High first, adrift in grove, hanging and fluttering (8)
I believe the answer is:
hovering
'fluttering' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'high first adrift in grove' is the wordplay.
'high first' becomes 'h' (1st letter of 'high').
'adrift' indicates anagramming the letters.
'in'+'grove'='ingrove'
'ingrove' with letters rearranged gives 'overing'.
'h'+'overing'='HOVERING'
'hanging and' is the link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hovering that I've seen before include "hanging around" , "Hanging over, something threatening say" , "Floating in the air, like some craft" , "Remaining in one place in the air" , "suspended" .)