A real mixture of sunshine & showers today and really windy as well.
Despite the wind there were quite a few butterflies about and a few moths as well.
In the cuttings there were a couple of Small Blues, a Dingy Skipper, a Red Admiral and 3 Meadow Browns.
In the meadow next to Wakeham Wood, there were 5 Meadow Browns and a Common Blue, plus a couple of moths a Hook-streak Grass-veneer and a Thistle Ermine.
Along the track as I made my way back to Wakeham there was another Common Blue, a Meadow Brown and a Regal Piercer (Pammene regiana) a new moth species for me on Portland.
Other things of interest were all found along the Wakeham Wood track and were a Brown-banded Carder Bee, a Mimic Bee Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans) and my second ever Hairy Shieldbug.
Here are a few images from today:
The embankment to the east of the Easton Railway Cutting
A Dingy Skipper
A female Small Blue
A Meadow Brown takes shelter as a short sharp shower comes down.
Still plenty of Brown-tail Moth caterpillars
Two Swollen-thighed Beetles
The meadow just north of Wakeham wood
A great habitat for insects.
A Thistle Ermine.
This is a Hook-streak Grass-veneer, Crambus lathoniellus which
As I entered the meadow at Wakeham Here, I came across this Glaucous Sedge, Carex flacca. Not one I've seen before
The track back to Wakeham and along here was this..........
.........Common Blue.......
...........Mimic Bee Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans)...........
...........the lone Bee Orchid and this............
...............very large yellow flowering plants, which is a..........
Birds Recorded: Herring Gull, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Dunnock, Blackbird, 1 Common Whitethroat, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch and Goldfinch.
Butterflies Recorded: 2 Small Blue, 2 Common Blue, 1 Dingy Skipper, 9 Meadow Brown and 1 Red Admiral.
Moths Recorded: Hook-streak Grass-veneer (Crambus lathoniellus), Regal Piercer (Pammene regiana) and a Thistle Ermine (Myelois circumvoluta)
Bees Recorded: Honey Bees, Common Carder and a Brown-banded Carder Bee
Hoverflies Recorded: 1 Common Drone Fly (Eristalis pertinax) and Mimic Bee Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans)
Bugs and Beetles Recorded: Lesser Thick-legged Flower Beetle (Ischnomera cyanea), Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis) and a Hairy Shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum)
Slugs and Snails Recorded: White-lipped Banded Snail (Cepaea hortensis)
Caterpillars Recorded: Brown-tail Moth