27th July -12th August 2015
Over the hills and far away...
Part one
It's been a long time coming...
Before I really got going on my trip down south I spent an afternoon 0n Monday July 27th at Blacktoft. Not much going on really but a juvenile yellow wagtail popped in at Marshland...
...and some ruffs came close to the hide.
On the way home I paused to watch some untickable guinea fowl.
But ultimately it was all my niece's doing. She had decided to get married...and I was to turn a wedding weekend into a slightly longer bird and butterfly tour of Hampshire and 3 counties beyond. I began before the wedding by spending a whole day at Martin Down NNR on Thursday July 30th. Here I saw my first ever chalkhill blue butterflies. Only two of them but there would be more another day!
Two views of Martin Down.
An Essex skipper landed close by.
Walking on I spotted a yellowhammer [juvenile looking like a baby chicken!] and a stonechat at the same moment.
I soon met my first of many dark green fritillaries. A choice butterfly in Yorkshire, they showed themselves to be regular in most places I visited including down on the coast. Let's see a few.
Oops! Frightened him off!
More Essex skippers and brimstones were about too...
...and look who's coming up the stem.
If the name dark green fritillary worries you I can see a bit of green on this one!
A burnet moth was weighing down this field scabious.
Feeling tired after a very long walk and approaching the car park I passed through a large area of scrub and bramble. A tiny butterfly gave me a big surprise!
My first ever small blue. Could scarcely believe they make butterflies so tiny! Undersides a bit like a tiny holly blue.
I only saw the one but I saw more another day.
Last dark green fritillary for now.
Martin Down comes in two sections - the downland itself and a much smaller wooded section north of the A354 Salisbury to Blandford road. I decided to see what the woodland had to offer...
Skippers
Brown argus.
Marbled white
White admiral
Then a real treat. I suspected I had seen a silver-washed fritillary fly past me at speed in one of the glades but then more co-operative specimens allowed me to take their picture...
These two images shows why they are called silver-washed.
Finally, to complete a full house of about 19 butterfly species seen that day, a gatekeeper and a comma.
I spent the night in Salisbury [Wiltshire] and ate at the Boat House by the river. I spotted a water vole on some debris floating in the middle of the river by the Waitrose supermarket! Good to see! Friday 31st July I headed into Dorset to Fontmell Down. The view from the Down is wonderful as shown in this short iphone clip.
I soon heard the low gruff calls of the local ravens.
Gatekeepers were numerous wherever there was some scrub cover.
Peeping through the gorse I spotted a linnet.
Meadow brown on bramble.
Common blue.
Fontmell Down is in the flight path of light aircraft taking off from the busy Compton Abbas airfield. They come pretty close overhead!
A buzzard [not photographed] and a distant red kite were soon seen off by the ravens.
Peacock
I headed south toward Lulworth Cove in search of another lifer butterfly, the Lulworth Skipper. My arrival at Lulworth Cove was not encouraging: a car park with hundreds of cars; lots of people with dogs; huge visitor centre selling tacky trash and the smell of fish and chips. Yet I was amazed to see butterflies amongst all this. It was very warm with only a very gentle breeze. Picture postcard views!
I moved away from the crowds towards a large patch of thistle, bramble and nettles near the cliff top. This proved to be an excellent ploy...
The lovely dark green fritillaries again...
...and marbled whites a-plenty!
A large metallic green beetle caught my eye. I think it is a rose chafer beetle. Rather stunning!
Next I was delighted to spend some time photographing an amenable painted lady.
A brown argus showed deep in the vegetation. I managed to get a clean shot.
Then I saw my prime target, a Lulworth skipper! It was chased off by a gatekeeper before I could get a photograph. Annoyed at my failure to get the shot I spent some time looking for it. Eventually it showed again. Note the crescent markings on the wing. Lulworths are also a bit darker than the other skippers.
I had time now to take more notice of my surroundings. Looking out to sea the view of how the rock strata have been thrust upwards and back again involves unimaginable forces. Geology gets real as you take in a view like this.
I headed for Basingstoke and the wedding. Time to put my wanderings on hold!
Saturday August 1st I spent part of the morning before we were due at Silchester Hall visiting the Roman town of Calleva [green woodpecker tick] with my son Malcolm, his partner Alison and our grand-daughter Evalyn. At the north gate we met a gatekeeper!
Malcolm spotted a buzzard overhead.
Holly blue butterflies were seen along the still substantial Roman walls.
Whilst they went to get ready for the afternoon's ceremonies I decided I had time to walk round Silchester Common.
Who is this peeping over the bracken?
It's the beautiful silver-washed fritillary.
Tempted to think I had seen a silver-spotted skipper but on reflection it's a large skipper.
I also saw one of those butterflies we are lucky enough to see back home in the garden - a speckled wood.
At the wedding venue I was impressed by an enormous magnolia - magnolia grandiflora with flowers a foot across and a scent of pineapple.
Sunday 2nd August back on my travels! I went first to Stockbridge Down NT, east of Stockbridge. Great place! Chalkhill blues seen even in the car park.
I spotted the much shyer females too.
I believe this is a bluer than usual common blue female - also at Stockbridge Down...
...and a holly blue.
I drove south to the Isle [well, nearly] of Portland. Geographically it is a tied island - a term for islands joined to a larger land mass by a spit of debris, in this case Chesil Beach. The plan was to visit two Butterfly Conservation reserves - both in sections of quarries that have been worked out although working quarries are still close by. First I called at Broadcroft Quarry in Easton. Small blues abounded.
A rather tatty female small blue.
Another basking in the reflected heat from thrown-away packaging.
A rather worn-looking skipper.
Common blues and chalkhills present too but no sign of any silver-studded blues, alas!
Common blue
I moved on to Perryfields Quarry reserve very much within a working quarry.
Chalkhills
Burnet moth
Marbled white
Slightly unusual view of a marbled white.
I drove down to Portland Bill. A birder took me to the tip of the Bill to watch a couple of balearic shearwaters through our scopes. Amazingly good views pretty close in following a fishing boat. The shearwater caught a fish scrap and was then 'mobbed and robbed' by the bigger gulls, pushing it under water. Happily it recovered and continued to fly along behind the pack of gulls but keeping a little further back out of trouble. A quarter of an hour's great viewing experience. Sorry no photos but I did snap at a great black-backed gull as it flew over my head.
Knowing I had an hotel booking in Exeter I couldn't linger too long. I went down onto Chesil Beach. Pebbles!
Views from Chesil Beach looking east.
Monday 3rd August from my hotel in Exeter I went to Bicton Common and then East Budleigh common looking for butterflies.
Small heath and small copper.
I was pleasantly surprised to see graylings in good numbers.
A yellowhammer watched me from a dead shrub.
I got down low to photograph this dragonfly. [Yellowish stripes on legs = common darter]
A large skipper and a green-veined white near the car park.
A large stand of acanthus [a plant introduced by the Romans] looked splendid on the edge of the common. Exeter was a large roman settlement named Isca.
I left Devon for Woody Bay in North Devon. I had two targets in mind. The first was to see Chelfham Viaduct the largest bridge structure in Britain on a narrow gauge railway. Number two: to see the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway's first section of fully restored line. Maybe in my lifetime the railway will awaken fully. Glory days:
On Monday 30 September 1935, the day after the railway closed, a wreath of bronze chrysanthemums was laid on the Barnstaple Town Station stop block. Sent by Woody Bay resident Paymaster Captain Thomas Alfred Woolf, R.N. (Retired.) it bore a black-edged, hand-written card on which was written:
“To Barnstaple & Lynton Railway, with regret and sorrow from a constant user and admirer. Perchance it is not dead but sleepeth".
Here's the viaduct.
And here's the railway itself at Woody Bay station.
Video clips. Including the bit where I lost my balance and nearly ended up rolling around on the floor!
Tuesday 4th August and a late departure for Spurn to pick up a black stork in the Well Field.
Distant views I'm afraid and we waited in vain for a fly round!
End of part One
Scroll down for the conclusion!