Butterfly works under way!

Next time you come to visit us, you wont fail to notice the rather large chalk structure that has appeared in the middle of our wild flower meadow. This is part of our butterfly landscaping works that is underway this autumn.

This chalk bund will provide habitat that we currently lack on the reserve – steep, south facing banks. These are the sorts of conditions that suit many chalk downland butterflies, and their associate caterpiller food plants such as horse shoe vetch and rock rose.

Amazingly, the bank was completed by just one man and his digger, in under two weeks!

Chalk, that lays just under the surface,  was scaped up and then piled and sculpted in to shape. The has resulted in a 100 meter long, three meter high bank. Here are some photo's of the work in progress!

The next step will be to sow the bank with chalk grassland seeds, especially chalk butterfly food plants such as horse shoe vetch, rock rose, devils bit scabious and hairy violet. We are lucky to be next door to Porton Down, a strong hold for species such as Adonis blue, chalkhill blue and Dark-green fitillary. We already see good numbers of Dark-green fritillarys flying across to us, and we hope that in time we will start seeing other species too.