A Superb Lifer.....No, Not a Plant!

At 7.50 this morning I got a phone call from Ian M, he had spotted a large pod of Common Dolphins off The Yacht Club. I just had to see them! I rushed around the house throwing on whatever discarded clothing I could find and once my highly fashionable 'dragged through a hedge backwards' look was completed I made my way to the seafront. Ian got me onto them straight away, they were pretty distant, at least a couple of miles out, but that didn't matter because they were quite identifiable. They were leaping and jumping, sometimes high out of the water, spinning and splashing down, there were easily thirty, probably as many as fifty. We watched them for over half an hour until they finally began to disappear over the horizon. A first for me and easily one of the best things I've ever seen!! Thanks for the call Ian :-) .

At around midday I made my first visit to Bruckland Ponds for some time, I was hoping to see some nice dragonflies, especially Red-veined Darters. The place was teeming with dragonflies and damselflies, millions of small blue ones, hundreds of immature darters, scores of Black-tailed Skimmers, about a dozen or so Emperors, two Four- spotted Chasers, six male Red-veined Darters and one male Scarce Chaser. I saw a couple of nice birds too, I did, really! Anyway, here are a few photos from today, none of the dolphins, which were a teensy bit too distant, but two featuring BIRDS!!

Four-spotted Chaser my favourite dragonfly- don't ask me why! This one's a fine example of the form praenubila

A fine male Red-veined Darter

The same in flight. I don't know how I managed this!!

Large Skipper on some lovely Ragged Robin.

Yes it's a bird.
I'd better tell you it's a Hobby coz it's naff.

Two of these were knocking about the whole time I was there, periodically hunting dragonflies, one flew down and caught one just metres away from me. I also saw one catch one of the male Red-veined Darters. I suppose the RVD's habit of aggressively patrolling the centre of a pond along with its vivid colour make it an easy target for the Hobby. So if anyone wants to see a RVD, get there soon, while stocks last!!

Altogether!.....Ahhhhhh.

Flies, Bees and Bats

Yesterday morning I went out in search of Fly Orchids, The nearest site I know of is in Dorset about 10 miles to the north of Dorchester in a private woodland, which conveniently slopes down to the roadside. Next to the woodland is an area called Batcombe Hill picnic site, or so I thought. I had found a reference to it on the web and printed out details of a walk around the site written by 'Butterfly Conservation' in which it talked about Duke of Burgundy Fritillary, amongst others. When I arrived the site wasn't called Batcombe Hill anymore but Hillfield Hill and the map I had seemed hopelessly out of date hence I struggled to follow the walk detailed on it. At one point it said " to the right of the lane there is a woodbank with ash saplings planted on it" This was there but the saplings were now about 15-20ft tall! My information must have been at least ten years out of date! There wasn't any sign of the Duke of Burgundy or any other butterflies for that matter and the only bird I saw was a Chaffinch. Quite a poor reserve I thought.

The private woodland however was superb, well from what I could see from the road it was. There were hundreds of Common Twayblades and after several minutes scanning with bins I spotted the Fly Orchids I'd been hoping to find here. I could only see about seven from the road, they were on a very steep bank and it was pretty dark too, so not ideal for photos. I tried to get some though because they're a really fascinating flower mimicking not a fly as the name would suggest but a digger wasp.

Three flowers on a stem, high on a steep bank.
See the road far below!

A closer view of two of the flowers, a bit blurred but you can see the resemblance to a black wasp. The white area apparently imitates iridescent folded wings, male digger wasps fall for it anyway.

This flower caught a small shaft of sunlight allowing for a better close up and also showing up the deep wine red colour.

On the way to this site I had to pass through the village of Cerne Abbas, and past the 'Cerne Abbas Giant' viewpoint. So on the way home I stopped at said viewpoint to do the touristy thing and take a few snaps of it. Actually I hadn't ever seen the 'actual' giant before (only photos) so didn't want to waste the opportunity.

Giant Hill and The Giant from the National Trust viewpoint.
Can't see it... here's a closer view.

The people you may be able to see walking about on it are from the National Trust, they were titivating him a bit.

In the evening Bun and I were going to Buckfastleigh to see the Greater Horseshoe Bats come out from their roost, but on the way we stopped in Honiton, at a business park where we had heard that a Bee Orchid was growing. Sure enough, there it was on a tiny bit of parched soil, under a little hedge, next to the carpark. It had shrivelled, yellowed leaves and a bad attack of blackfly, but had one beautiful flower like so:

Lovely Bee Orchid flower. If you look closely you can see the blackfly and an ant feeding from them. Also if you enlarge it there's also some sort of menacing looking whitish caspid walking about on the aphids too.

There was a very small area of 'meadowland' or overgrown lawn at one side of the carpark and when we looked closely at it we could see masses more Bee Orchids, Loads of 'em! 102 to be exact. They were gorgeous, I'd only ever seen a single one before.




At Buckfastleigh the bats didn't perform for us at all well, which was a little disappointing. We did see some, I'd guess around 50 or so and some were extremely close, but they came in dribs and drabs, ones and twos mostly, not the vast numbers that are more usual ( over 1000 bats roost in the caves here). Perhaps it was just the luck of the draw, or just 'something in the air ' ;-) We will certainly be going again though. Soon.

Sorry for the total lack of any birds, I'll see something soon hopefully, even if I have to resort to twitching!!

And Here's One I Missed Earlier

Bright and early this morning, very early, I was once again on Goat Island, this time with Gav. On this occasion I was lucky enough to spot an orchid which I had missed on Saturday, its inconspicuous spikes, highlighted somewhat by the low angle of the early morning sun. The Common Twayblade, one of the most common and widespread orchids in Britain. It was the first time I'd seen one though. That makes FIVE species of orchid on Goat Island (at the moment).A couple of the Pyramidal Orchids were beginning to open too. Also from the golf course, distant views of my first , yes FIRST Sandwich Terns of the year on patch, patch year-tick number....(actually I don't know but will count them up soon, possibly..)

Inconspicuous spikes

Side and front close-ups of Common Twayblade flowers.
nondescript colour, but fascinating shapes.

Pyramidal Orchid