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| Male Common Redstart - New Forest © Nick Hull |
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| Female Common Redstart - New Forest © Nick Hull |
On our way back to the van we came across a feeding flock of recently fledged Firecrest and they were very vocal and moving in and around some holly in search for insects food. What struck me most was the juvenile birds likeness to young Blue Tits. It was a delight to hear and watch them as the searched every leaf for food and watch the adults feeding them as the moved through past us.
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| Recently fledged juvenile Firecrest New Forest © Nick Hull |
Our next available day was the 7th we had planned to go to Devon but the weather didn't seem to promising so I suggested Portland as we still needed a few sea birds for our list. When we arrived at the Obelisk and set the scope there was a a very large flock of mixed gulls feeding out over the 'Race' and lots of auks were moving backwards and forwards to the cliffs and then back out to sea for more food to feed their youngsters. It took a short while before we saw our first Manx Shearwater and a little longer to see the first Balearic.
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| Manx Shearwater © Nick Hull |
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| Balearic Shearwater © Nick Hull |
With the melee of gulls it was only time before a skua would be in but it was whether we had the time to spend waiting. Scanning continuously through the gull flock I suddenly picked up a small dark tern and scooping it was surprised to see it was a Black Tern in fact there were two. I managed to get Jackie on to it before they disappeared. A little after I saw a dark looking bird flying directly toward me head towards the gulls and it turned it was an obvious skua and scoping it was clearly an Arctic Skua a good addition to our year list. There were lots of Gannet, Kittiwake, fewer Fulmar and lots of Guillemot and lesser numbers of Razorbill made for a nice seawatch.
We left Portland and popped into Ferrybridge for the single reason that we hadn't seen Little Tern or Ringed Plover. The Little Tern was easy moving around over the nesting area and over the fleet. The Ringed Plover proved a little harder. Though I did manage to find one on the chesil bank in amongst the thrift (Sea Pinks).
On the 15th we were back in the Weymouth area visiting Lodmoor. We were hoping to catch sight of the Bittern but unfortunately we had missed its morning flight. But we saw the Marsh Harrier, a pair Spoonbill and Great White Egret and Jackie had a catchup with Bearded Tit which she had missed when we did the Poole Harbour Birdboat. We also had very good views of a Common Whitethroat which put on a very nice display and sang to us from the top of a Dog Rose.
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| Common Whitethroat - Lodmoor © Nick Hull |
On the 18th we visited friends that live at Martin, so we went early and had a walk on the down before we met up. We managed to hear a single Turtle Dove which added another species to our list, so our birding month finished with us on 179 species and we still have a few fairly common species which we are missing.
Lepidoptera
Our Butterfly sightings have only increased by two species both were first seen at Badbury Rings on the 16th Marbled White and Ringlet bringing us to 25 species so far.
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| Ringlet - Badbury Rings © Nick Hull |
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| Marbled White - Badbury Rings © Nick Hull |
As for the moths this month has been incredible I've caught 180 species two of which have been real rarities. The first was on the 19th was the rarest. First recorded in Dorset in 2001 and two in 2016 and the last in 2023 are the only ones listed on the Dorset Moths website. So it appears mine could be the 5th record for the county.
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| The Latin as I found it sitting on the carton - © Nick Hull |
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| The Latin © Nick Hull |
Phil Saunders, another moth enthusiast who also lives in Upton, contacted me and asked if I still had the Latin and I said yes so he came over to see it. He brought with him a Light Crimson Underwing which is a Nationally scarce Red Datebook species and also a migrant, which he had caught the same night. Which was really nice as it was a species I've never seen. The odd thing is that just ten days later I go to my trap and I see a large moth fluttering around inside, I covered the trap so it was dark inside and then took another look and it had settled somewhere inside. My thoughts was that it was a Light Crimson Underwing and I didn't want it to escape. I went through the top cartons and no sign then I saw a head poking around one of the cartons and I slowly placed a pot over it and it turned into a Pine Hawk-moth which was nice as I only ever get one or two a year. I continued slowly as I was sure what I saw was a LC Underwing. Two egg cartons later I turn over and there it was I quickly potted it and relaxed, one of my own. The surprise was two cartons later and there was a second.
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| Two Light Crimson Underwing © Nick Hull |
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| Light Crimson Underwing © Nick Hull |
I also have caught a few other moth of interest which I've only caught a few times over the years.
There are a few other micro's that I caught for the first time in the garden, they were relatively common species which I put the effort in to identify that I've probably caught before but hadn't been in such good condition to be able to get a identification without gen-detting.
Odonata
Well we had an early emergence of Large Red Damselflies from the garden pond and then very little of note until recently when we started to see visiting Keeled Skimmer in the front garden. Mostly immature individuals then one or two adult females and this last week we have had a nice blue powdered male visiting and second generation Large Red Damselfly have also been seen. The best was a Golden-ringed Dragonfly (Jackie's favourite) which flew in and perched on the hedge and took a rest for a while. |
| Male Keeled Skimmer © Nick Hull |
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| Female Keeled Skimmer © Nick Hull |
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| Golden-ringed Dragonfly © Nick Hull |
At this moment in time we are not doing so well on the Odonata front with only having recorded ten species but hopefully we will be able to extend that over the next couple of months.
Other Garden Wildlife
We've recorded a few other species in the garden which we usually see away out on the Lytchett Bay patch. The first is one of the Potter Wasp group which uses Marble Galls to place beetle larvae into and lay her eggs.
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| Symmophus bifasciatus © Nick Hull |
Another wasp species with a great name of Astata boops this is a small wasp that predates of Shieldbugs and we have often recorded it in the garden and they just seem to sit on the rockery stone and wait presumably for a shieldbug to come along and ambush it.
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| Astata boops © Nick Hull |
Another wasp which Jackie found in our porch was this very stunning Jewel or Ruby-tail wasp, again these are small wasp which parasises on burrow dwelling solitary bees, such as Red Mason Bee. The reason I've put it as Chrysis ignita group is there is around 40 species in the group and genital examination is required to separate them.
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| Chrysis ignita group_Jewel-Wasp © Nick Hull |
The following two wasps Jackie found in the conservatory the one on the left is a European Beewolf Philanthus triangulum and the one on the right is Cerceris arenaria. Both are digger wasps which means they dig burrows usually on compacted sandy soils which will have several cells which they populate with their prey. In the case of the Beewolf no surprise really they take honeybee and Cerceris arenaria populates hers with Weevils.
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| hilanthus triangulum - Beewolf & Cerceris arenaria |
Roll on July hopefully it will bring more new species or at least some of the local scarce species that are always possible to turn up adding to our years lists of wildlife.
