A change of direction for my walk today, only because I wanted to see if I could photograph the Passenger Ship Arcadia coming into Weymouth from Dover. Perhaps I shouldn't have bothered as it was very hazy out to sea, as you will see from my "Ships Today" at the bottom of the page.
Anyway back to the walk and I came across the following warblers at these locations:
Mermaid Track: 2 Blackcaps and 1 Garden Warbler
Penn's Weare: 1 Common Whitethroat and 1 Lesser Whitethroat
Church Ope Cove: 1 Lesser Whitethroat
Penn Wood: 1 Blackcap
Lots of "white" butterflies mainly Large Whites, and both male and female Orange-tips. Just one Red Admiral seen. And the Green-longhorn Moths seemed to be everywhere today!!
A new bee for the year and a good one to find on Portland, a Brown-banded Carder Bee on the south facing slopes at the cove. I was little disappointed though, because as I was walking along the track I inadvertently disturbed it. My reaction was to point the camera and shoot, more in hope than judgement as you will see below. At least I know where to look next time.
And a new fly for me with several dancing around the nettles and shrubs at the top of Penns Wood. And what a stunning little fly it was with flashes of blue coming of their wings. Sadly my photos of them don't do them justice. Turns out they are members of the Robber Flies and these are Empis nigritarsis. More on this fly Here.
Here are a few images, a video and a video soundtrack from today:
On my walk I came across a Lesser Whitethroat in Penn's Weare.......
..........but I wasn't expecting to see another one on the south facing slopes at the cove.
And I even managed a short video of it singing.
Sadly we can't see it, but this is a male Blackcap singing in Penns Wood.
Two Wall Lizards in the grounds of the church.
A close-up of the one on the left. Unfortunately I got a bit to close and it scarpered........
........only to dive down this hole and the turn around to look at me.
The other lizard was a bit more sedate and allowed me to get right up close.
It was another good day for Green-longhorn Moths. They were everywhere.
You can see how they got their name "Longhorn". Those antennae are almost twice the length of the moth itself.
And this one a..............
Grey-patched Mining Bee. Or is it the other way round. I will check.
Here is the slope where the Lesser Whitethroat and Brown-banded Carder Bee were today
And there were also good numbers of this hoverfly, Epistrophe eligans
And a new fly to add to my Portland List.
This is an Empis nigritarsis and is a species of Robber Fly.
I cant find any mention of blue in the wing, but there are definitely flashing.
Just the one Bloody-nosed Beetle seen today.
Eyebright, Euphrasia officinalis
Looks like Ted has had enough, but on the contrary he's just warming up.
Birds Recorded: Herring Gull, Wood Pigeon, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Common Whitethroat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Chaffinch and Goldfinch
Reptiles Recorded: Wall Lizard
Butterflies Recorded: Large White, Small White, Orange-tip, Red Admiral
Moths Recorded: Green-longhorn Moth (Adela reaumurella)
Bees Recorded: Honey Bees (Apis mellifera), Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), Brown-banded Carder Bee (Bombus humilis), Early Mining Bee (Andrena haemorrhoa), Grey-patched Mining Bee (Andrena nitida) and nomad bees sp.
Hoverflies Recorded: Dead Head Hoverfly (Myathropa florea), Epistrophe eligans, Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare) and Syrphus sps.
Flies, Craneflies, Gnats and Midges Recorded: Muscid Fly sp. and several Robber Flies (Empis nigritarsis )
Bugs and Beetles Recorded: Common Green Shieldbug (Palomena prasina) and Bloody-nosed Beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa)
Spiders Recorded: Common Fox-spider (Alopecosa pulverulenta)
Ships Today
Enhanced
Greyscale
Enhanced
And Greyscale
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On this day..........