Friends of Northaw Great Wood

This week has been poor for butterfly sightings – a few Speckled Woods – but last week was most unusual. No less than 6 Purple Hairstreaks were observed on the Bridleway transect while early on the 20th, several Purple Hairstreaks were observed at the west end of Middle Way taking in the early morning sunshine. In this shot the sun is catching the irridescent purple patch.

A good week for butterflies in the Wood. Two sightings of White Admiral, one near the School Camp corner and another on the Bridle Path. Also several sightings of Purple Hairstreak. Purple Emperor also at usual location. See butterfly page for some recent pictures.

After three miserable weeks of recording almost no buterflies at all, suddenly the summer weather has arrived and butterflies are at last emerging. Today, most seen were the three common ‘brown’ butterflies: Meadow Brown, Ringlet and Speckled Wood.

Speckled Wood

Ringlet

Meadow Brown

So far I have managed to do the Butterfly Transects each week, trying to find the best afternoon in terms of sunshine and temperature. The following photographs are from last Sunday’s session.

Yellow Speckled Moth on a Bluebell on Middle Way close to the Heather patch.

Small White Butterfly also enjoying the Bluebells.

Along the Bridleway, a Speckled Wood butterfly shows how well it blends into the background.

With the breeding season upon us, we have not been felling trees. Other work takes centre stage, such as using our new winch to clear away obstructions from the paths and splitting logs for sale.

Spring has finally arrived, although the wood is taking a long time to dry out. Here are some images taken in recent weeks.

Comma butterfly

Wood Anemone

Lesser Celandine

Violet

Peacock Butterfly

Muntjac (not a bambi, but a bit of a menace in the woods)

Bluebells (note how the leaves have been eaten, see image above for likely culprit)

Blue Tit at nest

Green-Veined White butterfly

Once again, I’m rather late in updating this blog, but here are some images from the Wood during the recent cold winter.

I haven’t posted anything in recent months, so here is a catch-up on activities.

The Dormice monitoring didn’t find any Dormice, unfortunately. But the boxes were found to have been used by insects, birds and a pair of field mice, see above.

In recent months, we have had assistance from the Herts & Middx Wildlife Trust. This has helped considerably with the major project to clear the invasive Sycamore around the Yellow Trail to the east of the Cottage. This will create a more open glade where one can admire the grove of mixed Ash and Oak.

We have also been thinning out the Birch trees in the ‘Heather Glade’ to the north of the car park. Here is Howard bringing down one of the very tall specimens.

The Friends group is leading a guided walk in the wood on Sunday 29th July at 2.30pm. This is a good opportunity to come for a walk in the wood and  learn about its diversity of wildlife, its history and how it is currently being managed. Meet at the car park. Bring binoculars if you are interested in birds or butterflies. Bring suitable footwear as the wood is very muddy at present. The walk should last about 2 hours (but if you’d like to leave before this, that’s fine). We hope to serve refreshments after the walk back at the Office.
Donations to the Friends Group £2 (under 16s free)
More information from 01707 873778