28 Jul 26 - Blue-eyed Devil Hawker

This morning I received a call from Graham Armstrong. I expected Graham to say he had seen an interesting Bird species at his local South Haven patch at the Northern most tip of the Studland Peninsula. I was half right, as Graham said he had seen five Southern Migrant Hawkers in the dried up pool there. I believe this is a new Dragonfly species for the Studland National Nature Reserve. Needless to say I headed down later that morning with the camera. I wasn't disappointed.

Southern Migrant Hawker: My first individual

As soon as I arrived at the dried up South Haven pool, I saw my first Southern Migrant Hawker. The bright blue colouration, brighter that a Migrant Hawker and the bright blue eyes quickly confirmed the identification. It landed in a bush next to some Sedges and posed for a few photos. However, it didn't give me the time to increase the aperture and so the wings aren't pin-sharp. This individual was disturbed by a second Southern Migrant Hawker and the two flew around in the first of several territorial disputes. It took a while of waiting, but finally what I think was the first individual landed again in the same area and this time it posed for longer.

Southern Migrant Hawker

The South Haven pool was totally dried out. When I saw the first local Southern Migrant Hawkers at Lytchett Bay in July 2018, they were hanging around some rapidly drying up small pools. What I think was happening was the Female Southern Migrant Hawkers were preparing to lay their eggs in the dried up pools, knowing that the pools will refill over the Winter. This would allow the larvae to hatch into the water, with little other competition. I'm now more convinced this is probably typical for their lifecycle.

Southern Migrant Hawker

I found a total of ten Southern Migrant Hawkers including individuals visible from the boardwalk. All of the South Haven pool is now dried out and I expect there would be more present, if I had explored the larger dried out Southern end of the pool. Given the numbers present, it's likely that these Southern Migrant Hawkers had hatched this Summer and this is at least the second season they have been present at South Haven.

13 Jul 26 - Heatwave Surprises

The current heatwave has turned up some surprises in the garden. Firstly, I saw an interesting-looking Dragonfly in the front garden. My initial thoughts as it flew past the living room window, that was it was going to be my first Common Darter for the garden year list. I moved to the window to relocate it and was surprised to see it was my first garden record of a Beautiful Demoiselle. It landed, I grabbed the camera, but I couldn't get the window opened enough for a photo. In hindsight, I should have taken a photograph through the glass, but I reckoned I could get a photo from the study window, as I can open that window further. Frustratingly it flew and disappeared from sight into my neighbour's garden and didn't reappear again. The nearest regular locations to my Swanage garden are around Corfe Castle or the Corfe River Valley: both about four miles away.

Beautiful Demoiselle: This is my nineth species of Dragonfly for my garden. Latchmore Brook (3 Jun 14)

The next afternoon, I popped into the back garden to see what Butterflies were on my Buddleia bush. There were the usual species with a couple of Peacocks, a Red Admiral, a Large White, a Meadow Brown and a Gatekeeper, while a Holly Blue was flying along the Ivy hedge. Then I noticed a Butterfly completely hunched up on the gravel. I couldn't figure it out, so grabbed so photos. It turned into my first Grayling for the garden. Like the previous day's Beautiful Demoiselle, it had travelled about four miles away, as the nearest regular locations to my Swanage garden are around Corfe Castle, the Corfe River Valley or Studland's heaths. Just after this, I added another very erratic garden visitor: a Small Copper on the Buddleia. This is only the fifth year that I've seen a garden Small Copper.

Grayling: This is my twenty-third species of Butterfly for my garden

It had been a couple of great days for the garden and only a week or so before my thirtieth anniversary of living in my cottage.

10 Jul 26 - Time For A Stretch

It's been too hot to get out much during the heat of the day during the current heatwave: something I will probably regret as we get to the end of the year. As a result, I've been heading out in the mid-evening as it finally starts to cool down. Today, I had a look at Littlesea at Studland. A location I expected to be quiet, however, with two more Purple Heron sightings since the I found Studland's first individual in Jul 18 and with Purbeck's first Night Heron earlier this year, there is a very slim chance of a rare Heron on an evening visit. Albeit, it is a vanishingly slim chance. The lake in from of the hide was typically quiet, but then a Great Crested Grebe appeared.

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe: The harsh evening light isn't always great for photography

Great Crested Grebe: Time for a stretch

Great Crested Grebe

1 Jul 26 - Childhood Memories Arriving Earlier These Days

One of my early memories from mid-August holidays during the long school break, was seeing The Cinnabar caterpillars gorging on Ragwort. I was a bit surprised to find lots of fully grown caterpillars doing this on my visit to Brownsea at the start of July. The hot, dry Spring of 2026 has been setting lots of records for flying Moths, Butterflies, Dragonflies etc, so I guess this early date shouldn't be too surprising.

The Cinnabar Caterpillars: Their bright colours are a warning sign that they are not nice to eat

For some reason, my Birding database is using this older name of The Cinnabar, rather than Cinnabar or Cinnabar Moth. As I've not got time to change all the records, photos etc I'm just going to stick with this older name.

The Cinnabar: Adult. Goring-on-Thames (13 Jun 14)