July is always a slow month for birds though towards the end of the month the autumn migration starts with non-breeding birds beginning to turn-up in and around the harbour. Green and Common Sandpiper, Greenshank, Whimbrel, Black-tailed Godwit and Curlew numbers start to increase abate slowly.
It's this time of year Jackie and I tend to try and catchup on the Butterfly and Dragonfly species and when the weather is good I'm out surveying the Purbeck National Nature Reserve invertebrates.
Bird wise it wasn't until the 16th July we visited Arne Where we saw a Whimbrel in the morning and returned in the evening so Jackie could catch-up with Nightjar. Then it wasn't until the 28th July, while we were doing our Osprey Watch, I managed to see a brief view of a Spotted Flycatcher which just creeps in on the 10km list. Otherwise it was a quiet month on the bird front for us seeing only 79 species.
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| Panoramic view from the Middlebere Lookout at RSPB Arne |
We also had our first Cinnabar caterpillars of the year as always on the Ragwort along the path to the outlook.
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| Cinnabar caterpillar on Ragwort - Arne © Nick Hull |
On the 17th Jackie wanted to catchup on a few butterfly species not yet seen particularly Silver-washed Fritillary and she had remembered that we once had them in Wareham Forest. As it turned out to be a hot day it proved to be a good choice as there was plenty of shade making our walk comfortable. We had hardly started and we started seeing Ringlet and Gatekeeper along the forest ride.
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| Ringlet with wings open - Wareham Forest © Nick Hull |
We also came acros a couple of Long-horn Beetle feeding on the bramble and Fleabane which hopefully I've identified correctly. The yellow and black one being Rutpela maculata and the Brown and Black one being Stenurella melanura.
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| Rutpela maculata on Bramble & Stenurella melanura on Fleebane © Nick Hull |
Later in the walk we came across a handful of Silver-studded Blue mainly in the areas of bell heather which edged areas of the forest track.
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| Silver-studded Blue © Nick Hull |
We walked just over a mile and and had no luck with seeing a fritillary. It wasn't until we were almost back to the van when Jackie found one on the Bramble but it flew into the wood and disappeared. Then I found a Speckled Wood and then a Silver-washed Fritillary flew in and landed nearby enabling me to take a couple of very quick shots. In fact the best shot of the fritillary had a parasitic wasp which photo-bombed.
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| Phot-bombing parasitic Wasp and Silver-washed Fritillary © Nick Hull |
We recorded 12 species of butterfly in a total of a mile and a half walk, Gatekeeper and Ringlet produced the larger counts but it was a very enjoyable couple of hours in an area we hadn't walked in a long time.
After lunch we had a short walk on Hartland Moor as Jackie wanted Grayling to add to her list. We walked perhaps 200m and we managed to find her a Grayling and I found some Purbeck Mason Wasp burrows in an area not recorded before so a real plus.
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| Female Purbeck Mason Wasp © Nick Hull |
A friend Terry and myself have been trying to see a few clearwings, day flying moths which are mainly found by attracted them with the use of synthetic pheromone. As they are very difficult to see or come across because they keep themselves at the tops of trees. As another friend has been successful from his garden which is around 800m in a direct line from mine I thought I'd give it ago. So on the 18th the weather was hot and fine so I started with Sallow Clearwing lure as we have Sallow nearby no luck. Then I tried Current Clearwing no luck. I then went for Lunar Hornet Moth, set it up and went to get a coffee I came back to drink it whilst watching the lure. I had only just sat down and took a mouthful and saw what I thought was a European Hornet around the Hemp Agronomy and then it headed straight to the lure and there it was a Lunar Hornet Moth an absolute stunner. The first I'd seen or lured to the garden.
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| Lunar Hornet Moth - home garden © Nick Hull |
Lunar Hornet Moth are on the wing from Mid June to early August. Adult are rarely seen but rest freshly emerged on Willow. The caterpillars feed Willow, Sallow and possibly Poplar particular those in damp areas.
We had a visit to Badbury Rings on the 24th hoping to seen a few butterflies that we had seen so far this year. It turned out a little cool and overcast and very little was on the wing. Though to say we saw nothing would be lie. We had a few Common Blue Damselflies and we came across a very smart male Banded Demioselle and there were hundreds of Burnet on the wing. Jackie found saw a Painted Lady missed by me as I was trying out a pheromone for clearwing moth without luck a freshly emerged Six-spot Burnet which had just pumped up it's wings.
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| Common Blue Damselfly or Common Bluet © Nick Hull |
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| Banded Demioselle - Badbury Rings Nick Hull |
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| Freshly emerged Six-spot Burnet - Badbury Rings © Nick Hull |
The next location that produced was on the 26th July we had the grandchildren and spent the morning working in the garden, after lunch we headed out to Silverlake to try and find Scarlet Darter or some call it Broad Scarlet they are a stunning dragonfly. After arriving we walked around a small lake where we had been told they could be seen. There were two guys already watching one and I quickly joined them and fired off a few shots which I'm glad I did as soon after it flew off hunting over the edges of the lake. We continued around the lake and I had a speedy hawker dragonfly go past me showing a very pale blue band around the front of the abdomen though the view was brief I was sure it was a Lesser Emperor Dragonfly. The shot below was taken in France a few years ago whilst on holiday just to show you how they look.
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| Lesser Emperor Dragonfly - France © Nick Hull |
This was our target dragonfly we have seen many in Normandy France but they are a real rarity here in the UK. Though with the changing climate I think we will see them breeding here soon.
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| Scarlet Darter or Broad Scarlet - Silverlake © Nick Hull |
Since writing the above text I've had news that there has been females (2) found along with the males (5) and they have been seen in cop and laying so hopefully this will be the start a new breeding species for the UK.
Whilst we were there we had another find which was a new beetle species for us, a small green and black beetle on the Fleabane called Cassida murraea commonly called Fleabane Tortiose Beetle.
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| Cassida murraea - Fleabane Tortiose Beetle © Nick Hull |
We ended our time here as we walked back toward the car park I picked up my first Painted Lady of the year catching up with Jackie as she had one on our visit to Badbury Rings on the 24th.
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| Painted Lady - Silverlake © Nick Hull |
July is over what will August bring?
