Another fine sunny day albeit a little windy and a visit to the meadows across the road. Sadly no birds of note, other than a small party of House Martin's over Wakeham Wood and the pair of Stock Doves on the track again.
Lots of butterflies about with at least 10 Painted Lady's, a dozen or so Meadow Browns, 5 Gatekeepers, 5 Large Whites, 6 Common Blues, 3 Chalk Hill Blues and 2 Speckled Woods.
A few moths about as well with a Carnation Tortrix and several Yellow-spot Tortrix. The latter a new moth for my Portland List.
It wasn't just the butterflies and moths out in force, but several hoverfly species, with Dead Head Fly, Common Dronefly, Tapered Dronefly, The Footballer (Helophilus pendulus) and Syrphus sp. I also had a new hoverfly for my Portland List an European Drone Fly (Eristalis arbustorum)
A lone Pimpla rufipes Ichneumon Wasp was making its way through a Bramble Bush. well at least I think it is a P. rufipes.
Here are a few images from this morning:
A male Common Blue
And a female Chalk Hill Blue.........
..............With wings open.
One of the many Painted Lady's I came across this morning.
Not too many Gatekeepers about. Just a few seen this morning.
Carnation Tortrix moth
Pimpla rufipes, Ichneumon Wasp
Dead Head Fly
A Syrphus Hoverfly. Either S. ribesii or S. vitripennis
Birds Recorded: Herring Gull, 2 Stock Dove, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, 5 House Martin, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Carrion Crow, House Sparrow and Goldfinch.
Butterflies Recorded: Large White, Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Painted Lady and Common Blue
Moths Recorded: 1 Carnation Tortrix (Cacoecimorpha pronubana) and 7 Yellow-spot Tortrix (Pseudargyrotoza conwagana)
Bees Recorded: Honey Bees (Apis mellifera), Common Carder (Bombus pascuorum) and Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)
Wasps Recorded: Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris)
Ichneumon Wasps Recorded: 1 Pimpla rufipes
Hoverflies Recorded: Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus), Dead Head Fly (Myathropa florea), Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax), Tapered Drone Fly (Eristalis pertinax), The Footballer (Helophilus pendulus), an European Drone Fly (Eristalis arbustorum) and a Syrphus sp.
Slugs and Snails Recorded: White-lipped Banded Snail (Cepaea hortensis) and a Garden Snail (Cornu aspersa)
Grasshoppers and Crickets Recorded: Meadow Grasshopper (Chorthippus parallelus) and Common Field Grasshopper (Chorthippus brunneus)