Blue Eyed Birder: New Forest and Dorset for Oriole Birding

7th August:

There was sunshine outside to greet us as we headed west after breakfast and thankfully it just about hug on until we reached Lulworth Cove and parked up in a frantically filling car park. The breeze was nipping along the coast and the sunshine was intermittent but we stuck to our plan to check out the immediate slopes to the west and were very pleased to discover quite a few Lulworth Skippers zipping between Hoary Ragwort and Fleabane.

Lulworth Skippers - this one with a hitchhiker

A Wall Brown was a pleasing find as was a rather tatty female Dark Green Fritillary while two Marbled Whites and a brief Comma were also new trip species. Meadow Browns proliferated along with a few Gatekeepers and we also found singles of Common Blue, Small White and Brown Argus.

Marbled White

Dark Green Fritillary

Siver-Y

Brown Argus

The flowers were similar to Stockbridge but the Autumn Gentians were much further along and bigger flowered than I remembered and Ploughman’s Spikenard was just opening up too.

Hoary Ragwort

Autumn Gentian

Dwarf Thistle

Carline Thistle

Ploughman’s Spikenard

Robin's Pin Cushion

The views were superb all the way west to the entirety of Portland and east to St Aldhelms while the car park below us filled up swiftly with row after row of visitors eager to do the walk over the top to Durdle Door.

We chose this time to escape as the cloud cover was returning and wiggled our way north to the reclaimed landfill reserve at Knighton where some cool Dragonflies had been seen on one of the pits. The main area was scanned and quickly added quite a few birds to the fairly meagre tally with three Geese, Great Crested Grebes, both Little and Great White Egret, Cormorant, Tufted Duck and even Coot!

Egrets

The adjacent hidden pool held plenty of Odonata but f the Scarlet Darters there was no sign and I think we needed some proper sunshine and warmth to tempt them out but we still did very well with a brief male Lesser Emperor, several ‘normal’ Emperors, Black Tailed Skimmers, Ruddy and Common Darters, both Red Eyed Damselflies along with Blue-tailed, Common Emerald and Common Blue.

Black Tailed Skimmer

Blue-tailed Damselfy

Common Blue.

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

Red-eyed Damselfly

Emerald Damselfly

There were some very large Pond Skaters to be seen and I put up a couple of Rush Veneers along with Beautiful Chinamarks which flickered around the edges which were covered in Crassula. Glaucous Bulrush and Greater Reedmace gave me the chance to illustrate why the latter is never the former.

Pond Skater

Tetragnatha sp

Rush Veneers along with Beautiful Chinamark

Teasel

Beautiful Chinamark

Brookweed

Crassula helmsii

Bullfinches called from the Willows and an adult and juvenile Little Grebe were out on the lake. With bellies calling for lunch we headed to Dorchester to acquire provisions before looping north to the butterfly reserve at Alners Gorse.

By the time we got there the grey skies had darkened further and it was even trying to drizzle but we stuck to our plan and had a good walk around but it was hard work and we had no chance of finding Brown Hairstreak (although apparently only one has been seen this season). Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers were found in the grass rather lethargically flying off when disturbed and we found sluggish Ringlet and Small Skipper to add to the list.

Meadow Brown

Ringlet

Small Skipper

There were Silver-Y and Common Carpets once again as well Agriphila tristella and several Straw Dot and Speckled Bush Cricket was seen amongst Long-winged Coneheads and Dark Bush Crickets. The Fleabane and Ragworts had a few Eristalis Hoverflies and my first Eriothrix rufomaculata of the year with their spiky bums.

Eriothrix rufomaculata

Syritta pipiens

Common Carpet

Not sure yet - need my books - possibly an Epistrophe?

Episyrphus balteatus

Not sure yet

Agriphila tristella

Straw Dot

Yellow Dung Fly

Long-winged Conehead

Speckled Bush Cricket

Dark Bush Crickets.

Three Harvestman - names later

Pisaura mirabilis

Small Cranefly sp

Green Shieldbug instar

gall of Urophora cardui

A Hornet was seen devouring a Bee and I am sure that I found a Shrill Carder Bee although I am not sure if there are meant to be there. More Bullfinches tantalised us as we walked back up towards the van passing Cinnabar cats on just three Ragwort stems on the way.

Shrill Carder Bee

Common Carder Bee

Hornet

Back up the top some Musca autumnalis and a Mesembrina meridiana were basking on the fence and were joined by two Red Admirals but with the cloud not looking like dispersing we decided to head back to Lyndhurst after a gloomy but pretty successful day out.

Musca autumnalis

Mesembrina meridiana

Red Admiral

Sneezewort

Great Willowherb

Gypsywort

Selfheal

8th August:

Not quite the weather we were hoping for the first few hours of the last morning. It was grey and windy but still quite warm but the chance of any new invert life was slim so I concentrated on the birds and returned to Pig Bush and took a walk up on the heath.

Frustratingly I soon heard Dartford Warbler and a male popped up before trying to fly into the wind low over the colourful heather. Only a couple of the crew got onto him but with some perseverance a couple of others got glimpses too but it was far from satisfying!

We scanned for absent Goshawks picking up several Buzzards and many Pigeons in the process before retracing our steps. I had a final spot to check – Hawkhill Enclosure and the old airfield across the road but as we set out the drizzle started and our bird free loop was curtailed once again. With the weather set in we all sorted ourselves out for the drop off at the station and I had just started the engine when through the rain splattered window I saw a Dartford Warbler bimble by following a Stonechat.

‘Dartford! Out! Out!’ everyone decamped at various speeds and we attempted to follow this male around in the increasingly heavy driving rain. Once again glimpses were had before throwing in the towel – well in fact needing a towel. It was grim!

With that we opted to make a dash for Brockenhurst station so that we did not spend the next hour sitting in the van waiting for the next one. I bid farewell to them with four minutes till the train before Marilyn and I began the long journey back to north Norfolk after a challenging but rewarding trip down south.