During the wettest July for many years we enjoyed two days of perfect weather (well, one and a half anyway!)
Cheyne Point, Southwell, 1200 A totally different day here with warm sunshine making us wish wed left our coats in the bus. Our main target was Wall Lizard, which we soon achieved with sightings of a fine male along with several smaller females. The breeding Peregrines were out looking for food as were there two well-grown female young. We also found our first Lulworth Skippers of the day here and the very rare Portland Rock Sea Lavender (see below). Not so rare but nearly as pretty was the Blue Fleabane (see below) growing perilously close to the cliff edge. Back at the bus we found an astonishing trio of bush-crickets in the verge a beautiful little Short-winged Conehead along with Great Green and Speckled Bush Crickets. |
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Portland Rock Sea Lavender |
Blue Fleabane |
Mediterranean Gull |
Bithynian Vetch |
Sea Holly |
Little Robin |
Sunday July 23rd Weather: sunny intervals with a cold northerly breeze in the morning , warm sunshine most of the afternoon Tout Quarry, 0700 This quarry and sculpture park gave us our first Grayling of the weekend as well as lots more Chalkhill Blues and Marbled Whites. Admiralty Quarry, 0930 A plethora of outstanding sightings here including the only Silver-studded Blue of the weekend. A very pale Clouded Yellow (see right) turned out not to be a rarity after all. The photo shows the extent of the black border around the upperwing and the bright yellow colouration. Reptiles were a feature here with Slow-worm and Adder seen - although only one of them was picked up! The plant specialities here included Balm-leaved Figwort at one of its most easterly sites in the UK. One of the very few Buzzards on Portland put in a fine display diving into the trees just in front of us. |
Clouded Yellow (photo by Jeremy Aldred) |
Reaching Culpeppers Dish (part of Bovington Heath) we walked out on to the heath and overlooked Rimsmoor Pond with its fine display of Bog Asphodels and Round-leaved Sundews. A huge Emperor dragonfly was cruising over the pond with a far smaller Common Blue Damselfly much closer on the heather just at our feet. This last species proved tricky to identify at first with several much rarer species present in the area, but examination of photos revealed the large round spot on segment 2 which clinches the identification. Amongst all sorts of interesting plants and animals seen over the next hour or so were this Sand Lizard (see right) which for some reason was perched on the top of a gorse bush. |