Alners Gorse & Butterflies

Sunday 9th August
Today or rather this morning our group met at Alners Gorse, this has to be one of the best Butterfly Conservation Reserves in Dorset or possible the South of England. Our targets were Hairstreaks but we were out to see as many butterfly species this reserve had to offer.

So we headed off in the warmth of the sun with high expectation cameras poised for what we hoped to see.  Shortly after walking through the gate we started with Green-veined, Small and Large White, Meadow Brown and many Gatekeepers.  We were also distracted by a dragonfly which very obligingly landed and proved to be a Southern Hawker.

male Southern Hawker Aeshna cyanea - © Nick Hull

It was further into the reserve when Jess with her eagle eyes spotted a small butterfly high up on top of a leaf.  It took a little direction from Jess before all of us were onto this butterfly, but as you can see in the below photograph from the view we had it was only just possible to id it as a Brown Hairstreak.  

male Brown Hairstreak © Nick Hull

Continuing on and keeping a keen eye on the tree tops three or four other small butterflies were seen high in an oak.  It was Tim who found one perched on a small branch just over halfway up in the canopy.  After some direction I managed to get on to it, it was our second species of hairstreak this time a Purple.

Purple Hairstreak - © Nick Hull

I think I was lucky to get as good a shot as I did, though not the best view, it was our second species of hairstreak, one more to go. We were only just saying it would be nice to get better views perhaps even a closer one.  When Jess announced "I've a Brown Hairstreak on the bramble here".

female Brown Hairstreak - © Nick Hull

Sure enough there was one and the cameras were clicking away. We eventually moved on and and we saw our second dragonfly this time a Common Darter.  We continued adding butterflies and even a few moths were found such as a Brimstone moth, Vapourer, Treble-bar and Silver Y. Other butterflies of note were Silver-washed Fritillary, Small Copper, Brown Argus, Painted Lady and Clouded Yellow.  

Clouded Yellow - © Nick Hull

In all we recorded eighteen species, but I think if the sun had held out longer it would have been possible to have recorded another four species as we didn't see White-letter Hairstreak, Peacock, Red Admiral or Small Tortoiseshell.

We also recorded another of the larger dragonflies a Migrant Hawker which at the time I called Common Hawker Aeshna juncea.  It just goes to show you should take better notice sometime and not get distracted taking photographs. As it wasn't until writing this blog that I noticed my mistake, so apologies to all who was there for my error, corrected now.

male Migrant Hawker Aeshna mixta © Nick Hull