Two lifers in One Day

And so to Portland Bill, currently suffering from westerly winds and a dearth of migrants. We headed up to the top fields but firstly had a look in the field opposite. Its weird to be in a field and hear bird-song from everywhere and know these are tapes to lure birds to the nets, not actual birds. I failed to find the  Whinchat but there was a large dragonfly whizzing around, and on inspection it was generally dullish brownish apart from a prominent blue segment at the rear of the thorax. Lesser Emperor! I had just been telling someone I was not going to twitch one but wait for one to cross my path, and here it was.

Onwards in wind to the top and across to the coastal path. I had seen a photo on X of Autumn Ladies Tresses with the lighthouse far below as a backdrop, and guessed it was from the top of the slope below the coastguard lookout, but it was still a bit of a moment when I found myself looking at a two-inch stalk of spiral flowers, and thought Eureka that's it! There were about ten more in the area, mostly gone over. Mrs D said 'no-ones going to dig these up' and she's right, but still nice to finally tick them, and the spiral is distinctive and quite cute. There's a phone picture below. I should have knelt down for it, but given the state of my hip I wasn't sure I could get down and pretty certain I couldn't get up again afterwards. 

Then down to the Bill and an ice-cream. 5 Wheatears in the calm of the bill and east-cliffs, a Yellow Wagtail, 2 Bull Seals entertaining the crowds, and Clouded Yellow Butterflies. Lots of them. Everywhere. Minimum 20 but surely many more.