30 July 14 - Seeing My Last Regular Dorset Butterfly

I saw the last of the Southern UK breeding Butterflies back in the 80s, but there are a few species I've not seen since. In the last few years, I've focused on seeing the other UK Northern species (just Mountain Ringlet left to see), as well as looking for those species I've not seen since the 80s. Additionally, I've been trying to see all of the Dorset species. The only 2 regular Dorset breeding species I hadn't seen in Dorset up to the start of the year were Purple Emperor & Silver-spotted Skipper. Sadly, it looks like I started this quest a few years too late as Wood White appear to have died out in Dorset, in the last year or two. I succeeded with seeing a Purple Emperor back in mid July, but had to wait until now for Silver-spotted Skippers, as they are the last of the regular UK species to start flying. So I was keen to head to Fontmell Down having heard that the Silver-spotted Skippers had started flying there. It was also a chance to explore this great Dorset site for the first time. I would have liked to have got up there last year, but circumstances didn't allow it. There is a National Trust car park which I headed for, before heading out onto Fontmell Down.

Fontmell Down: The North slope of the Down is a mass of flowers

Fontmell Down: There are great views looking North

This is a great place for views over some superb rural parts of Dorset. But after the best part of an hour, I hadn't bumped into any species of Skippers. I figured I was in the wrong part of the Down & managed to get a response from my mate, Nick Urch, who had also out for the looking Silver-spotted Skippers. The fact I hadn't seen Nick was also an indication I was in the wrong area, but he might have already left before I arrived. Nick confirmed he had seen 4 Silver-spotted Skippers & gave the added directions to get to their favourite corner of the Down. Meeting up with Nick he pointed me in the exact area as he was leaving. There was a good selection of Butterflies on the wing in this area to keep me busy with the camera whilst looking for the main target.

Clouded Yellow: There has been a significant influx in Dorset in the last few days

Clouded Yellow: This is the regular colour form

Brimstone: The second brood have just emerged

Chalkhill Blue: Male. The broad white fringes are broken by dark lines. Whereas Common Blue has white fringes to the wings without any dark lines

Common Blue: Female

Common Blue: Female

Dark Green Fritillary: Getting faded & tatty now

Small Skipper: They have a plain upperwing compared to the other Skippers (except for Essex Skippers)

Small Skipper: Note, the orange tips to the antennae

After an hour of walking around & looking and getting distracted by the above species, I finally saw the first of 2 or 3 Silver-spotted Skippers that I saw.

Silver-spotted Skipper

Silver-spotted Skipper

This was my 48th species of Butterfly in Dorset. I've seen the 45 current breeding species: Large White, Small White, Green-veined White, Orange-tip, Clouded Yellow, Brimstone, Purple Hairstreak, Brown Hairstreak, White-letter Hairstreak, Green Hairstreak, Small Copper, Small Blue, Holly Blue, Silver-studded Blue, Brown Argus, Chalkhill Blue, Adonis Blue, Common Blue, Duke of Burgundy Fritillary, Purple Emperor, White Admiral, Peacock, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma, Silver-washed Fritillary, Dark Green Fritillary, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Marsh Fritillary, Marbled White, Grayling, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Gatekeeper, Small Heath, Speckled Wood, Wall, Grizzled Skipper, Dingy Skipper, Lulworth Skipper, Essex Skipper, Small Skipper, Large Skipper & Silver-spotted Skipper. Additionally, I've seen 3 vagrant species in Dorset: Monarchs in the Autumn of 3 years (1995, 1999 & 2012), 3 of the 5 St Aldhelms Swallowtails & a Large Tortoiseshell which spent several days at Durlston in July 2008.

27 July 14 - Digiscoping A Big Flock of Big Egrets

I still had a couple of hours of warm weather left on the Somerset Levels, so the obvious next place was Ashcott Corner. The car park allows you to walk West to the Shapwick Heath national nature reserve or East to the RSPB Ham Walls reserve. This whole area is well worth a visit, especially in the Spring when there are a number of pairs of booming Bitterns to be heard. This has been an area where the habitat has been improved & as a result it has become incredibly good for Birds. I decided to try Ham Walls as I had only been here once before.

Glastonbury Tor: Just to prove I'm still in Somerset (see last post for the reasons for the photo)

After a half mile walk, I reached a viewing position on the left & a series of hides on the right side of the main track which I hadn't visited before. A few typical Waterbirds from the hides, but otherwise fairly quiet. Still it was late afternoon & not the best time for bird activity.

Cormorant

Gadwall

 Coot: Juvenile

Lesser Black-backed Gull: With Mallards

There were also some fairly typical Butterflies & Dragonflies on the wing, although as many were commoner species, I resisted the temptation to get too carried away with photographing them.

Red Admiral

Red-eyed Damselfly: A species I struggle to photograph well due to their insistence of sitting well away from the water's edge

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly: Female. Note, the bomb markings on the abdomen

Carrying on along the main track for another half mile brought me to the second viewing position on the left hand side of the main track. Here there is a large open area of shallow water surrounded by reeds.

The view from the second viewing position

There was more bird activity here, including 5 Grey Herons and 5 white Egrets: 4 big & 1 small. With most of my birding in Poole Harbour, I am very used to seeing Little Egrets as the commonest (& only Egret). I've seen one Great White Egret in the Harbour. But here was a party of 4 Great White Egrets, with a lone Little Egret for size comparison. This area of the Somerset Levels is one of the best places in the UK to see Great White Egrets these days. Once a national rarity, I assume they are now resident here.

Great White Egret: Individual 1 (Always kept to left of lagoon on its own with black legs & orange bill)

Great White Egret: Individuals 2, 3 & 4 with 2 Mute Swans & a scattering of Mallards

Great White Egret: Individual 2 (Black legs & dark tip to bill)

Great White Egret: Individuals 3 & 4 (Note Individual 3 has black breeding season legs, whereas Individual 4 is already going back to orange winter legs)

This was a good excuse to have another go at getting used to digiscoping (using my Leica scope & Iphone). A lot of people have written in other blogs about their digiscoping experiences, but I've not seen anybody using a Leica scope yet. So I'm still learning. One of the things that is really easy to do on the Canon 7D is to change the exposure to under expose large white birds like Egrets & Spoonbills. This is more of a challenge on digiscoping. However, I've just searched on the internet & found it is possible to change the auto exposure light settings. Wish I had looked this up before trying to photograph these Egrets. Still I will know this for next time. When looking at the image you are planning on photographing, tap & hold on the part of the image on the screen you want to correctly set the exposure for, until a message 'AE/AF Lock' appears. At that point, the camera should be compensating the exposure correctly on your chosen subject. A quick tap on the screen will clear this & go back to exposure setting for the overall picture. As I didn't know this then most of my Great White Egrets photos were overexposed. But the following 3 photos of Individual 1 came out OK, using the normal Iphone exposure settings.

Great White Egret: Individual 1 (digiscoping)

Great White Egret: Individual 1 (digiscoping)

Great White Egret: Individual 1 (digiscoping)

Little Egret

Clearly, still got a lot of practice to get some decent results. But to compare it, here is the first Canon 7D photo of Individual 1 blown up. It really isn't as good at the digiscoping photos.

Great White Egret: Canon 7D of Individual 1 - The first picture with a very tight crop & blow up

Also I'm using the Canon editing software, which allows me to adjust the exposure settings for the picture. What it doesn't allow me to do is to select part of the photo e.g. the Great White Egret & selectively change the exposure on that part of the photo. This is a good example of where some additional editing software might help. But I'm trying not to spend even more money on this photography hobby at the moment. So the next stage will be trying to get the exposure correct on the Iphone when digiscoping.

27 July 14 - Variable Damselfly

I've been planning on getting up to the Somerset Levels for a few weeks now, but never quite made it until today. The plan was to look for Variable Damselfly which is a species that doesn't appear to occur in Dorset. There were old Dorset records, but all have now been rejected. Interestingly, there are still records shown on the NBN Gateway site, so perhaps some of these sites would be worth rechecking. Anyway, thanks to Julian Thomas, I was heading on from Alner's Gorse armed with a good site to try at Tealham Moor SSSI.

 Tealham Moor SSSI: One of the main drainage ditches

Glastonbury Tor: It seems expected that you have to put a picture of Glastonbury Tor when you visit the area (if you're not a local), so here goes

I did a quick count recently of the Bird species which have already been published on the blog & I've have already gone past 5% of the world list of Birds (based on the Clements checklist). But Mute Swan hasn't appeared before, so I had better rectify that now.

Mute Swan: That's one more species closer to completing the photo set of Birds of the World on this blog

The Variable Damselflies were in one of the small drainage ditches that fed into the main drainage ditch. It was actually the first Damselfly I saw, but was coming & going in the ditch & took me a while to get some good photos to confirm the id. In the end I saw at least 4 individuals, all of which were males. Just 3 regular English Dragonflies still to see: White-faced Darter, Club-tailed Dragonfly & Southern Emerald. I also need to get up to Scotland for all the Scottish specialities.

Variable Damselfly: Male. Note, the broken antehumeral stripes on the thorax, the wine glass marking on segment 2 & the crown marking on segment 9

Variable Damselfly: Closeup of the broken antehumeral stripes on the thorax & the wine glass marking on segment 2

Variable Damselfly: Closeup of the crown marking on segment 9

Variable Damselfly: Male. Note, the broken antehumeral stripes on the thorax, the wine glass marking on segment 2 & the crown marking on segment 9

Variable Damselfly: Male

Variable Damselfly: Male. A different individual with a more elaborate crown pattern on segment 9

Variable Damselfly: Closeup of the broken antehumeral stripes on the thorax & the wine glass marking on segment 2

Variable Damselfly: Closeup of the crown marking on segment 9

Variable Damselfly: Male

The main confusion species in the South will be Azure Damselfly as that has a simlar wine glass shaped segment 2 marking, but without the stem. Note, the Brooks & Lewington guide illustrates an example of a Variable Damselfly with virtually no stem. So here are some photos of Azure Damselfly taken in June in Dorset.

Azure Damselfly: Male. East Holme Water Meadows, Dorset (6 June 14). Note the unbroken antehumeral stripes, similar wine glass marking without the stem & segment 9 markings

Azure Damselfly: Male. East Holme Water Meadows, Dorset (6 June 14). Close up of the unbroken antehumeral stripes & similar wine glass marking without the stem

Azure Damselfly: Male. East Holme Water Meadows, Dorset (6 June 14). Close up of the segment 9 markings

Azure Damselfly: Male. Arne, Dorset (8 June 14). Note the unbroken antehumeral stripes, similar wine glass marking without the stem & segment 9 markings

Azure Damselfly: Male. Arne, Dorset (8 June 14). Close up of the unbroken antehumeral stripes & similar wine glass marking without the stem

Azure Damselfly: Male. Arne, Dorset (8 June 14). Close up of the segment 9 markings which looks more similar to the second Variable Damselfly individual

The Variable Damselfly ditch: They like slow moving water in ponds or ditches with fringing vegetation

Blue-tailed Damselfly: Mating pair