3 Aug 14 - Beautiful, Black, Blue & Emerald

With no joy in the first 2 bogs tried, I carried on into Rempstone Forest to check out the final local historical site for Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly. En route, there were a few commoner Dragonflies, Butterflies & a Wasp Spider. For those of you that don't like Spiders, well don't go to the bottom of the post. But best to continue as this is one of the best looking UK Spiders. But first there was a great Helice Clouded Yellow. Clouded Yellows are a great migrant Butterfly that appear in varying numbers in Dorset. A smaller variable percentage come in the pale Helice form. This only affects females (like the Valesina Silver-washed Fritillaries), but I've yet to understand why only females have this aberration.

Clouded Yellow: Helice female. A percentage of the females have a pale form know as a Helice, where the butterfly is much paler than the normal dark yellow colouration. They are even whiter on the upperwing

Clouded Yellow: This is the typical form taken at Fontmell Down as part of the same recent invasion (30 July 14)

 

Common Blue

Common Blue

There were also a few Black Darters, Common Darters, Beautiful Demoiselles & a good selection of Emerald Damselflies. But unfortunately, the Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly site was as dry as a bone. So no chance of any there.

Black Darter: Male

Common Darter: Female

Common Darter: Female closeup of the face. The black line above the frons (nose) does not turn down by the side of the eyes & this is diagnostic of Common Darters: it turns down in all the other species

Common Darter: Female. the 2 yellow bands on the side of the thorax also confirms it is a Common Darter

Beautiful Demoiselle: Male

Emerald Damselfly: Male. The pale blue covering the first 2 segments in Emerald Damselfly & the pterostigma are long & relatively thin separate this from a Scarce Emerald Damselfly (which has the pale blue over the first & half of segment 2. Scarce Emerald also has a broader, shorter pterostigma

Emerald Damselfly: Female.

Emerald Damselfly: Female. Emerald Damselfly has a narrow white stripe on the side of the thorax and an isolated green spot just above the middle leg. Scarce Emerald does not have the green spot and the white stripe on the side of the thorax

Emerald Damselfly: Immature female

Emerald Damselfly: Immature female. Just about possible to see the green spot & the orange side stripe on the thorax

Finally, the Wasp Spider. I remember seeing my first Wasp Spiders at Radipole in the early 80s. In those days, they were apparently reasonable well established on the Kent to Dorset coastline, having only been found for the first time in the UK in 1922 in Rye, Sussex. I don't know how they got there in the first place from the continent. They have expanded their range considerably since & are now well established from Cornwall to Suffolk, with scattered localities elsewhere as far as Birmingham.

Wasp Spider: Female. This is a female, the males are much smaller than this large Spider

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.

1 July 14 - Lulworth Skippers On An Old Patch

Before I moved to Dorset, I spent the previous few years birding heavily in Spring & Autumn around St Aldhelms Head and it's neighbouring valleys: Seacombe, Winspit & Chapmans Pool. Many of the non local birders who were birding/twitching 20 years ago will know Winspit better as 'The Bluetail' valley as this was the site of the first mainland twitchable Bluetail. These days Bluetail numbers have increased & there are a few each Autumn, mainly on the East coast. After moving down, I carried on birding this area for a few years, before trying Durlston & finally switching to Poole Harbour. The whole area is still good for birding, but it a large area & hard to work. It also tends to be an area that is best in the migration periods. However, interest was raised, when Dorset birder George Green was out walking & came across a Swallowtail Butterfly & missed another two. It seemed very likely to be a local hatching from a Swallowtail that made it to the area & bred. Therefore, I was up there the following morning to look for them. By 10:00 the sun was hazy, but finally came out strongly later in in the afternoon. However, the steady 10 knot wind wasn't helping. I abandoned the search after 5 hours of looking without having seen any Swallowtails. But it was a great day & plenty of other Butterflies & other wildlife on view. It is also a good place for great views. I will come back at some point in the future with more of the history associated with the Chapel & Radar Memorial. But this post covers the other species seen on the first attempt to see a local continental Swallowtails.

St Aldhelms Chapel: This is a 13th Century Norman chapel

St Aldhelms Chapel: What a stunning ceiling

St Aldhelms Chapel: It's dark inside as the only window is a small slit window and light from the door

The Radar Memorial: This memorial, unveiled in Oct 2001, commemorates the work to develop new radar equipment by the RAF between May 1940 & May 1942. About 200 scientists were initially involved, but this had grown to 2000 people when they relocated to Malvern two years later. The main radar base was close to the Renscombe Farm car park for St Aldhelms Head

The Coastguard Lookout: This is run by volunteers from the National Coastguard Institution. There are stunning views from here. Wish there was a seawatching lookout next door

This is the seawatching site: I've never been down, but my mate Steve Morrison has spent a lot of  time seawatching from down here & reckons it's really good. It looks too much of a steep scramble for me to want to try it

The Coastguard Cottages: These cottages were formally occupied by coastguard staff, but are now privately owned. They must have some rough nights in the Winter storms

A few hundred metres East of the Coastguard lookout, there are steps down into a quarry with some overgrown ruined buildings in them. This is a great place to have a look around. It always looks like it ought to have a skulking rare Warbler or a Wryneck in it, but I've yet to find any good birds there, despite a lot of looking. But it is very sheltered & is good for Butterflies, Orchids & the occasional Wall Lizard.

How good goes this quarry look for a rare bird?

Another view from inside the quarry

On each visit, I'm pleased to see these stones are still standing

Looking East to the Durlston lighthouse: This is the Eastern part of the Jurassic World Heritage Coastline. The grey shape in the far distance are the cliffs of the Isle of Wight over 25 miles away

There was a good selection of Butterflies in the quarry, enjoying being in the sun & out of the wind.

Common Blue: Everybody likes to see photos of nice fresh Butterflies, but here is an old pensioner for a change. I think it's a Common Blue (rather than an Adonis Blue) based upon general colouration, but all the white fringes have worn off, as have the orange markings on the underwing (thus making it harder to figure out)

Marbled White: On Thrift (I think) with a Meadow Brown back on 

Lulworth Skipper: This is a local speciality which occurs from Portland to the Purbeck coastline. They are rarely seen away from the coast, but are locally common on the coastal Downlands

Lulworth Skipper: Female. Lulworth Skippers are smaller than Large Skippers (about the same size as Small Skippers) & have superficially similar markings of light & dark orange brown on the wing. But overall they are a dull Skipper compared to Large Skippers

Lulworth Skipper: Female have this back to front ? mark on the forewings

Large Skipper: Male. Note the more contrasting & brighter markings. The strong black line in the middle of the forewing indicates this is a male

Large Skipper: Male. What I like about the camera is all those little things I've never noticed in the field - check out those hooked antennae. I wonder what the significance of the shape

Six-spot Burnet: Taking full advantage of the Pyramidal Orchid's beauty to get onto this blog. Nice & easy to identify & a common Downland species

Pyramidal Orchid: A quick scan indicated there were over 60 in the quarry

It's just starting to get to the time of year when the Bush Crickets & Grasshoppers start becoming more obvious. So that's another insect group that is likely to feature a bit more on the blog in the coming weeks as not surprisingly Dorset is home to many of the UK species.

Great Green Bush Cricket: Female nymph. This is the largest of the UK resident Orthoptera. This one is a large nymph which is why I initially assumed it would be a Specked Bush Cricket 

Great Green Bush Cricket: Female nymph. It kept hiding on the back of the grasses, but then sat quite happily once an alternative perch was provided. The long straight ovipositor at the end of the abdomen indicates it's a female & also it's a Great Green Bush Cricket. Specked Bush Cricket would be more speckled overall & would have a broad, upturned sickle-shaped ovipositor

Meadow Grasshopper

It is not unusual to see helicopters flying around the Purbeck coastline: today was no exception.

Coastguard helicopter: This is an essential safety net for the thousands of sailors in the English Channel as well as a number of unfortunate coastal climbers. Therefore, it's frustrating to see the current government is intent on closing the Portland Coastguard helicopter base in the next 3 or 4 years to save an absolute pittance of government's annual budget. No doubt the ministers who took the decision will be 100% safe in a different job when the first lives are lost as a result of their decisions

Royal Navy Lynx helicopter: Again a fairly common sight locally