Lower Dunscombe Cliffs

Lower Dunscombe Cliff is one of my favourite local spots, we often go there for a short walk and sometimes a picnic. There's some great habitat and always plenty to see. Here are some photos from a couple of visits last year, once in May and again in late June.

My favourite spot to sit for an hour or so and have a cuppa. 

It's especially nice to boil the water on site, much better than a flask!

(Note our carbon fibre mat to protect the ground)

Fulmars were checking out the cliffs for nesting sites.

It's a good spot to see the scarce wildflower 

Nottingham Catchfly - Silene nutans

Female Orange Tip

Laval web of the Small Eggar moth

Small Yellow Underwing 

A pretty day-flying moth that's quite common. However I think this was my first ever sighting of one.

Marsham's Nomad Bee - Nomada marshamella

I spent ages trying to get a photo of this Ichneumon Wasp, don't know why there's absolutely no chance of identifying it!

On another visit in late June the grass on the clifftop was parched to a crisp and there were very few flowers to be seen. Any that were surviving the dry conditions were very stunted, like this Pyramidal Orchid.

Pyramidal Orchid - Anacamptis pyramidalis

Bumblebee Hoverfly - Volucella bombylans

 

Salcombe Beach

On May 14th last year we went for a day on Salcombe Beach which is to the immediate east of Sidmouth. I usually visit here earlier in the year to look for early Wood White butterflies. They were bound to be on the wing by May and hopefully plenty of other insects too! I had a lovely surprise, finding and photographing Long-horned Bee. I'd only seen them once before at Eype Mouth in Dorset.

  

The beach looking west towards Sidmouth

Dingy Skipper - Erynnis tages 

 

Wood White - Leptidea sinapis

Dark-edged Bee-fly -Bombylius major

 

There was a lot of Red Valarian growing on the cliffs which proved extremely popular with bees and flies and whilst I was photographing this Bee-fly I spotted the Long-horned Bees. I then spent ages trying to get a photo, something I'd failed at on my previous sighting in Dorset (they're very quick!). Determination paid off though.

 

Long-horned Bee - Eucera longicornis

 

This is a male Spiny Mason Wasp. 

I've only ever seen this species on the Axmouth undercliffs and only ever females. 

The males are distinctive in that the ends of their antennae are curled in as can been seen here.

Spiny Mason Wasp - Odynerus spinipes

 

A Mason Wasp - Ancistrocerus sp.

 

Five-spotted Club-horned Wasp - Sapyga quinquepunctata

Jacob's Laddder, Lathkill Dale, Derbyshire

Surprisingly only one new plant for me last year which was the stunning Jacob's Ladder, a very scarce native plant, but very often seen in gardens. It's certainly not difficult to see how it became a popular garden flower. I've been wanting to get to this location to see it growing in the wild for many years, it's such a scenic place. Seeing as we were on a family visit to our former home town of Burton upon Trent and hence only about a fifty minute drive away and it was also the optimum time of year to see it in flower, it was too good an opportunity to miss!

We went early in the morning and pleasingly had the place to ourselves, it really was quite idyllic with the plants putting on a stunning show. Even better than I'd imagined!

The Lovely Upper Lathkill Dale. Jacob's Ladder plants centre right.

 

Jacob's Ladder - Polemonium caeruleum 

 

And a nice bonus Chimney Sweeper Moth - Odezia atrata