After spending the first part of the morning doing various chores around the house whilst Ellie was at work I decided at 11.00am that I needed to get out of the house as the weather was pretty fine. Having never seen a Lulworth Skipper I thought that today would be as good a day as any to try and rectify that, so I headed straight for Lulworth Cove logically thinking this would be my best bet to see this small butterfly.
I arrived just after midday and then had to walk up a very steep path to Bindon Hill, which left me feeling that I really must do something to shed some of the sixteen stone bulk I have amassed! Whilst there were several butterflies milling around, including my first Chalkhill Blues of the year and loads of Dark Green Fritillaries, I could not locate any areas of long grass. Fortunately I bumped in to a couple who had seen some Lulworth Skippers and they gave my directions, and ten minutes later after a steep descent I found two of these little beauties, though in strong winds they did not hang around long enough for me to get a photo of them.
With my target seen I set off back to the car, seeing a few Linnets and Stonechats along the way, and a Gannet passed by out to see.
I then set off for East Holme, a small village not that far from Lulworth in the direction of Wareham. There had been a report of a Ferruginous Duck on a pool just outside the village, and whilst I found the pool there was no sign of the duck! There were a couple of very flighty Tufted Ducks and half a dozen or so Siskins were flying between the conifers. I also saw a Woodlark and another new butterfly as I nearly trod on a Grayling. An amazing butterfly that allowed me to almost touch it before it flew as it was that confident in its camoflage. At one stage it flicked it's top wing to reveal a set of "eyes", quite something.
I then had to set off back home as I had an appointment at 4.30pm, so a mixed day, not that good for birds, but brilliant for butterflies.
No comments:
Post a Comment