27 July 14 - Nearly A Hat Trick

It is now that time of year when Dorset people who are interested in Butterflies start talking in excited, almost reverent, tones about Alner's Gorse. This is a Butterfly Conservation reserve in North Dorset which is home to 3 of the 4 species of Hairstreak Butterfly that occur in Dorset. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Spring flying Green Hairstreak occurs as well. Even better, if you time it right you might see all 3 of the Autumn Hairstreaks on the same day. These 3 Hairstreaks are small, easily overlooked, species which often spend a fair bit of time in the treetops of the respective favourite trees, but will come down to nectar or sit on lower vegetation. At this point, they should be easy to see & photograph, but as they can sit still for relatively long periods of time, they are easily overlooked until they fly back up high again. Still it would be boring if all Butterflies were as easy to see as Gatekeepers. A couple of visits this time last year resulted in me adding all 3 species to my Dorset Butterfly list. However, I only managed to photograph 2 of the 3 species. So I was keen to go back again this year to try for Brown Hairstreak photos, as well as hopefully see the other 2 species again.

Alner's Gorse: Great looking habitat for Hairstreaks

Alner's Gorse is a good sized reserve and somewhere it would be possible to spend most of a day exploring. However, I had plans for the rest of the day, so had decided to try & limit my time there on this visit. I had heard that people had recently seen a Brown Hairstreak around the small car park, so I wasn't in a hurry to head off to explore the reserve. After spending about 10 or 15 minutes chatting with a couple in the car park, I suddenly spotted a female Brown Hairstreak only a couple of metres off the ground. She had probably been happily sitting there for longer than I had been looking. There was a quick dash back to the cars for cameras, before the chance for enough photography to impress a paparazzi photographer (except for the lack of a flashgun). But we had a real celebrity who knew how to pose for the cameras, rather than the self inflated pretend celebs the paparazzi seem to focus on.

Brown Hairstreak: Female. Females are a lot brighter than the males & have a larger orange patch on the upper forewing (not that I've ever seen the upperwings). I like the black & white banding on the feet and the bright yellow tips to the antenna (details I never notice in the field, but are very apparent on the photos)

Purple Hairstreak: Female. Looks like this one has been around for a while

Purple Hairstreak: Female. The purple is restricted to the base of the upper forewing, it would cover nearly all the upper forewing in a male

Purple Hairstreak: Alner's Grove (13 July 13). On its favourite Oak tree. Note, while the underside of the hind wing has a letter W where the white almost lines up with the white on the upperwing

Unfortunately, no sign of any White-letter Hairstreaks while I was there, but I a couple of tatty individuals had been seen before I arrived. So here is the White-letter Hairstreak from last year (taken with my little Lumix camera).

White-letter Hairstreak: Alner's Grove (4 Aug 13). Note, the underside is superficially similar to Purple Hairstreaks, but the letter W has the left side of the W sharply angled back towards the head

There are plenty of other Butterfly species present at Alner's Grove. I've seen 21 species without making too much effort over 3 visits at this time of year in 2013 & 2014 and there are a number of other fairly common species which occur at the site that I've not seen. Generally my visits have been focused around seeing Hairstreaks & I've not spent as much time as I should have exploring the wider reserve. Two of the other good species here are White Admirals & Silver-washed Fritillaries.

Peacock

Comma

Ringlet

Gatekeeper

Speckled Wood

Having seen & photographed a Brown Hairstreak & had some bonus photos of Purple Hairstreak, I was keen to push on to the second part of my plan for the day: to look for a new Dragonfly on the Somerset Levels. You will have to wait for the next post to find out which species this was & how I got on.

Common Darter: The new Dragonfly is more exciting than this species

11 July 14 - Local Woodlarks

Having lived in the Purbeck area for 17 years, I sometime forget how lucky I am to live in an area with such a good range of Birds & other wildlife. The day has been spent showing my mate from Cornwall, Brian Field, a selection of the good local Birds, Dragonflies & Butterflies. Earlier in the day, we had seen 12 species of Dragonflies at Arne, some good Butterflies and one of the continental Swallowtails at St Aldhelms. Running through a list of Birds that aren't common in Cornwall, Dartford Warbler & Woodlark went to the top of the list. There are a few sites for Dartford Warblers in Cornwall, but Woodlarks are much harder to see there. There are a number of good sites locally in Poole Harbour for Dartford Warblers and a few sites for Woodlarks. My easiest Dartford Warbler site is next to a local road, so we headed there. A quick scan & I could see some Stonechats about 100 metres from the car. Chances are the Dartford Warblers would be nearby. As we walked towards the Stonechats, a couple of Woodlarks flew up & crossed the road. Great start, but we wanted to see them well & get some photos. After a few minutes of looking, a Dartford Warbler was seen quietly feeding. As we headed back to the car, a male popped up, sang briefly, before disappearing across the road into a bigger stand of gorge. No photos on this occasion, as I left the camera in the car.

Dartford Warbler: Taken in Rempstone Forest (Nov 13)

Stonechat: Juvenile. Taken at Greenlands Farm (June 14)

I planned to drive the car a few hundred metres, to a more open area to look for the Woodlarks. Before I got there, I managed to flush a family party of seven from the roadside edge, which flew a short distance before landing again. They breed on the local heaths, but quite like to feed on these nearby short grassy areas.

Woodlark

Woodlark: Despite the short grass, they were really good at disappearing from view at a distance

Mistle Thrush: Another common resident

Mistle Thrush

Gatekeeper: A final Butterfly to finish a good, but long day in the field

9 July 14 - An interesting Silver-washed Fritillary

Off to the woods today to look for Butterflies. It was a great day out & there were plenty of good Butterflies on the wing, enjoying the sunny conditions. This was a site I hadn't visited before. It seems to be managed for Pheasant & Deer shooting, but this management has opened up the area, which had benefited a good selection of Butterflies.

There were plenty of wild flowers in this glade

Also plenty of coppicing to open up the forest

Opening up the woodland has created plenty of habitat for Silver-washed Fritillaries. This is the largest UK Fritillary & is a woodland species. It is a fairly common species in Dorset & great to see they are doing well.

Silver-washed Fritillary: Male. Easy to tell on the upperwing, by these 4 dark bars along the forewing. They are known as sex brands which are special scales used in courtship

Silver-washed Fritillary: Female. The upperwing has spotty & wavy patterns, but no dark bars 

Silver-washed Fritillary: Female. Sexed by upperwing markings before it closed it's wings

There is also a greenish form of females called Valesina where the orange-brown is replaced with olive-green. Apparently, this is most prevalent in the Southern English colonies. But I'm not sure what causes it or why is only seems to only occur in females.

Silver-washed Fritillary: Female.This one sparked some debate today as it wasn't thought to be a Valesina, but a scarcer variant. Note, the mauve wash to the hind wing. I didn't find this. I would have overlooked this as a Valesina so well done to Mike for spotting it

Silver-washed Fritillary: Female. Another view of the same individual, showing a bit of the under wing 

Silver-washed Fritillary: Valesina Female. Here is a normal Valesina from Alner's Gorse last year (20 July 13)

There were a number of other Butterfly species present including White Admirals, Peacocks, Red Admirals, Commas, Marbled Whites, Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers & Large Skippers.

Comma: The poor mans Fritillary. I wonder how many of these get mistaken for Fritillaries on brief views

Gatekeeper: The biggest sign of late Summer & early Autumn is here for me

I was a bit surprised to see this Slowworm crossing the main track. This looks like a small golden Snake, but it is a harmless legless Lizard. It is my favourite UK Repile.

Slowworm

Slowworm: A close up of the head

Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle: I think this is Rutpela maculata