30.03.19 - Pickworth Great Wood

(not to scale)


We trekked all the way over to Pickworth for two reasons, first because it is a biologically rich area which is seriously under recorded, and second to put dots on the atlas - it's as far east as you can go without being in Lincolnshire. Indeed on entering the wood you can stand with one foot in VC55 and the other in VC53 (selfie temptation resisted). And on entering the wood virtually the first thing we saw was an Orange Underwing (Archiearis parthenias). The Lepidoptera were spectacular - by the end of the day though we'd seen dozens of Orange Undwerwings (I stopped counting at 20) plus too many Brimstone and Peacock butterflies to count, three Commas and two male Orange Tips. It was hot and sweaty and I got sunburnt because I had not adjusted my headgear from winter (wooly) to summer (floppy). However, butterfly weather is not springtail weather, and the dry, cracked soil put a crimp in springtails recording, although we found many of the usual suspects. Pickworth is on the list for return visits in more favourable conditions.