23 May 20

Wakeham Wood, Perryfields , Penns Wood, St Andrew's Church Grounds, Church Ope Cove, Penn's Weare, Penn's Copse, Rufus Castle, Portland Museum, Mermaid Track, Bumpers Lane, Shepherd's Dinner, Broadcroft Quarry Pools and Lower Horse Paddock

What a windy but also a very warm day. Unfortunately the wind wasn't strong enough to put people off from visiting the island, and though its lovely to see people out enjoying themselves, some of them were just plain ignorant of the 2 metre rule.

In fact it was so bad, that I tried a couple of times to get from Rufus Castle along a narrow track to The Cuttings, but in the end I gave up, as people were just walking straight at me, forcing me to walk back to the Castle to avoid them. In the end I had to take a detour from the Castle, via Portland Museum to continue my walk. Whinge over for the today.

Anyway, the main highlight today was watching 20+ Swallows and 2 Swifts catching flies in the Lower Horse Paddocks. It was that windy, they were feeding just a feet off the ground.

The non highlight was seeing a large moth-like bird flying into the adjacent horse field a hundred metres or so away. A Hoopoe possibly, I was quick to take a few photos of it, before it disappeared out of sight. Sadly not, it was just a Magpie, but it got the old heart pumping.

Here are my sightings, images and videos from today:

This is one side of the Old Quarry Lane from Wakeham to Bottom Combe Quarry and beyond. In fact these are the only surviving bushes and trees along here, as "Wakeham Wood" as I called it, has been chopped down and bushes removed for a house. At least this side there was plenty to see including this.........

............female Common Blue butterfly.

She was very flighty and in fact was continually chasing.......

.........this Dingy Skipper.

From the Old Quarry Lane it was up onto Perryfields Quarry Butterfly Reserve and very briefly the Common Whitethroat burst into song behind me, before falling silent again.

On the reserve the umbellifers are still alive with insects including this odd looking fly. Whilst....

.........on the ground a Bloody-nosed Beetle was trundling along the track.

On the way down to Church Ope Car park I came across this Swollen-thighed Beetle on a Dog-rose.

And what use to be a locked-down car park, has now reopened with around 23 cars parked up.

Across the road from the car park, I took this path which eventually leads you down to Church Ope Cove via Penns Wood and the grounds of St Andrew's Church. Along the track were........

.........three Vagrant Hoverflies hoverflies and..........

.........this really small fly. Or is it !! I originally thought was, but I'm pretty sure now that it is one of the Cheilosiini hoverflies. As to which one I have no idea.

There wasn't much going on in Penns Wood and in fact the "resident" male Blackcap was silent for the first time in weeks. Hopefully feeding youngsters. The church grounds were fairly quiet as well and all I found was a...........

.......Common Blue and a couple of Epistrophe eligans Hoverflies.

The wind was blowing a gale at the cove, and there was no sign of the Lesser Whitethroat or Blackcap there. In fact it seemed devoid of life as the wind kept everything at bay. So it was up the steps via Penn's Copse and to the dreaded path between Rufus Castle and The Cuttings, which as you know I ended up avoiding, despite walking up it for 20 metres. Hmm.

Having circumnavigated the coast path I ended up on Bumpers Lane and heading off towards Shepherd's Dinner. En route I came across another Swollen-thighed Beetle on yellow vetch plus......

..........this very small buttercup. The flower was about the right size of a Buttercup, but the plant itself was just a few inches tall.

This is the Quarry close to Shepherd's Dinner in March of this year.

Here it is today, 2 months on completely back filled with rocks and soil, apart from a small area at the top.

Sadly only these two Giant Viper's Bugloss survived with the others buried under tonnes of soil.

This is what it looked like in Sep 2017

And what it looked like if you stood at the other end looking back.

From the old quarry I made my way to the Broadcroft Pools where I came across.......

........these White Flag Iris, Iris albicans (Also known as the cemetery iris, white cemetery iris)

The last part of my walk was through the Lower Horse Paddocks where......

...........there were at 20 Swallows feeding low to the ground, plus 2 Swifts.

Ever tried to keeping up with Swallows flying. I gave up and just waited for them to come to me. Its a shame I don't have an editing suite to create Slow-mo videos.

Oh for a split second I thought I had a Hoopoe. Huge disappointment as it turned out to be a Magpie. Grrr

And last but not least Ted. Who actually enjoyed today's walk. It might have been warm, but that wind kept him cool.

Birds Recorded: 1 Fulmar, Buzzard, Kestrel, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, 2 Swift, 20+ Swallow, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, 1 Common Whitethroat, 1 Chiffchaff, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, 2 Raven, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Linnet and Goldfinch

Reptiles Recorded: Wall Lizard

Butterflies Recorded: Dingy Skipper, Large White, Speckled Wood, Red Admiral and Common Blue

Bees Recorded: Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) and Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

Wasps Recorded: Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris)

Hoverflies Recorded: Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus), Dead Head Hoverfly (Myathropa florea), Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax), Epistrophe eligans, 3 Vagrant Hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae) and a Cheilosiini sp.

Bugs and Beetles Recorded: 2 Bloody-nosed Beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa)

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On this day..........

2019
Today's Sightings Here.

2018
Today's Sightings Here.