Dog-Walking in Dorset mid-July.

Dorset in July. There are Scarlet Darters, Red-Veined Darters, Balearic Shearwaters ... and there are the simple pleasures of walking through the Dorset countryside with Ms D and Derek the dog and seeing what pops up. 

A couple of trips to Wareham Forest. Bird-wise very quiet now. A couple of burst of song from the Redstart near the car park on the first visit, silence on the second. But insects step into the breach; a couple of Clouded Yellows got me excited until I realised people elsewhere were seeing many more. Painted Ladies still going strong. Silver-Studded Blues have now all disappeared to be replaced by Grayling Butterflies; there is a wide variety of sizes in this species, with some really large specimens. A Beautiful Demoiselle, still a treat for me, some Small Red Damselfly, and I twice had the pleasure of adding Black Darter to my list before twice realising I had seen mature female skimmers. But that's one of the joys of the activity, learning the pitfalls. 

A walk by the sea from Cogden Beach ( nice Lesser Whitethroat, no Cirl Buntings again) to Burton Bradstock saw us at above the edge of the beach directly below the car-park with a huge colony of Bee-Wolf. There was a constant stream of bees laden with prey looking for nest holes, and in amongst them was another bee species constantly going into and promptly leaving nest holes. This may have been Pantaloon Bee, based on the furry legs, but then again it may not! And once again that strange feeling of seeing people blithely walking past whilst this insect carnage is happening right by them. I resisted the temptation to give them sleepless nights by telling them exactly what horrors of insect life were happening in all those holes

Bee Wolf with Prey

Small Red Damselfy Wareham Forest

Hatfield Forest insects - 4th July

Our mid-summer trip to Hatfield Forest is becoming an annual highlight, and this year's trip was as good as it gets. David has a great write-up with his usual excellent photos. 

Its a several hour constant search for anything that flies. Consequently we saw hundreds if not thousands of insects of various kinds, mainly Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns. But we saw the specialities; a shout from Mike and a Purple Emperor was flying straight at me! Its purple sheen showing beautifully as it drifted by. We had lots of Silver-Washed Fritillaries, Purple Hairstreak, Painted Lady, Marbled White ,Comma, Brimstone as well as the usual ones. We got White-legged Damselfly sedately flying round its chosen hot spot, more damselflies, then after a coffee we headed for the Decoy Ponds. 

The ponds were just alive with Odonata. Brown Hawker, Emperor, Four-Spotted Chaser, Broad-Bodied Chaser, Large Red-eyed Damselfly, then a brief sighting of Norfolk Hawker. It's not surprise to see one here and I believe this wasn't the first record. But it was our first record and it disappeared before the others could get onto it. We waited a while, then Mike had it briefly, then waited another while, and found it over a reed bed opposite. And whilst we were watching a Grass Snake slithered its way along the opposite bank, head up out of the water.

It was a mystery to me why, when every other dragonfly was happily charging up and down, this had been so hard to see. But as we watched it it seemed that whenever it strayed too far from the reedbed the Emperor would go and beat it up. So for reasons of self preservation it was spending a lot of time perched up. 

Clearly it is finding a way of coping as not only is this species spreading but wherever it goes it soon seems to become a well-represented creature.

A classic day. There really isn't a better way to spend a hot summer's day than hunting insects with your mates. 

Silver-Washed Fritillary

Female Broad-Bodied Chaser

Local Breeders

A text from Mike, and an early morning walk out of our village into local Hertfordshire farmland. Put the scope up, peer into a dead tree on the corner of a copse and there, peeking out from the top of a pile of sticks, is a Hobby. Brilliant.

And that song? Some checking round and there on top of a bush is a male Corn Bunting singing its head off. Its been a few years since they bred round here so this is a very welcome return.

Wareham Forest 23rd June. You can only go Wow once!

With temperatures soaring we sought an early walk in shade. We went to Wareham Forest again and chose Gore Heath because it had lots of trees on the OS map app. I wasn't expecting much in the way of wildlife, but the walks were nice and broad, which was a mixed blessing. It meant I got to see a mid-range large bird slowly making its way over, and the gull/raptor question was resolved in favour of a decent binocular view of an Osprey heading over presumably to nearby Wareham Channel in Poole Harbour. there was a distant Hobby, but also lots of sun. 

Eventually we found a sheltered walk, and whilst going down there a Golden-Ringed Dragonfly whizzed around. We don't have this species in East Anglia, it is scarce on Thursley and Ashdown Forest, so my sightings have been limited to a brief encounter in Wales and a slightly better one in Dorset last year. It was a species I had really wanted to see properly for a while, and my limited views had only increased this desire, so it was nice to see this but I could have done with closer and longer.

Then a few yards further on I got closer and longer; one, possibly the same settled on a fence post beside me. What a beast! Views as good as anyone could hope for. It even posed for my iPhone. 

And that is Golden-Ringed Dragonfly completed for me. I saw another one - nice! And when I see others I will be pleased to see them. But you only get one go at seeing a species close-up for the first time and looking at it in awe, soaking up every detail. And this was my moment with Golden-Ringed Dragonfly.

** for some proper photos of GRD, look at Marc Heath's fantastic blog **

Wareham Forest Redstart? 15th, 16th June

Oh for heavens sake DD what's with the question mark? You've seen them lots of times before why would you start going all wobbly now? Well ...

Wareham Forest, and in particular the walk from Stroud Bridge car park, is becoming a favourite walk. Mrs DD likes the nice clear paths, the easy walking, the lack of people and the open aspect with some nice views. I like the wildlife of this ancient and unique habitat. Except its not ancient. This isn't the landscape that Thomas Hardy's characters would have known; when Tess stopped by Woolsbarrow she didn't look out over acres and acres of regimental Sitka Spruce. When Diggory Venn took his van across Egdon Hath he wasn't traversing large man-made tracks. But nevertheless it is a habitat with its own special inventory.

Our first walk had Tree Pipits, Dartford Warblers, Stonechats, Crossbills, and a Hobby. It had lots of Silver-Studded Blues, some Painted Ladies, and it had what was probably a Redstart.

The incessant singing was distinctive. A shortish fast slightly scratchy semi-warble. I eventually found the bird and got the flash of orange tail as it flew across and landed on a stump. And that's where it all went wrong. You know how a male Redstart looks? A dazzling display of orange, black, and grey with a white flash? Thats not what was at on the post. What was there was a uniform dark dull brown bird, orange tail apart. Think female Black Redstart.

I went off dissatisfied and returned the following day. Birds much the same - flyover Siskin, distant Cuckoo. The Odonata were excellent; a Downy Emerald, a Beautiful Demoiselle, lots of Four-Spotted Chasers and Keeled Skimmers. And the Redstart was still there, showing its dull brown plumage as well as one could wish for.

I've recorded the song. It's below. I've listened on Xeno-Canto. There's quite a range of songs on there. My song wouldn't be out of place. But Black Redstart also is variable. AI tells me Black Redstart has a distinctive gravelly bit, and mine has a bit of that on one song. 

But logically, it has to be a Common Redstart. I assume its just not very good at moulting.

- and the song recording? It seems things on the internet are either really easy, or just impossible. Getting the recording from the phone to the web has so far fallen in the latter category. Perhaps there will be an edit at some point and it will appear here, but at the moment, no.