Dorset Holiday Day 3

I aimed to keep up with my early starts for the duration of the holiday, so set my alarm for 5.30 in the morning with the aim of doing the moths on the toilet block followed by a visit to nearby Winfrith Heath, which has become something of a local patch for the holiday.

I did the quick moth round, but there was nothing really any different. Most of yesterday’s moths were still in the same location as they had been, and the number of new moths was low. The only real addition to the moth fauna of the holiday was a Dark Arches that was on the toilet block where the hawkmoth had been the day before.

Next I cycled on to the heath. It was a muggy morning but as the morning drew on the sun decided to make its first appearance of the holiday, and by the time I was heading back for breakfast it was a very pleasant and warm day.

This was reflected in the fact that a number of insect species were on the wing, despite the early time of day. I finally got my Odonata list out of the hangar with a good number of Banded Demoiselles that were associating with the bracken alongside the river. I was able to add to that a nice female Keeled Skimmer and brief views of a Golden-Ringed Dragonfly. 

-Banded Demoiselle

-Keeled Skimmer

-Painted Lady

 Despite the weather picking up, there were no reptiles on any of the open areas of ground, nor were there any on the corrugated iron sheets that had been put down. Fortunately the birds more than made up for this, as I got a bumper haul of species from the morning.

I got a few Siskins in flight from the nearby pine trees, and a Tree Pipit chilling on a small conifer in the middle of the heathland. The real stars of the day were the Dartford Warblers. I am accustom to seeing these birds flit in and around the gorse, so I felt my luck was in when I encountered 2 juveniles flitting along the fence line adjacent to the railway. I was pretty thrilled about that, but it got even better when I wandered round the main hillock on the heath, as round the far side there was a superb adult which was sitting out in the open only around 6 feet away. I got a few nice photos of the exceptional view I got of it. It was calling similar to a Whitethroat when in distress, so I decided that it was probably best to leave it, just in case it was upset. And then, on the bird front, if it could not get any better, I had a flock of around 7 flyover Crossbills, which was an unexpected bonus.

-Dartford Warbler

I arrived back at the caravan site for around 8.30 ready for breakfast and a full day out in what appeared to be the first nice day of the holiday. The consensus was that my family were heading to Portland Bill for a walk, so I decided to go down with them and have a look round the site which I had not looked at before.

We arrived at the Bill for around 10.30, upon which my family decided to go for a morning drink at the café. As a committed birdwatcher I decided to do my first independent Seawatching from the Bill, in the hope of getting a Balearic Shearwater and a few other coastal species.

I probably spent an hour watching the birds off the Bill. There were not masses of birds moving but there was decent quality. I felt I was tested but managed to do it reasonably well, and it was my first outing with the new scope in Seawatching.

There were a few Guillemots moving, blogging to and fro as well as plenty of Gannets of a number of different ages. The first real nice birds for the watch were 2 Pale phase and a Dark phase Arctic Skua that flew through relatively close in, and I got really nice views through the scope. They were a yeartick and my second yeartick was Shag, with a few of them in the area flying to and fro. At 11.10 I was treated to my target bird, when a mid-distance Balearic Shearwater flew past. It was banking in and out of the waves at it moved past but I was able to pick up the key features as it whizzed on by. Unknown to me at this point but there had been one ‘lingering’ all morning before, but to see it for myself was pretty special and I was chuffed to bits with that. I also had a Mediterranean Gull and 4 Common Scoter fly past. So overall it was an exceptional session. Also of note were 3 Rock Pipits that were blogging around the shore below me, a nice holiday tick. 

-Rock Pipit

At this point my family returned, explaining that they intended to go for a walk along the cliff up to a nearby cove for lunch. Since movement was slow and I had most of what I wanted I decided to go with them. The wind was still quite strong so there were not many insects on the wing along the coast. However there were a few more birds that were not seabirds around. The highlight of these was a pair of Raven feeding in a field, but there was also a very confiding Kestrel, perched on a fencepost just over 9 feet away.

-Kestrel

-Raven

As we walked along the coast we began to dip in and out of old limestone quarries where it was more sheltered. Here there were a few more butterflies on the wing, which finally meant my holiday butterfly list was getting somewhere. My dad pointed out a Marbled White, but soon these were everywhere, while there remained good numbers of Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper.

It started to get exciting when I spotted a Skipper roosting on the path. Sadly I had the wrong lens on and my attempts to get a photo were poor, but I head a sneaking suspicion that it might be a Lulworth Skipper, a Dorset specialty. Before I managed any decent record shots it took flight and I lost it, but I remained optimistic that the photos might show it was, when compared to a guide book back at the caravan.

I need not have worried, as further along the coast I found another skipper which was far more obliging, allowing me good views of all the features I needed, leaving me in little doubt that I had found a Lulworth Skipper. All doubts were finally laid to rest when I compared this individual to the book back home, showing beyond all doubt that I had my first butterfly lifer of the year. I had a strong feeling when I initially saw it that this was a Lulworth and so had taken plenty of photos for the record, but the initial shots also showed that the first skipper had been a Lulworth too. Both were females. What a super little thing.

-Lulworth Skipper

Buzzing from that I continued along my way. By now my parents had long gone due to my constantly being distracted. My brother came back though, saying he had found a lizard, so we headed up that way to see a stunning Common Lizard sunning itself under the wall alongside the road. I grabbed a few photos of this one, but it was the first of many along the coast route, though many were only fleeting glimpses. 

-Common Lizard

Butterfly numbers had picked up through the walk, and I was beginning to build up a decent species list. There were a few Lulworth Skippers around, as well as Small and Large Skippers to offer comparisons. A few blue butterflies also appeared, initially only Common but soon a few Chalk-Hill too, which are always a delight to see. The real bonus butterfly was a Grayling which I accidentally flushed, but was able to follow back to its landing point on the path to grab some photos. It’s an England tick for me, having only seen them previously in Scotland, and then a long time ago. Overall I was thrilled and it could not get much better.

-Grayling

-Chalk-hill Blue

Or that’s what I thought until after lunch when me and my brother began looking again. We had a while to wait while my dad fetched the car, so we had a look at the grassland on the Northern side of the cove in which we had eaten lunch in the hope of maybe finding an Adonis blue, the only other potential butterfly lifer. Sadly not, but I did get a superb alternative. 

I was just strolling through the grassland, my brother along the cliff-top when I spotted a large Yellow Butterfly flying over the shrubs. I had seen this only one time before but I knew immediately what it was; Clouded Yellow. I immediately began shouting and calling as I could not believe what I was seeing. We were able to follow its movement along the cliff as it rested on a number of flowers. Sadly it never rested wings open, which was disappointing, but I managed some nice shots of it perched up wings closed. If there was anything that could have been added to the day I had already had, this would have been. What a superb insect.

-Clouded Yellow

It had been thrilling to see that, and that’s an understatement. What an insect filled day. And it was not just the butterflies, as I was able to finally, finally see a live Cockchaffer beetle. My brother found it crawling on the floor, but it did not stick around long before flying off. There were not only Cockchaffer but also their green cousins in the form of Rose Chaffers, which were sitting in their usual position atop a large white flower.

-Cockchafer

-Rose Chafer

After that we had a quick look at Chesil Beach, but the weather had started to set in and there was nothing of any real note there. We ended the day back at the Caravan, where we stumbled across a Common Shrew that had come into the Awning. I managed to get it out when it ran into a food crate, but it was full of energy, as Shrews are. A final note is that out evening meal was interrupted rudely by a massive House Spider. What a superb day.

Species List:

Winfrith Heath: Linnet, Blackbird, Robin, Rook, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon, Tree Pipit, Chaffinch, Stonechat, Magpie, Cormorant, Siskin, Swift, Dartford Warbler, Great Tit, Willow Warbler, Crossbill, Skylark, Keeled Skimmer, Golden-Ringed Dragonfly, Banded Demoiselle, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Painted Lady, Large Skipper,

Portland Bill: Guillemot, Gannet, Arctic Skua, Shag, Herring Gull, Rock Pipit, Balearic Shearwater, Great Black-Backed Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Cormorant, Common Scoter, Linnet, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Starling, Kestrel, Oystercatcher, Woodpigeon, Black-Headed Gull, Skylark, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Pied Wagtail, Raven, Swallow, Common Buzzard, Common Lizard, Common Blue, Chalk-Hill Blue, Small Skipper, Large Skipper, Lulworth Skipper, Small Tortoiseshell, Marbled White, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Ringlet, Speckled Wood, Small Heath, Grayling, Large White, Clouded Yellow, 

Spurn Day 28 - LIFER ALERT

Its not been long since my last spurn lifer, but this is one of the big ones. I had wanted to see 2 species when I was coming to spurn, Red-Veined Darter and today's lifer. Of course this species is more of a right place, right time kind of job, but being at Spurn I knew I had a pretty decent chance of finding one.

The sound of an alarm is one of the worst sounds ever. Waking while still dark, in summer is a painful experience! To make it worse is the fact that it was raining for my walk to the hide. I had to dodge the toads again along the cliff top path, though this has become pretty standard now.

I got a bit of a shock along my walk though, and it set the standard for the day pretty high to say the least. At the campsite at the bottom of Beacon Lane I spotted under the lamp-post a Hedgehog happily scurrying. I could not take it in at first, its been so long since I last saw one. It wandered towards the hedge, but it did not move quickly as though it was alarmed, and I was reasonably close. I tried to get some kind of shot with my compact camera but naturally I failed. It reached the fence and that's where I left it, no point harassing the poor thing when really it needs to be getting to bed.

-Hedgehog

So the standard for the day was already quite high, a species I can only recall ever seeing once before on my walk to work. Thats where the fun stops really, I got to work in the rain, I was wrecked. I crashed in the chair and power-napped. I actually had to leave quite early to get back for a meeting about the tern project, so at half 8 I set up to leave. There was not much going on with the ponds, the Oyks kept making a racket but I could find no source for their discontent, besides other Oyks.

On the way back to the warren I spotted a Sanderling on the beach which was quite approachable and allowed me to grab some shots of it should anything else fail to materialise during the day.

-Sanderling

The meeting went well and by half 11 I was ready to roll on back to the hut to complete my shift. It was at this point that I received a radio message informing me of '3 clouded yellows on beacon lane'. Now I have to go up that lane to get to my shift, and I need clouded yellow, so I suppose I had better make a move. I think I reached beacon lane in my record fastest time. I then wandered up the lane slowly trying to pick out any yellow butterflies. I failed up to a point. The message had said that they were by the pond, so when I got to the pond and there was not one I assumed they must have moved on.

Of course its always at this point that they reveal themselves, and so it was today, as a yellow butterfly flew past me, over the pond banking and was not seen again. Such was my luck for today. However, I had plenty of time and decided to go for luck on the rough ground on the far side of the pond, as it looked like ideal habitat for them.

\It was a wise decision, as I managed to track down 2 Clouded Yellows in the area. Now a new problem arose, the butterflies seemed to have a mutual agreement that landing was no an option and proceed to fly all over the place but not land anywhere. In the end I decided my best option was to grab some record shots of them in flight, awful though they may be.

I grabbed a few before the butterflies moved on leaving me with only a few Common Blue and Wall Browns on the scrub. I wandered back but on the way picked up 3 more Clouded Yellows, and one of these had obviously not received the memo about not landing as it alighted multiple times of various flowers, though not for any extended time periods I hasten to add.

I swapped lenses and made to grab some photos of him. I made some decent attempts but they always seem to have some angle on them and were not profile, though some came close. In the end though I was pretty happy with my results, given what I had resigned myself to after the first few.

-Clouded Yellow

So that is another Lifer for me at Spurn and one that I had really wanted. Its been a long time coming, a big gap in my 'I-Spy butterflies and moths' (50 points). They were far brighter in flight than I had expected. I had thought they would be a shaded white butterfly, similar to brimstone, but not at all, they were a deep yellow and even looked orange at some points. I think its safe to say they did not disappoint me.

Sadly the afternoon did not live up to the billing of the butterflies. The 3 Little Grebe had remained on the pond, while an adult summer plumaged Grey Plover had added to the cast too, as well as a Turnstone. The real highlights were the Little Terns. Today I found one of the really young chicks, probably the last one. It was little more than a brown blob of fluff, but my time spent watching it was sadly cut short by an oncoming thunderstorm.

I could see it building on the horizon but when it hit it hard. There were numerous lightening flashes and thunder rolls, making for a spectacular change in scenery. The first storm was followed by a small second storm, what a way to finish the shift off. While the sky was so dark I decided to try and photograph some white birds against the dark background. I got some reasonable success when a Common Gull flew past.

-Common Gull

And that just about wraps up today. The walk home yielded very little but that is hardly surprising given the caliber of storms that had just gone over. I called it a night early due to the fact that I am just so tired, so no sea-watching tonight.

The Daily Oystercatcher

I was interested to see how the oystercatchers would react to the thunderstorm but I could not find them before it started to throw it down. I heard oystercatchers alarming during the storm but it was not the family I had been following. After the storm I had a another look and found them in the top corner. There was still thunder rolling but they did not seem bothered at all, with two birds sleeping and another two feeding during the whole thing.

Species List:
Beacon Ponds: Little Egret, Little Tern, Sandwich Tern, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Swallow, Sand Martin, Arctic Skua, Gannet, Common Tern, Black-Tailed Godwit, Meadow Pipit, Linnet, Mute Swan, Black-Headed Gull, Common Gull, Woodpigeon, Little Grebe, Grey Plover, Cormorant, Sanderling, Redshank, Whitethroat, Willow warbler, Blackbird, Great Tit, House Martin, House Sparrow, Sedge Warbler, Yellow Wagtail, Common Teal, Greenshank, Herring Gull, Turnstone, Grey Heron, Grey Seal, Common Lizard, Clouded Yellow, Large White, Small White, Gatekeeper, Common Blue, Wall Brown, Meadow Brown, Emperor,