(March 4, 2026) https://nottsbag.org.uk/2026/03/04/grizzled-skipper-work-parties-completed-2025-26/
After starting in September 2025, this month we have officially finished our Grizzled Skipper work parties for the winter season!
With funding from Butterfly Conservation East Midlands Branch, Nottinghamshire Biodiversity Action Group successfully organised a total of 10 volunteer work parties, targeting locations across South Nottinghamshire. The work parties led to habitat improvements (scrub clearance and enhancements of potential egg laying sites) that will support grizzled skipper and other invertebrates at these sites.
Through a variety of different weather conditions, our volunteers worked tirelessly raking grassland sites, clearing scrub and weeding ballast piles to make these sites more attractive to the Grizzled Skipper. The work parties also planted up their favoured larval food plants, agrimony, wild strawberry and creeping cinquefoil on sites where these plants were previously scarce or absent.
We are looking forward to and hoping for a good flight season this coming spring and early summer, when we will be surveying and monitoring sightings of the butterfly. We welcome any records and photographs.
If you see the Grizzled Skipper in Nottinghamshire, we would love to know so we can add it to our records – please email us on biodiversity@nottscc.gov.uk. All we need is a date of sighting, the time and a location of where you have seen the butterfly, and we welcome any photos taken of them too.
A big thank you goes out to all the volunteers who have participated in this project, come rain or shine!
Siobhan Brocklehurst
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