The usual walk behind the Cottage, down to Rufus Castle, St Andrews Church, Pennsylvania Castle and back home.
One thing was noticeable today and that was the low numbers of Marbled Whites, 2 was all I could find. In fact numbers of all butterfly species were down on previous days, with just a handful of Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Gatekeepers and "Blue" butterflies. The only increase were the numbers of Red Admirals with 5 recorded and I just managed to catch a glimpse of a Small Heath and a Small Skipper.
Plenty of Six-spot Burnet moths about and I also came across a Silver Y.
Birds recorded today included 3 Chiffchaffs, a Willow Warbler my first here and a solitary Swift.
Before (21 Jul Here) and............
............after.
Today the big Horse Chestnut was felled.
A Small Skipper
A Chalkhill Blue, upper wings.......
........and underwing
A different "Blue" species I think.
A couple of Six-spot Burnet Moths...........
........and four more. Well at least I think there are 4 here.
I've never seen so many Marmalade hoverflies as I have here on the Island, they are very numerous.
A Willow Warbler disappears into the buddleia.
A fishing trawler makes its way back to Weymouth........
.......followed closely by a charter fishing boat and gulls.
Wakeham
A beautiful start to the day, lots of Marmalade hoverflies have found their way into the conservatory as did a Common Wasp and a female Speckled Bush-cricket.
A beautiful start to the day, lots of Marmalade hoverflies have found their way into the conservatory as did a Common Wasp and a female Speckled Bush-cricket.