15 Jul 20

Old Quarry Lane, Wakeham Meadow, Perryfield Quarry Butterfly Reserve, Penns Wood, St Andrew's Church Grounds, Church Ope Cove, Penn's Weare, Penn's Copse, Rufus Castle, The Cuttings Quarry and Mermaid Track

A dull cloudy day, but very humid and at times you did wonder whether the heavens were going to open up.

Main highlight was a Blackcap calling in Penns Wood.

Here are a few images and a video from today:

A very quiet Wakeham Meadow, with just a few Meadow Browns, Ringlets and this....

...........Gatekeeper. Not a single Marbled White seen.

There were a few moths like this Garden Grass-veneer and..........

.........the chrysalis of the Six-spot Burnet Moth is still intact under the umbellifer

I haven't seen too many Hornet Mimic Hoverflies this year and the ones I have seen have been mainly Lesser Hornet Hoverflies (Volucella inanis) and not its larger cousin Volucella zonaria. At this time of year I would  have expected to have seen more of the latter.

Perryfield Quarry Butterfly Reserve. No butterflies here but quite a few..................

....................Red-tailed Bumblebees like this male and also........

................White-tailed Bumblebees.

A very dense looking Penns Wood, where the only sounds I could hear were juvenile Long-tailed Tits and a Blackcap calling.

Next stop then was the grounds of St Andrew's Church, where yet again, there was very little of note.

The cove from Penn's Weare and as I made my way around to Penn's Copse I found.......

...........this Carnation Tortrix moth and a.............

.........a Syrphus Hoverfly. There are very similar species so Syrphus sp. it will have to be.

Next stop was The Cuttings Quarry and my first sighting of a Marbled White today.

In fact there were at least 5, including this female.

Also in the quarry was this male.......

.........Chalkhill Blue

My last leg of my walk was down the Mermaid Track and another........

.........Chalkhill Blue was spotted.

Here are the underwings

And of course Ted.

Birds Recorded: Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Swallow, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, 1 Blackcap, Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Linnet and Goldfinch

Butterflies Recorded: Small Skipper, Lulworth Skipper, Large White, Small White, Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Marbled White and Chalkhill Blue

Moths Recorded: Carnation Tortrix (Cacoecimorpha pronubana) and Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)

Bees Recorded: Honey Bees (Apis mellifera), Common Carder (Bombus pascuorum), Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) and White-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum)

Wasps Recorded: Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris)

Hoverflies Recorded: Lesser Hornet Hoverfly (Volucella inanis), The Footballer (Helophilus pendulus) and a Syrphus sp.

Bugs and Beetles Recorded: Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis) and Common Red Soldier Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva)

Aircraft Today

If I have identified this RAF Transporter correctly. It is a........

.............RAF Atlas C.1 (A400M) doing circuits around Portland.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On this day..........
2019
Today's Sightings Here

2018
Today's Sightings Here.


2017
Today' Sightings Here.