11 May 26 - Signs Of Spring Part 13 - Some St Aldhelms Butterflies

Keeping with the Signs of Spring theme for Blog Posts this Spring, early May has seen a big arrival of Painted Lady Butterflies. My highest day total was on 3 May when I walked from St Aldhelms to Winspit and then followed the coast path back to the Coastwatch building at St Aldhelms, before returning to the car park via Emmetts Hill. This maximised my time on the coastal footpath and resulted in my seeing fifty-three Painted Lady Butterflies, mainly in what I think is Oil-seed Rape plants growing along the clifftop. My plant identification skills are not great so don't rely on the Oil-seed Rape identification being correct. While I only saw thirty-two Painted Lady Butterflies on 11 May, I covered a much shorter length of the coastal footpath and I think there would have been higher numbers had I walked the same route.

Painted Lady: They were very active and not approachable in the sun. This was the best of the upperwing photos

The Painted Lady Butterflies were very active in the sun and rarely settled for photos, albeit I didn't try very hard to get more photos. About lunchtime, it quickly clouded over as a front arrived and they quickly became a lot more settled, although they were landing and immediately folding their wings.

The cryptic Painted Lady underwing

Dingy Skippers have also just started to fly at St Aldhelms. I saw my first flying there about a week earlier, with two more flying on 11 May, one of which posed for this photo.

Dingy Skipper

23 May 23 - The First Dingy Skipper Of The Year

One of the nice things about living in the historic Isle of Purbeck is there is a good selection of UK Butterflies on my doorstep. I've seen 49 species of Butterflies in Dorset, with 43 of these species seen in the historic Isle of Purbeck. The remaining six do not occur locally: Brown Hairstreak, Duke of Burgundy Fritillary, Marsh Fritillary, Purple Emperor, Silver-spotted Skipper & Wood White. This means I have a good chance of just bumping into many of these 43 species whilst just out Birding.

Dingy Skippers fly in mid-May along the Purbeck coastline & it was good to see this freshly emerged Dingy Skipper at St Aldhelms.

Dingy Skipper

14 May 22 - Some Late Spring Butterflies

In addition to the Honey Buzzard which I saw arriving in my visit to St Aldhelms, I saw a nice selection of new Butterflies including Small Blue, Small Skipper, Dingy Skipper and several Orange-tips.

Small Blue: I was pleased to see these lovely Blues at two locations in the St Aldhelms patch

Small Skipper

Dingy Skipper: I had seen them the previous week, however, I didn't have the camera with me on that occasion

14 June 15 - Dingy Skipper

I only found my first Dingy Skipper at Old Harry in June 14. I think the reason is they are quite late to emerge here compared to the more South facing sites in Dorset. As a result, I think by the time they start flying I have usually given up looking for migrants at Old Harry. But today I found four individuals. Not in the best of condition, but it is good to see they are still here.

Dingy Skipper

1 June 14 - The Day After The Day Before

After a short night's sleep, there was no problem deciding where to head out to the following morning. The choices were: back to Morden Bog to have another look for the Short-toed Eagle; return to Old Harry to see if the Grey-headed Wagtail was still there; try somewhere else around Studland. Clearly, it had to be Old Harry. Although the chances the Wagtail was still around was slim, then if it was then I could get the news out so some of the other locals could see it. I spent over 3 hours on the far end of Old Harry, but there was no sign of the Grey-headed Wagtail. Not too surprising given the previous day would have had a lot of visitors from late am onwards, given the nice weather & the end of a week of school holidays. Unfortunately, all the fields nearby have crops in them this year, so there are no cattle around to hold it either (there were cattle in one of these fields last year). So it looks like it had moved on. I did check the fields at Greenlands Farm on the following day, as their cows & horses are popular with Yellow Wagtails during migration, but no joy there either. But it was a great sunny day, with still conditions & few people there to spoil it (until the hordes descended late morning). So the chance to get some more photos & to reflect on how stunning the scenery is for this part of my local birding patch. It's a real pity that rare birds are so poor at choosing great scenery when deciding where to turn up.

The panoramic view from Seat Point

Looking to Swanage from Old Harry

Looking to Old Harry from the next Southerly chalk promontory

Studland Sea Kayaks: This part of Studland Bay is home to both species of UK Seahorses. These kayak guys probably have the least impact on them of all water users. Can't say the same for the water skier haring around the same area the previous day or the jet skiers who think it's fun to race into the bay

Swanage Gig: It's great to see one of the Swanage gigs aptly named Old Harry, rowing past Old Harry

Walking South from Old Harry: There is a coastal footpath that leads to Swanage. The meadow is looking superb this year

In addition to yesterday's Great Black-backed Gulls & Herring Gulls that breed on the Old Harry rockstacks, there are other breeding Seabirds on the cliffs: Fulmars, Cormorants & Shags.

Fulmar: A Family Photo Tick (Shearwaters & Petrels)

Fulmar: They like to nest high up on the cliffs. The bird is sitting in a hole within the chalk & it's only possible to see it's wings & tail

Cormorant: The local breeders are all the nominate carbo subspecies

Cormorant: The characteristic wing drying posture

Cormorant: A few pairs nest on the cliffs

Cormorant: They are really good looking birds when seen close up

Herring Gull: Adult. Great to see them flying past me at or below my level

Herring Gull: Another of the breeding birds

Skylark: A reasonable number of pairs of the nominate arvensis subspecies breeds on Old Harry & Ballard Down. The are replaced in Northern England, Scotland & Ireland by the scotica subspecies

Rock Pipit: They nest on the cliffs & regularly song flight around the cliffs

Song Thrush: Looks like it Snail for breakfast again

Speckled Wood

Dingy Skipper: Surprisingly, the first one I've seen at Old Harry

17 May 14 - Going Back In Time

Last year I planned to visit Powerstock Common in May, a great downland reserve to the North West of Dorchester, to look for Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth. However, circumstances stopped me getting there last year. This year the spell of warm, sunny weather in mid May tempted me. Powerstock is a Dorset Wildlife Trust reserve & takes visitors back to a period when there were better numbers of Flowers, Butterflies, Bees & other insects in the countryside. It's a great reserve to visit. The main area I was focusing on was the disused railway line where the track has been removed and the track & the banks are now managed for Flowers, Butterflies Bees & other insects.

The disused railway line: Looks really good habitat, doesn't it

The disused railway line: Further along the banks start to widen out

I spent my time looking along the railway cutting, but keeping to the bottom. Turns out I should have been looking higher up on the South facing slope, but I wasn't aware of that at the time.

Small Heath

Grizzled Skipper: I saw 3 Grizzled Skippers on the visit

Dingy Skipper: There were at least 8 Dingy Skippers flying around close to the base of the gully

Pyrausta despicata: This small Moth is widespread in downland & limestone habitats & is a common diurnal species

It's not just the Butterflies that the habitat is managed for, but also the flowers, as if the DWT don't get the flowers right, then there won't be the food plants for the caterpillars to eat.

Cowslip: One of my favourite downland flowers

I found this great view as I was heading back in the direction of Maiden Newton from Powerstock Common

As I reached Corfe Castle, I passed a steam train on the Corfe Castle to Swanage heritage line heading to Swanage. I frequently see them, but rarely have the camera so I had to stop this time. There are frequently people photographing the trains from this bridge, but today I had it to myself. Just two of the local tourist attractions I rarely stop to enjoy & which I would do more often, if not distracted by the local Birds & other wildlife.

Eddystone steam train: It's on it's way to Swanage, with Corfe Castle in the background

Eddystone steam train: I like the juxtaposition of the old & the very old. The Eddystone is one of the regular steam trains on the heritage line