Dorset Holiday Day 10

The last full day in Dorset started well. Sadly moths were a little thin on the ground but as I came out of toilets I spotted a Silver-Washed Fritillary land on the vegetation adjacent to the path right next to me. I had my compact in my pocket so grabbed a few photos with that before racing back to get the DSLR. When I returned the butterfly decided to leave, buts its still the first profile shots I have of this species

-Silver Washed Fritillary

 My plan for the day was Durlston Head Country Park near Swanage, for some seabirds and butterflies. Sadly there was a dire shortage of seabirds, with only a couple of Shags to note. Land birds were not much better but I gained a novelty holiday tick when I flushed 2 Red-Legged Partridges.

As soon as we arrived I was treated to a Silver Washed Fritillary and a couple of blue butterflies which looked very much like Holly Blues, though they did not land. A Hummingbird Hawkmoth was the best of them though, as it fed on the buddleia adjacent to the café where we were.

-Hummingbird Hawkmoth

 Despite the wind there were a good number of butterflies out on the wing. I had hoped for an Adonis blue but instead managed a few Common Blue and a Small Blue. Small Blue was not the only small butterfly for the day, as I also managed Small Copper as a holiday tick.

-Small Copper

-Little Blue

 There were still a few Lulworth Skippers around, this being the last time I will see any of those for a while. I was also able to add another butterfly species to the holiday list in Dark Green Fritillary. They were not abundant round the cliff top but there were about four in a small dell. Sadly, like their silver washed cousins, they did not choose to land conveniently for me.

-Lulworth Skipper

-Dark-Green Fritillary

I was pretty pleased with the days haul. In the afternoon we headed down into Swanage before heading back to the caravan. In the evening we went to Lulworth cove which was a pleasant end to the Dorset experience

Species List:

Durlston Country Park: Kestrel, Shag, Stonechat, Herring Gull, Feral Pigeon, Whitethroat, Carrion Crow, Gannet, Rock Pipit, Red-Legged Partridge, Rook, Raven, Black-Headed Gull, Great Black-Headed Gull, Common Buzzard, Emperor Dragonfly, Small Skipper, Large Skipper, Lulworth Skipper, Large White, Green Veined White, Marbled White, Meadow Brown, Small Heath, Gatekeeper, Common Blue, Small Blue, Holly Blue, Small Copper, Silver Washed Fritillary, Dark Green Fritillary, Red Admiral, Peacock, Comma, 

Isle of wight Day 9-Return to Headon Warren and bus mahem

It was hot when we woke up, not a cloud in the sky, ironic that it should be our last day. My family said that they were going to the needles, so I said that I would go to Headon Warren, a site nearby that is famed for having dartford warblers, although the last time we came to the IOW we came here and didn't hear a trace of them. Only that supposed smudge that i didn't get a decent view of, but certainly had traits.
The site is very pleasant, and as I walked up to it there was a constant clicking in the background. At first i was unsure what it was, but it soon became clear that the it was actually the seed pods from the gorse busting in the heat. When you arrive here you notice that the gorse is covered in funnel shaped spiders webs, but the spiders are really hard to view, although the webs are pretty special.
And as you would expect, there are your usual asseblement of heathland birds, first one being a whitethroat that was feeding on the path in front of me, although they were rather flighty so i was unable to get any better shots that those below.

-Whitethroat (dunno where it actually is, but its there)
the whitethroats aside the first 10 mins had me walking around the site, without many birds happening, only the usual assortment of butterflies-gatekeeper, large white and meadow brown. I came to the edge of the reserve where it drops off into forest and then into the sea, And it was here I spotted a sparrowhawk circling towards me, get ever closer, without seeming to bother with me.

-Sparrowhawk

The next bird i saw was nothing of a heathland bird, I guess this jay came from the adjoining woods, probably flushed by the sparrowhawk.

-Jay (shot blurred by heat haze)

the next bird was a heathland bird, and one that I had seen a few times already this holiday, but they were more numerous here. there was a flock of about 5 that alighted on a small tree near to me, but once more my photos were badly affected by the heat haze.

-Linnet pair
The bird that followed them was alone male yellowhammer, another bird i had become familiar with over the 9 days here. This one was more wary than the singing male at brook and so kept its distance from me, it didn't sing at all, which was a bit disappointing.

-Yellowhammer
I came round to the far side of the bronze age burial mound where there was less gorse and slightly more bracken, with still no sign of a dartford warbler. I then spotted a more interesting butterfly, although it was clear that i was actually too late for glanville fritillaries the sight of a brown butterfly clearly not a wall brown still made me a bit more excited, although once more it was a dark-green fritilary which is always nice.

-Dark Green Fritillary
I came round the reserve a few more times, before I finally had a break through, I heard a funny noise and saw a bird skulk away into a gorse bush, I had to wait a while but eventually it came out and began to move, proving that it was Dartford warbler. I was pretty pleased at finally seeing one, now the task of getting a photo-this was the tricky bit!! As it moved silently through the brambles I tried to follow its every move, but sadly it managed to evade me on all fronts as it skulked away. eventually it moved so far away i would have to try and get closer.

It was probably the cries of pain that scared it away as the brambles got the better of me, but once i made it to a reasonable view of where it had been I was not surprised to find that I had lost it. still a great record, but a rubbish view! now to explain the photos...

-Dartford Warbler tail ^ Between the white bramble flowers

-Dartford warbler ^ Primaires and Rump, above out of focus leaves

-Full view of dartford warbler ^on lower gorse white branch

-Dunno about this one-check the same as last time

Spent the rest of the morning watching a very hyperactive moth that refused to land at the far end of the reserve. My mum and dad said they would pick me up in 10mins so I headed towards the entrance.

At the entrance i spotted one of the spiders in the mouth of its funnel web, so i was able to get a few shots of its behind, although I have no idea what they are...

-Some Kind of funnel web spider

My family picked me up and we had lunch at yarmouth, where I would get a bus to newtown estuary, the only main nature reserve on the island, where apparently there were white letter hairstreaks and silver washed fritillaries.

I knew that getting there would be tight as i didn't really know where it was, and the walk to it could be of some distance. But it all went wrong. The bus stop I wanted was near a small village, so I was looking for a clump of houses, but actually the village was off the main road so I would know when I passed it. I realised when I got to carisbrook near the capital that I was seriously lost. and bus tickets were no longer free to add to my problems. I got off in carisbrook and had a look at the bus times heading in the opposite direction, Great I had just missed one, to kill time I decided to walk to the next stop, and surprise surprise the bus I had "just missed" drove past me half way between two stops, 7 minuets late.

After half an hour of waiting a bus turned up that was convenient for me and this time I knew where I was going because i had been bothered to get the map out. About an hour and a half later I turned up at newtown estuary, much later than I wanted. If there were any butterflies I'm sure they must have gone to bed.

As soon as I entered the reserve I saw some birds, which overall has been something amiss this holiday-these were redshanks and oystercatchers. as well as a curlew. I walked into the small town of newtown and as i did so scouted the wild flower rich meadows for a rare butterfly or two. I spotted a marbled white resting and gathered that my hunch had been right and that the butterflies would probably be asleep.

-Marbled white
I made it all the way through the town and onto the saltmarsh part of the reserve. In doing so I passed more fields where there was activity from the usual butterflies that have been seen all across the holiday. On the saltmarsh there were reasonable numbers of distant little egret's fishing but sadly the hide was locked so I did most of my watching from the boardwalk to the boat house.

-Little Egret

On the far side of the boardwalk I spotted a small passerine which turned out to be a linnet

-Linnet
From this vantage point you can easily see the common and sandwhich tern colony, which is the most advertised fact about this place, through my bins i could see a lot of activity but sadly they were too far away for a real photo.

Nearer where a flock of canada geese on the estuary mud, and even closer too was a flock of black-headed gulls, but disappointingly there were no med gulls in tow with that flock. This site has the second highest med gull count anywhere on the island. only bembridge harbour has more, where we saw them last time, only there are rather a lot more-220 there and about 20 here, so my chances were slim.

A flyover curlew gave me an opportunity to record in photo this species at the site.

-Curlew
I returned to the meadow and began to look for butterflies in the hope of finding what I had been looking for, I did find a lone marbled white that was still out and about.

-Marbled White
Other butterflies were about including small heath, the first time i had seen one during the holiday.

-Small Heath

As I walked back, I passed a plant that appeared to have a robin's pin cushion on it, I think that's what it is anyway, but either way it is a pretty spectacular growth.

-Robins pin cushion
I reached the entrance where I was getting picked up from and there i waited. As I waited i scoured the tall grass for resting butterflies or dragonflies and was delighted to find a sleeping common blue and also a sleeping small heath.

-Common Blue

-Small Heath

the light was pretty poor when my mum and dad picked me up, but despite the set back on the buses i had seen plenty of birds, although there was alack of med gulls.

this was my last outing on the Isle of wight and it had been a good one, just like the holiday had been a good one, and I had seen lots of really nice things, its just a pity it had to end.

isle of wight Day 4-glorious sunshine and insect bonanza

Today was very warm indeed. We decided that we would go to the western side of the island to a part of the island known as shippards chine where my mum and dad and brother could go swimming and such. I went with them because the warmth and the cliffs over there meant that there might be glanville frittillarys, found only on this island in the whole of the UK. As soon as we landed I set off along the cliffs to try and see if there were any about. The first butterfly I found was a skipper. Before yesterday I would class every skipper as either large or small, but since the essex skipper seemed to be a reasonable i.d bet I was unsure as to weather I should put a species to this one. I Think that it is a small skipper, but i have no confidence in my ability to i.d what is a significant amount of black on the underside of the antenna, although there doesn't appear to be much here, so I'm going small skipper with this one. -small skipper There were a great deal of butterflies-common blue, large white, meadow brown, gatekeeper and small copper. Then I found one that made my heart skip a beat, but when it landed it turned out to be so close but yet so far. The butterfly in question was a dark-Green fritillary, which is always really nice to see, but can be infuriating when your looking for a different type of fritillary and they all look the same!

-Dark green fritillary

My dad text me telling me to head back to the car, as we hadn't actually cleared up what we were doing for that day. When I turned around I spotted this scoona ship near the needles which seemed to be screaming out for a photo.

-Scoona near the needles

I had only walked about 300m away from the car due to the number of distractions that there were. It didn't take long for me to walk back to the car. My dad said that they were going off in their canoes, I said that I would walk south along the cliffs to see if i could find any glanville fritillarys.

My Mum showed me a dragonfly that they had found in the middle of the car park, badly injured, probably hit by a car. It was a southern hawker but it was in a bad way, so we put it under in the car to see if it would recover and fly away.

I decided to go for a look on the other side of the road to see if there was the water body that the dragonfly could have come from. I had a look But there were only fields, so I decided to walk south along the cliffs as was my original intention.

-wounded southern hawker

I walked south along the cliff path encountering a small stream, but not substantial enough for a dragonfly. There was little to add to the species list for the walk until I reached a stream that was well covered in plants, and it was there that I found my first new species for the day. If I hadn't looked closely I would had discarded it as a dull moth of X-description, but as it happened it landed right in front of me, allowing me to see that it was actually a dingy skipper, a skipper that i can easily identify

-Dingy Skipper

The butterfly didn't stay around for very long, so I didn't get many photos,m but I got a few, enough to prove that I was still on track for a new species of butterfly every day.

The small river was called Brook Chine. I had a close look at it and flushed a dragonfly, which was my first tickable for the holiday! It moved slowly enough for me to say that it was a golden-ringed dragonfly, a species I had only ever seen in Scotland before, but still spectacular, Britain's second biggest dragonfly.

I was walking up river tracking the dragonfly hoping for a photo when I flushed a demoiselle, The fact that its wings were black when it took off told me enough, that I had my first odonata tick of the holiday-a beautiful demoiselle, annoyingly it was headed downstream so i had to double back on myself to catch up with it.

It landed for a few minuets so i could get some record shots, but sadly it moved off and I lost it, as there was no path up the river and the various brambles and nettles made moving up and down the river slightly difficult.

-beautiful demoiselle

After I lost it i headed back up stream to try and track down the golden-ringed dragonfly. I was pleasantly surprise to find that there was not only one on the river but that there was two, each holding a territory and fighting regularly, but also landing regularly, which allowed me to get some photos of these much loved classic dragonflies.

-golden ringed dragonfly

they were great to see and spent about half an hour watching them. It was only when I tore my attention away that I spotted another dingy skipper on the other side of the river. I decided not to jump over but to go the whole way around to try and avoid disturbing it, as it seemed pretty well settled.

On the other side of the river, but not near the riverside, the road above i spotted the first bird of the day, although I was unsure of its true I.d until I got close enough to get a photo which proved it was a kestrel, as I thought it would be, over a peregrine.

-Kestrel

climbing down the bank to the river I found the dingy skipper in the place where I had left it and so was able to get down to take a few more photos, although once more it was too flighty and so I was only able to get a few, although they were better than last time.

-Dingy skipper

I jumped over back to the original side of the river and as i did so I spotted the demosielle again, which I was quite pleased about. I approached it slowly and managed to get into position to photograph without disturbing it.

It was a surprise to see one here, as it was not a species that I had run up on the records as their records seemed too scattered to be bothered with. But even so, the fast flowing coastal stream seemed to suit this delicate animal for some strange reason.

There is little more to say so just enjoy the photos I took...

-beautiful demoiselle

After that second encounter with the demoiselle, I decided that it was probably an idea to head back, as it was approaching lunch time, but as i popped up into the car park at Brook (not the one we were parked in) I heard a noise much closer than it had been all day. The song was off a male yellowhammer, the "Little bit of bread but no cheese" that actually sounds absolutely nothing like that.

I had a quick scout around, but couldn't spot him. He sounded close so I decided to pursue him to see if i could track it down, and I did, but in the most obvious place possible, on top of the sign. I tried to get as close as i could, using his singing as an indication as to how well settled he was. I actually managed to get quite close to him, and therefore managed to get the shots of male yellowhammer that I had been wanting for some time.

-Male yellowhammer I made it back to the car and then spent the rest of the day in the sea. After that we went up to freshwater to see what was about, but everywhere was shut and the only thing of interest was a fulmars nest in the wall.

-Fulmar

So it was a good day overall, the only bad part being the damaged dragonfly, which sadly died after a few hours. The fact that I saw some live dragonflies made me feel better though, and they were also the first dragonflies I had seen all holiday!