Graylings at Fritham

Highlights were Grayling, lots of Common Blue butterflies, Dodder and Fallow Deer.

We met at Janes Moor car park and Corinne kindly outlined how she has been doing the Grayling butterfly transects for the past few years. After this we walked across the short grass, stopping briefly to look at the Chamomile, Bog Pimpernel, Tormentil and Lesser Hawkbit, to the start of the transect route. The first butterfly we saw on the transect was in section 2 and it was a Grayling, quickly followed by several more. We also saw a few Common Blue here too and some of the parasitic plant Dodder growing among the Heather. From then on we concentrated on the butterflies. The weather had not looked good, but in the shelter of the woodland rides we did see quite a lot. There were many Common Blue and Meadow Brown and a few Gatekeeper and Large Skipper. We also saw one or two Painted Lady and a Speckled Wood in the last patch of woodland.
After we had walked the transect route we had time for a quick walk around the pond and down the edge of the woodland to some wet grassland. We found Brookweed, Lesser Spearwort, Eyebright, Common Centaury, Bird’s-foot Trefoil and Chamomile in the short grass near the pond and a family of Moorhen nearby. Stemless Thistle growing near the road shows that chalk had been brought in to the area as this species is usually only found growing on chalky soil. Along the woodland edge we saw several Fallow Deer and good views of a Painted Lady butterfly. The wet area of grassland had the typical New Forest species of wet acid grassland and we found Water Mint, Marsh Pennywort, Lesser Skullcap, Marsh St. John’s Wort and Round-leaved Sundew. We found more Dodder among the heather on the way back to the car park.
Simon Curson