Wildlife around Woolsbarrow Fort

Our Two Owls Birding group this morning had a walk to Woolsbarrow Fort, an ancient hill fort in Wareham Forest.  It was a very hot day so this was a fairly short walk and plenty of wildlife to keep our interest.  In the car park Goldcrest, Robin, Chiffchaff and Blackcap sang and we hadn't walked far when we had our first butterfly with a fresh Ringlet, followed by Meadow Brown.

Ringlet © Jackie Hull

Some of the group had gone ahead to an open area and were watching two Hobby flying around and quite close but all too soon they climbed higher and away, perhaps over to Morden Bog.  In the ditch alongside were several dragonflies, particularly Broad-bodied Chaser with a male defending his territory while a female was egg laying, though he wasn't there when another female came in and real "dust-up" started between them!  An Emperor dragonfly flew past also a Large Red damselfly and a blue I could not id quick enough before that male Chaser saw them off.

We started seeing Silver-studded Blues and many newly emerged Small Skippers also Small Heath  and a single Green Hairstreak found by Chris.  A Buzzard flew over and then Chris spied a bird sat on the pylon, though all we could see through the telescope was a back view with the head obscured.  As we manoeuvred to a different position it flew off and very quickly out of sight.  Then a Stonechat popped up and we could hear Dartford Warbler but we never had a proper view of it.

A Green Woodpecker "yaffled" and then we a Raven "crooked", we found him on top of a pylon calling to another bird which flew over our heads also calling.   Along both sides of this ride we found several Bee Orchids, all very tall specimens looking most impressive.  As we approached the slope up to the hill fort we had a couple of day flying moths with a Brown Silver-line and a Silver Y.  However the latter was impaled on a gorse thorn, with a bit of effort we eventually freed it and it did fly away so hopefully no lasting damage done.  Around the hill fort were Linnets, the males looking quite splendid.  The view from the top was a little obscured by the heat haze but with a nice cooling breeze it was worth the walk up.

Bee Orchid © Jackie Hull

As we came down we heard the first Yellowhammers and one gave us great views as he sang on top of a small pine and a late Cuckoo called.   I didn't expect to see Small Blue butterflies today but was pleased to see a female and Chris had been watching a mating pair.  We finished in the car park with our first Gatekeeper butterfly of the year.