered fritillary, to disperse within the wider landscape.
There is another butterfly, the small pearl-bordered fritillary (which is less rare), that looks very similar from above. It is the markings on the underwing that distinguish it from the pearl-bordered fritillary. I’d determined that these orange butterflies were one of the two species, but getting a glimpse of the underwing was proving tricky. After a while stalking the creatures, I found one that was stopping more often to feed and it repeatedly posed nicely with its wings closed so I could see the underwing and even get a photo. Comparing my photo with the pictures on the Butterfly Conservation website (see here) has led me to think that it was indeed the pearl-bordered fritillary!
It is great to know there are parts of the wood that are already home to so many different creatures and plants. With the pressures from modern human activities resulting in widespread habitat degradation and the worrying declines in insects we hear reported, seeing such proliferation of life and growth gives me hope for the future. Nature will flourish wherever it has the chance. We just need to give it the chance.