July Butterflies, Moths + Inverts

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Common Blue Damselfly or Common Bluet © Nick Hull

Banded Demioselle - Badbury Rings  Nick Hull

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.

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.

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.

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.

Painted Lady - Silverlake © Nick Hull

July is over what will August bring?

In search of Birds, Odonata, Lepidoptera & Orchids

June saw the weather improve and start to make thing seem more like it was summer at last.  What does seem concerning is the lack of insects generally, it seems the wet winter and spring has had a detrimental effect on the early emerging species.  Nonetheless Jackie and myself haven't done too badly connecting with this season's butterflies and dragonflies.

First we will start with the birds we managed 92 species in June and added 7 species to the year list though one of them doesn't officially count as it isn't accepted as a sustainable introduced population yet, but were still very nice to see, that being Great Bustard.

Our first visit was local on the 2nd out to Arne which turn out to be a pretty quiet day best was a view of an Osprey over Shipstal.

Osprey over Shipstal Beach © Nick Hull

Also carried out a reptile survey on the 3rd though it started cool then it turned very hot by the time we finished, we had a little luck with finding one or two Smooth Snake, Common Lizard and Sand Lizard. After this we spent time trying to find interesting inverts for the Spring Watch film crew.

Common Lizard - Arne © Nick Hull

Smooth Snake - Arne © Nick Hull (taken under license)

A walk with friends in Wareham Forest on the 4th we added a Common Crossbill which was chipping merrily as it flew over us. It was here that we found our first Bee Orchids of the year which are always nice to see.  

Bee Orchids - Wareham Forest © Nick Hull

Next day (5th) we headed up onto the northern chalk to Martin Down, again with friends, the morning was a little clouded and cool so not brilliant for butterflies.  We headed out and walking down to the Burnt-tip Orchids area we were seeing lots of Skylark, a few Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer and a handful of butterflies.  Small Blue was the first then Common Blue, Meadow Brown and Small Heath. We had passed the rifle butts and possibly halfway to the orchid location when Jackie said "there's a Marsh Fritillary" 

Marsh Fritillary - Martin Down © Nick Hull

This was a butterfly we missed last year so we was very pleased to have found one and it was only another hundred metres to the orchids.  Just a small stand and we were a bit late for the best show but one or two were still looking ok. We also saw Common Spotted and Fragrant Orchids.

Burnt Orchid - Martin Down © Nick Hull

On the return walk to the car park we added a few other butterflies such as Dingy and Large Skipper, Small and Common Blue, Meadow Brown and Small Heath.  We also had good views of a Corn Bunting singing his dangling keys song.

Corn Bunting - Martin Down © Nick Hull

Jackie and I stayed on having a picnic lunch and visited Kitts Grave area afterwards the sun came out and the warmth brought all the butterflies out.  We added Brown Argus, Green Hairstreak, Brimstone, Small Copper, Green-veined, Small and Large White and added a couple of day flying moths Mother Shipton and Five-spot Burnet.

On the 6th I was out again with Terry searching for wildlife locations for the tv camera crews as they thought they would do something on dragonflies and damselflies.  We found quite a few but they didn't make the cut like so much but it doesn't take away the fact we had a great day finding odonata and getting a few shots for ourselves.

Four-spotted-Chaser_L.q.praenubila - Arne © Nick Hull

Small Red Damselfly - Arne © Nick Hull

On the 10th we headed up on to Salisbury Plain along with a few friends who wanted to see the Great Bustards which have been reintroduced and seem to be doing very well.  We were informed that there were nine females on nests this year.  Whilst we were there we also saw Grey and Red-legged Partridge, Stone Curlew and several Red Kite.

Female Great Bustard © Nick Hull

Male Great Bustard © Nick Hull

After visiting the plain we headed over to Bentley Wood where we had lunch and a walk for butterflies.  Here we added our first Grizzled Skipper of the year and a varient of Five-spot Burnet (Z-trifolii-palustrella) which was an interesting find.  We ended our day here with a pair of Spotted Flycatcher and singing Firecrest in the car park.

Variant of Five-spot Burnet - Bentley Wood © Nick Hull

Grizzled Skipper -Bentley Wood © Nick Hull

On the 16th we did our Osprey watch and had a excellent display from a pair of Hobby feeding over the fields which I have to say was a little distracting from the job we were doing.

Hobby - Careys Secret Garden - © Nick Hull

On the 17th we were over to Durlston Country Park where we had a very nice walk but it was fairly quiet bird wise.  Even the butterflies were thin on the ground but we did add Lulworth Skipper to our year list, found some more Bee Orchids along with many Common Spotted Orchid and Pyramidal Orchid. I managed some nice shots of the Fulmar cruising along the cliffs at eye level.

Lulworth Skipper _ Durlston CP © Nick Hull

Pyramidal Orchid - Durlston CP © Nick Hull

Northern Fulmar - Durlston CP © Nick Hull

After getting home I was checking out the bee hotels which I found to be pretty well full and spotted a small bee on the post so quickly took a couple of shots and from these photos I was able to identify it as Hylaeus communis_(Common Yellow-face Bee) a new species for the garden.  Around ten minutes later I saw a wasp with a long ovipositor fly by me and land on the front of the bee hotel.  I took a series of shots and again checking the reference to confirm my thoughts it turn out to be Gasteruption jaculator a parasitic wasp species. Amazingly the ovipositor is more or less the length of its body. In fact it was a species that I've wanted to see for a very long time and to get it in the garden was perfect.

Common Yellow-face Bee - Home Garden ©Nick Hull

Gasteruption jaculator flying in to land on the bee hotel © Nick Hull

Gasteruption jaculator on Bee Hotel © Nick Hull

On the 18th Jackie had arranged for us to pickup friends to go and see the Roseate Tern pair that were nesting at Normandy Lagoon near Lymington.  So we decided on a little earlier start than usual to get there before there were to many people walking the coastal path.  We made good time and found a parking spot and headed out along the coastal path to where we could see three birders with scopes.  As we joined them and set up they kindly directed us to the location of the nest.  The sitting bird was somewhat concealed by vegetation but we patiently waited until we picked up a adult Roseate flying in across the lagoon towards the nest site and we watched a change-over at the nest and the sitting bird leave and fly out towards the Solent.  We stayed and watched another change over sometime later and this time the bird that was relieved flew around the lagoon and dropped into the water and had a bath giving good scope views.

Roseate Tern landing at the nest Normandy Lagoon © Nick Hull

Roseate Tern following a Common Tern out to the Solent © Nick Hull

Whilst we were there we noticed that every now and again the odd Little Tern would fly in and then leave again and I managed to get a few shots of one and caught it in a very odd position.

Little Tern aerobics Normandy Lagoon © Nick Hull

Little Tern - Normandy Lagoon © Nick Hull

I also managed to catch a few of the other species that were around the lagoon such as this Redshank who lived up to its name of warden of the marsh giving its alarm call not long after we arrived.

Common Redshank - Normandy Lagoon © Nick Hull

This pair of Avocet had a couple of growing chicks just out of view and deemed this Little Egret was getting to close and went into attack mode.

Pair Avocet chasing off Little Egret © Nick Hull

This next shot I quite like it was as the Avocet was coming back after seeing off the Little Egret calling as though it was pleased with the job he/she had done.

Avocet - Normandy Lagoon © Nick Hull

On the 26th and the 28th I was out doing some surveying for rare inverts Stag Beetles. We found none of the latter but came across some interesting species some being recordable, such as the Mottle Bee-fly. 

Mottled Bee-fly Purbeck Heathland © Nick Hull

Terry, who I do many of my surveys with, found this little pot which is the cell made by the Heath Potter Wasp which places a caterpillar inside and lays an egg and the developing larvae will eat the caterpillar and then unseal the pot and away to start the process again. This pot is still sealed so the wasp larvae hasn't left yet.

Heath Potter Wasp Pot Purbeck Heathland © Nick Hull

We also came across the very pink nymph grasshopper which we think will be a Field Grasshopper when grows up.

Pink nymph Field Grasshopper © Nick Hull

Debbie one of the other surveyors found this caterpillar I have to admit I didn't know what species it would be but Terry had seen one before and it turns out to be the caterpillar of the Red Sword-grass moth.

Red Sword-grass Caterpillar © Nick Hull

One of the last finds was this white crab flower spider Misumena vatia we were hoping to find the pink variant or even a white and pink striped but we had to make do with a very nice white individual on a foxglove. 

Misumena vatia - Crab Flower Spider © Nick Hull

This bring the summary of June nature watching to and end roll-on July..

Catching Up after the Holiday

After the the holiday I think Jackie and I suffered from holiday blues and we didn't manage to get out birding until the 6th when we went on our Osprey watch at Carey. It wasn't until the next day when we joined friends at Blashford that we started to add some species to our year list, having being away we needed to catchup and get the year list running again as we had dropped behind our annual target.

Our morning visit to Blashford added two species with Garden Warbler and Common Tern. This must be one of the best places to see Garden Warbler as they are everywhere and an excellent location to compare their song to Blackcap. It's even better when they sit out in the open and sing for you so you can get a shot of one.

Garden Warbler - Blasford Lakes HWT Reserve © Nick Hull

On the 8th we were out again this time around Morden Bog and had nice views of Woodlark and heard our first Cuckoo of the year.  On the 9th I did my heathland bird survey at Holton Heath and added Whimbrel.  It wasn't until the 12th when Jackie and I had a trip up around Dorset's northern chalk area of Wyke Down and Wimborne St. Giles that we added our first Swift, House Martin and Common Whitethroat for the year.  Though I have to say these species were far more common around the area twenty years ago.  We visited the area again on the 15th after visiting friends and added Grey Partridge and Sedge Warbler.  

Sedge Warbler - © Nick Hull

On the 19th Jackie and I had an overnight stay down on the Somerset Levels visiting Greylake and Ham Wall RSPB, Shapwick Heath and Westhay Moor NNR.  It was a shame that where we stay hadn't any extra nights available for us.  Though in the short time we had we were able to get Bittern, Yellow Wagtail, Pochard, Hobby and Cattle Egret on our year list.  Plus lots of odonata a few butterflies and our first Grass Snake of the year amongst all the other super wildlife found in the area.

We went to Greylake RSPB first we were hoping for a view of a Montagu's Harrier which had been visiting on and off for a week or two but unfortunately it didn't turn up for us. But we had some nice birds and I photographed a soldier fly which I had seen before and looking it up it was an Ornate Brigadier Odontomyia ornata. As flys go it was rather attractive looking.

Ornate Brigadier - Greylake _ © Nick Hull

We spent the morning at Greylake and went off to the Avalon Marsh cafe for lunch and then onto Ham Wall for the rest of the day.  The most obvious animal that could be seen was the large numbers of Four-spotted Chaser that were around. There must have been a large emergence over the last week or so, as they were everywhere.  

Four-spotted Chaser - Ham Wall © Nick Hull

We also had around four Bittern booming here and at least four Hobby speeding around hunting the over the reedbeds.  There were several sightings of Great White Egrets and Grey Heron moving back and forth from their nesting colony. It was also here that we caught up with Pochard which we had missed during the winter as fewer numbers now visit Dorset in the winter.

Summer plumaged Great White Egret © Nick Hull

The shot above of the Great White Egret shows it is in full summer plumage showing the black bill and the green lores and red blushed legs as it comes into land into the reedbed.

Next morning we decided to do Shapwick Heath first thing then decide at lunch what we would do before heading home in the afternoon.  Well Shapwick produced lots of odonata many of which we had already seen at Ham Wall.  One that was nice to catch up with was a damselfly which has become much easier to see over recent years the Variable Damselfly or Bluet which is the new name for them. Some authorities say they are a variant of Azure Blue but even though they look similar they have a few features that are different. The antehumerial stripes are broken and they often rest with the wings splayed as the one below shows. They also often show a blue bar between the two blue spots on top of the head which Azure do not.  This is a species that is doing well in the UK and certainly one to look out for in Dorset.

Variable Blue Damselfly © Shapwick Heath © Nick Hull

Another damselfly that we came across which is one I can't remember seeing in the UK before, well knowingly anyway, that was Large Red-eyed Damselfly (E.najas) though only saw two individuals this male and a female later, both looked very fresh so not long emerged.

Large Redeye or Red-eyed Damselfly _Shapwick Heath © Nick Hull

We met Terry at lunch at Ham Wall, Terry is my reptile survey colleague who was also down for the day trying to photograph the Four-spotted Chaser at roost.  He mentioned to us he had seen the Grass Snake at the bridge so we headed off to the bridge and Jackie found the Grass Snake basking on the vertical cage of a gabion which makes up part of the bridge foundation.

Grass Snake - Ham Wall - ©Nick Hull

The Grass Snake looked very comfortable resting on the face of the gabion, believe me the photograph doesn't show how vertical it was. (Terry later had three there).

Before going off to Westhay we grabbed some lunch back at the Avalon cafe.  As we approached the Westhay reserve I noticed a white bird in the field to our right, stopping and taking a quick look it turned out to be our first Cattle Egret of the year, later we had two others in flight.  We walked a different trail this time from previous visits and again here we had Bittern booming and good numbers of odonata which included two Scarce Chaser which we get at home but not so numerous so are very nice to see.

Scarce Chaser - Westhay Moor NNR © Nick Hull

We also had glimpses of Bearded Tit which were obviously feeding young on an island in front of the hide and good views of Reed Warbler.

Reed Warbler - Westhay Moor © Nick Hull

We ended the day taking a scenic route home.