Alners Gorse - Sun 6 Jun

Ellie and I were not really up to an early start today having enjoyed a few too many beers out in the village the previous night, so we waited until after lunch before heading out to get some fresh air. We travelled east to the other side of Sherborne and to the Butterfly Conservation Reserve at Alners Gorse, arriving just before 3.00pm.
This was a site that we had not visited before and we were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. We spent about an hour and a half wandering around, and whilst there were not loads of butterflies on the wing we did see Large Skipper:

As well as several Speckled Woods:

A few Common Blues were also flying about:

Other butterlies we saw included Brimstone, Dingy Skipper, and Green-veined White.
On the bird front we were lucky enough to hear a couple of Nightingales singing from the thickets and after a bit of patience one of the birds popped out in to the open for a while giving us a great view. There were still singing Willow Warbler and Chiffchaffs about and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over.
We had a good time out at Alners Gorse and it will definately be a site we will return to.