July 2026 Ramsbury Nature Notes by Peter Marren

Grizzled Skipper

Leading a butterfly walk to Spring Hill on 25th May, I wasn't expecting to see many species. For this was the first really hot day after a period of cool weather, during which I supposed the butterflies would be inactive. But no, our rarest species, the Duke of Burgundy had obviously been on the wing for some time, & some were already looking worn. Over 2 days I saw about 12, which is about average for this elusive butterfly. The equally elusive Grizzled Skipper was looking fresh & in larger numbers than usual. This tiny black-&-white butterfly looks very moth-like on the wing & is easily overlooked until you are familiar with its darting flight & the greyish blur of its little wings. There were good numbers of Common Blue, mainly in the meadow below the hill, whose wings have a tint of lavender - unlike the earlier Holly Blue, a garden visitor, which is more powder-blue. A third blue, the Small Blue, looks silverish in flight, but when you see it close up, reveals an attractive scatter of blue scales over a smoky-brown background. All told we saw 3 species of blue, 3 skippers & the Duke, plus 2 butterfly-Iookalikes, the Burnet Companion & the Five-spot Burnet, both day-flying moths.

I have been writing a Wild Flowers of Ramsbury book as a companion to our sell-out Birds of Ramsbury, & one statistic that surprised me is the number of grasses recorded from the parish: 56 species & counting! I found a new one yesterday, the Hare's-tail grass. To many people, grass is just grass. Yet nearly every species can be identified in the field at least when in flower (& some experts can identify grass from leaves alone). It helps that grasses have distinct habitats. Those of a dry bank are quite different to those of a wet meadow, & different again to a woodland ride. What's more, our native grasses are being joined by aliens springing up from bird seed, with road gutters a favourite place! That's the charm of botanising in a village: you never know what will turn up next. Sedges are easily mistaken for grasses, being mostly green - we have another 20 species of those! Plant biodiversity is alive & well in Ramsbury!