1 Aug 22 - A Garden Wall

As I got back from a morning visit to Studland, I had brief views of an interesting-looking Butterfly in flight, that landed just outside my garden gate. Initially, I couldn't see it until I got closer, when I realised it had its wings closed. It was a Wall. When it opened its wings, it was a lot more obvious. Fortunately, it didn't flush & allowed me the opportunity to get some photos with the IPhone, as I couldn't get my Canon camera from the house without flushing the Wall.

They are an erratic species in the garden. I saw in Aug 21, but the one before that was May 15. It's good to know they are still around locally.

Wall

Wall

9 Aug 18 - Soaring In Devon

It's been a tough week recently, following, the desperately sad news that my good Birding mate, Brian Field died recently following an unexpected heart attack while out Birding in West Cornwall. I have known Brian since the early 1980s & we have spent about five months travelled abroad over seven Birding trips. I will come back to write a longer Post & tribute to Brian later this Autumn when I've got a bit more used to this sudden news. My last Birding trip with Brian was earlier this year when we both had a great trip to Northern Colombia in Feb/Mar 18.

Brian Field: Enjoying a late breakfast stop in the Santa Marta Mountains, Colombia (6 Mar 18)

Brian's funeral was in his home town of Truro on 8 Aug 18 & it was a tough & emotional day for everybody. It was good to catch up with a lot of old mates associated with the South West during the day. I stayed down West with another good mate, Pete Aley & his wife Ali in Plymouth that evening. It was Pete who first introduced me to Brian after they both arrived at Plymouth Poly together in 1980 & immediately they started putting the Poly on the map for young Birders to enjoying a lively Birding & twitching scene & come away with a degree as a bonus. The following day, Pete & I headed out to check out a couple of local Birding sites. The main stop was Soar to the East of Plymouth. There were a few migrant Willow Warblers & Whitethroats around, but low numbers of migrants overall.

Yellowhammer: I'm always happy to see Yellowhammers

However, it proved to be a better day for insects.

Migrant Hawker: Female

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary: Pleased to see these second brood individuals which have really declined in recent years in Dorset. Hope they are doing better in Devon

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary: The same individual

Wall: I saw several, but this tatty individual was the only one that posed briefly for a photo

After nearly completing a circuit of Soar we reached the cafe Pete had said we would be able to get a drink. This proved to be a lot better than I had expected. It was a large open barn next to a few tents for hire & a few friendly farm animals. It certainly was a popular place for the local mums to natter, while their kids played & made some animal friends. Some excellent coffee & freshly made cake. A good day out given the circumstances.

Toy Snake at the cafe: This would catch a few of the local visitors out if placed on the Arne reserve

16 Aug 15 - Just Like Buses

I have Birded the Studland/Ballard patch for quite a few Autumns now & I have never seen a Fritillary within the patch. So I was quite surprised to find this Silver-washed Fritillary feeding on Buddleia as I walked through the Glebelands estate on Ballard Down. Even more surprising was to see it then chase off a second tatty individual. I must have been past this patch of Buddleia on a number of occasions in August over the years.

Silver-washed Fritillary: Glebelands estate

Having walked all over Old Harry & the top of Ballard Down, my next stop was the Greenlands Farm area. I was even more surprised when I saw another Silver-washed Fritillary here. This was quickly followed by another two individuals. This was a corner of Greenlands Farm where I have spent even more time Birding in August. So by the end of the morning, I had seen five Silver-washed Fritillaries at two widely separately parts of the Studland/Ballard Down patch. Asking around, it turns out that local Birder, Graham Armstong, had seen them at Greenlands Farm in the past. However, the Glebelands site doesn't appear to be have been known about. It just goes to show that no matter how well you think you know your local patch, you can always be surprised.

Silver-washed Fritillary: Glebelands estate

I was also pleased to see this Wall at Greenlands Farm, which is an uncommon species which I've bumped into at a number of locations within the Studland/Ballard Down patch: but never in numbers.

Wall: Greenlands Farm

2 July 14 - The Secret Of Chapmans Pool

The wind had dropped a bit from the previous day's searching for the continental Swallowtails at St Aldhelms Head, so I was back out again looking. I've already covered my success in seeing one in a previous Swallowtail post, but I didn't get chance to cover the other views & wildlife seen on the 2nd. So here goes. With more detailed directions from George Green on where he had seen his Swallowtail on the 30 June, I was back to look on the coastal footpath between Chapmans Pool & St Aldhelms Head. Chapmans Pool is the valley immediately West of St Aldhelms Head. After parking at the National Trust car park at Renscombe Farm, I took the diagonal path across the tops of the fields to get to the coast path. This is the quickest way, but it misses out the best birding parts of the Chapmans Pool valley. But today was all about the Swallowtails and not general migration birding. Walking along the top of the valley quickly brought me to the Royal Marines Memorial. It's a great place to spend a few minutes & enjoy the views, but also to remember the good work the Marines have done over the years to keep the UK safe. It's well located given there is a sizable Marines base in Poole & it's not uncommon to see them out training locally on their ribs.

The Royal Marines Memorial

The Royal Marines Memorial

From here it's possible to look down into the seaward end of the Chapmans Pool valley. There are some great views from the coast path in this area.

Looking West from near the Marines Memorial: No prizes for working out why Portland (in the far left of the photo) is one of the prime birding sites on the South Coast

Chapmans Pool: It's actually a sea cove. Like a mini Lulworth Cove, without the shops & houses

The Chapmans Pool clifftop path along Emmetts Hill looking from St Aldhelms: My Swallowtail was on the cliff top vegetation

Looking towards St Aldhelms: From Emmetts Hill clifftop path

The valley between St Aldhelms & Emmetts Hill: It's only a 70m ascent, but it is a best to enjoy the view part way up

Along the Emmetts Hill path, there are patches of rough grassland, patches of Thistles as well as some great short grassland which have the best areas of ground hugging flowers.

Small Copper: A great small Butterfly

Dark Green Fritillary: I need to get better photos, but was happy given the other two I saw I lost in flight without seeing where they went

Dark Green Fritillary

Swallowtail: Continental subspecies. Couldn't resist sneaking this back into the post. After all it was the reason for the visit. This is Individual B (as detailed in my Swallowtail mug shot post)

I returned to St Aldhelms for a longer look at the Swallowtails a few days later on the 6 July. I was focusing so much on the Swallowtails (see the Swallowtail mug shot post), that the camera wasn't used to photograph much else.  However, I did see 3 different Swallowtails that day, including the Individual B which was now looking a lot more worn.

Swallowtail: Continental subspecies. Individual D

Swallowtail: Continental subspecies. Individual E

Butterfly twitchers: At this point, the numbers of Butterfly twitchers (including myself) outnumbered the walkers 8 to 1

Additionally, I did managed to photograph a tatty Wall Butterfly, a Shieldbug & a Capsid Bug which I mistook for a Shieldbug.

Wall: Another of my favourite Butterflies

Boat Bug Enoplops scapha: A member of the Shieldbug family

Potato Capsid: I had thought this would be a Shieldbug nymph, but couldn't find it in my Shieldbug book. So ended up putting the photo on iSpot for some help. Within a few minutes a Yorkshire based wildlife ranger called Colin had responded with Potato Capsid which seems to fit the bill (thanks Colin). This is a common & widespread species of meadows & hedgerows in the UK. Whilst not a Shieldbug, it is in the Capsid Bug (Miridae) family in the suborder Heteroptera. The Heteroptera suborder also contains the Shieldbugs family along with another 40,000 species of Bugs (around the world)

18 May 14 - Hawk Watching

With a few days of warm, sunny weather, it was the right time of year to go out Hawk Watching locally. I wasn't looking for a migrating Red Kite: we now have a small, but regular, Easterly movement of Red Kites through coastal Dorset on fine Spring days. I've assumed these are part of the reintroduced birds from the Home Counties, some of which I suspect migrate to the South West of the UK to Winter, before returning to their breeding sites in the Spring. Neither am I looking for a Honey Buzzard or Montagu's Harrier, which are even scarcer migrant Hawks which might be seen arriving in the UK at this time of year. No I'm thinking of a much smaller Hawk, Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth. Like the Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth, they are on the wing in May to July in Dorset. They are most likely to be encountered at chalky sites in Dorset & their favourite foodplants are Devil's Bit Scabious, Small Scabious & Field Scabious. Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moths foodplants are Honeysuckle & Bedstraw & they seem to prefer areas around the Dorset Heaths. One of the best places to look is Powerstock Common. I had been there the previous day, but I didn't have good directions to some of the best areas. With better directions, I decided to try again while the weather was good.

Marsh Fritillary: This was the only one I saw on the wing

Wall

Grizzled Skipper

Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth: Think this is a female as I followed her around appearing to lay eggs

Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth: I couldn't resist another photo as most views were of them belting across the Downland field like a high speed, straight flying Bee, before disappearing back up into the surrounding trees

Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth: A final photo showing the great face pattern

Pyrausta purpuralis: A fairly common downland day time flying moth

Twayblade: This is a fairly common chalk downland Orchid in Dorset & Hants

Twayblade: Another shot of the flowers

Bugle: One of the more popular flowers for the local Butterflies & Moths

I took a different route back from Powerstock which gave me the opportunity for some more great views over this stunning part of the county.

Eggardon Hill Fort: This impressive Iron Age fort about 2,500 years old & is partly owned by the National Trust & partly privately owned

On the way home, it was such a warm, sunny afternoon, that I decided to have a look for an ultra elusive Great White Egret in Poole Harbour. This bird seems to roost in Poole Harbour & has been seen flying up & down the Frome Valley at varying times of day. There is no real pattern, other than it seems to roost in the Harbour & feed outside the area. After trying all my usual viewpoints over the Lower Frome Valley, I headed to a viewpoint inside Poole Harbour with a plan to stick it out to dusk to see if it flew in. 4.5 hours later as it was cooling down, I was beginning to regret not taking more clothing with me. But all that changed when I picked up the Great White Egret flying from the Upper Piddle Valley & heading towards the Arne Peninsula. My view as it got to Arne was blocked by trees so I couldn't see how far it went. Still I had managed to finally see it, after about 10 attempts over the past few months to find it feeding in the Lower Frome Valley. Perhaps part of the reason I was missing it, was as it was also feeding in the Lower Piddle Valley. But some mornings, it had been seen flying up the Frome. A long wished for Poole Harbour tick & probably only about the 10th reliable sighting by local Harbour birders, of a bird that's been around for several months.

Hairy Dragonfly: Female. I saw this fly around, catch a large insect eat it & then fall asleep. If only the GWE had been so straight-forward to watch it go to roost

14 May 14 - Family Photo Tick

In the Centennial Postings Part 1 & Part 2, I promised you I would start to add to the 84 families of birds I had already managed to photograph with the new Canon camera. That total ignored a few additional families of Birds that I had already photographed with my little Lumix, a video camera & quite a few more families with the old fashioned cameras that used film (young readers ask your parents about this, but stop listening if they start rambling on about the good old days). But I'm not going to count any of these families, as the quality of those photos is generally pretty average compared to the Canon. Anyway, if you can't stand the suspense of wondering what the family photo tick is, then go to the end now (as I've doing this post in order of the day's activities).

Common Frog: They are non breeding visitors in my ponds & haven't been very regular this year

After a few warm, sunny days, the birding was pretty quiet & I decided to switch to looking at insects. Last year while out at Studland looking for Downy Emerald & Hairy Dragonfly at this time of year, I found a Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth. So it seemed a good idea to try & see if I could find some more as well as look for Butterflies & Dragonflies.

Holly Blue

Wall: A bit tatty, but it was the only once I saw in a couple of hours of looking

Downy Emerald: This appeared on the Rhododendron on a couple of occasions. I really like their bronzy-green colouration

Four-spotted Chaser: The dark spots in the middle of leading edge of each wing is diagnostic

As for the Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth. It would appear for about 20 - 30 seconds with 5 sightings in total. Each time it flew around like a cross between a Hummingbird Hawk Moth & a Bumblebee, briefly stopping on a flower to grab some nectar, before disappearing out of my field of view again for another 15 minutes. I failed to get any photos, so here are last year's efforts with my Lumix.

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth: A photo of last year's individual, as I've failed to get a photo after several attempts this year (2 June 13)

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth: Another shot (2 June 13)

The final stop was the Studland churchyard, hoping for a migrant or two to be lingering there. No joy, but did get the family photo tick: an adult & recently fledged juvenile Dunnock. Dunnocks are the only regular member of the Accentors family in the UK, although there are also 45 accepted records of Alpine Accentor in the UK to date. I suspect many UK birders ignore looking at Dunnocks, but the birds in my garden are usually feeding very close to the kitchen, even more now since I installed several feeders there. As a result, I get to see them close up daily & they are full of character. Recently, the male is displaying & I'm also seeing begging actions from the female, as they are preparing to breed again (sexed based upon behaviour). I've also got a young bird from their first brood feeding regularly as well. Despite having only appeared in the last few days, it's very capable of feeding & looking after itself, although it's still a bit nervous & domineering compared to the very laid back adults.

Dunnock: Adult. The sexes are identical in plumage & aging them once the juveniles have lost their streaky juvenile plumage is very difficult (seem to remember there is a subtle difference in eye colour)

Dunnock: Juvenile

On the way back home, I spotted a sailing ship, the Royalist, which is a Marine Society & Sea Cadet sail training ship at mooring in Swanage Bay.

The Royalist sail training ship