Purple reign

Yes I realise the terrible pun in the headline would be more fitting for the Purple Emperor than the humble Purple Hairstreak - but I haven't had the opportunity to look for the former so far this summer, whereas a spare Sunday morning a few weekends ago provided just enough time to look for the latter at Butterfly Conservation's superb reserve at Alners Gorse. Like the majestic Emperor, the Purple Hairstreak reveals its colourful sheen when light refracts from the wings at certain angles. I had never really managed to photograph this feature well so that was one objective of the visit. It was easily achieved as tens of this characterful insect were seen, many down at eye level in the relative cool of the morning. As usual my time was a bit limited but a White-letter Hairstreak feeding low down on brambles as I made to leave was a huge bonus.

Male Purple Hairstreak at Alners Gorse

This is the same individual at a slightly different angle - note how the extent of the purple varies with the angle of the light

Another angle on the same individual

Another male complete with short tails

All the Purple Hairstreaks I saw with wings open appeared to be males

Purple Hairstreak underwing shows an eye-spot near the short tail

Buds of Buckthorn appeared as cat-nip to the Purple Hairstreaks

They were present on one small tree in double figures

An attractive species - compare to....

...White-letter Hairstreak, which never sits with the wings open

Comma also on the wing at Alners Gorse...

...and plenty of Ringlet

A fresh Southern Hawker also present...

...and one of our most impressive British species, the Silver-washed Fritillary

A pristine male Silver-washed Fritillary

A slightly worn female Silver-washed Fritillary...

...and here a mating pair

Purple Hairstreak at Alners Gorse - a superb reserve, hats off to BC for making it so

Patchline

'Patchline is a new, confidential, freephone service for patches which are being systematically neglected by their guardians. Ordinary members of the public can also phone Patchline if they suspect birders of neglecting their patch'.

Juvenile Bearded Tits at Swineham

If such a thing really existed, Swineham would surely have been on the blower complaining of its recent treatment at my hands. It's been weeks, possibly months, since I paid a visit, more down to lack of opportunity than lack of interest, though interest has, in truth, been hard to summon up over the summer.

5 of 6 birds present

Anyway, I tried to mend fences with a brief visit yesterday morning, the main reward for which was an encounter with a party of Bearded Tits. Fatherly duties then intervened in the form of Wareham Rangers U-12s first game of the 2014-15 season against local rivals Winfrith. In my mind, I had been dreading the onset of the football season, with its Saturday training sessions and Sunday matches threatening to extinguish the tiny flame of hope that I might ever get any birding done again, what with work being all busy and that.

Cobwebs at Swineham: a metaphor for my recent relationship with it

As if to compound this fear, no sooner had we parked up at the ground than the phone rang with news from Steve Smith that he had discovered a Great White Egret at Middlebere. Embarrassingly, this would be a Dorset tick for me. Completely unconnected to this fact, I decided that 11 was a sufficiently mature age for a kid to play a game of football without needing his Dad to provide moral support from the touchline. Half an hour later I was jogging up to the Harrier Hide to add the Great White Egret to my county list.

Great White Egret at Middlebere - surprisingly difficult to catch up with in Dorset given that there have been semi-resident birds in Hampshire and breeding birds in Somerset. And they rarely stick around here.

I speculated in a previous post about what would happen should news of a local rarity break mid-match now that Jol Mitchell, Wareham Rangers U-12 team secretary, and his son Joe, Wareham Rangers U-12 star player, and me are all trying to build our Dorset lists. Would the Dads ditch the boys? Would the boys ditch the team? Well now we know: I would ditch everyone else. 

Reed Warbler, Swineham

It wasn't all about me though: I had my youngest son in tow, and he made me feel better by saying that a smash and grab twitch with Dad was slightly less boring than watching George play football,  both being preferable to helping Mum at the allotment in his triangulated list of least worst ways for a 7 year old to spend the day. This provided some post hoc justification for the excursion.

Migrant Hawkers, Swineham

Anyway, as it was just down the road we were back for the second half in time to watch Winfrith's playmaker lash two blinding volleys past Wareham's defence. There was a happy ending after the match though as both Mitchells connected with the Egret, thus reducing the risk of any smouldering resentment at my earlier antics.

Tree Pipit, Swineham

So, perhaps the football season shouldn't hold so much fear after all, and maybe, just maybe, I can still carve out enough time to dissuade Swineham from making that call. Maybe.

Long hot summer

Just realised that 8 of my last 10 posts were about Northumberland - so just to clarify, I haven't moved, and I still spent most of the summer in my adopted home of Dorset. The up country trips were holidays/escapism, while back at home, a change of job, and the usual conveyor belt of visitors who tend to roll up when you live in such a wonderful county, have seriously cramped the time and energy I have available for birding lately.

So on the down side, from my point of view, I get less time to immerse myself in this medium, which I now realise has been a good outlet for some creative energy which probably wasn't being used to the full. On the up side, from your point of view, this has put an end to the long, rambling posts beloved of this blog. No more real time reports of 14 hour twitches either - there just isn't the time to go, let alone write them up.

So, in lieu of all that stuff, here's a straight-forward wash up of some local stuff that I saw and did over the summer. Some of it, even if old news now, was pretty cool.

Exciting and frustrating at the same time was the discovery of a small colony of 2nd generation Map butterflies near Swanage by my good friend Steve Smith - their origins unknown.

Expert opinion has leant towards a deliberate release being more likely than a natural colonisation - if so, the misguided individuals who illegally release captive bred, non-native butterflies into the wild, rather than helping biodiversity, are in fact obscuring the reality of what's happening in the countryside.

The underside, dissected by trunk and branch lines, does indeed look like a 'Map'

This Hummingbird Hawkmoth spent a couple of days in my kitchen in mid-August. Attracted by lavender in the garden, it secreted itself behind curtains at night.

A Wasp Spider - a large female - was the highlight of a rare visit to Swineham

This Hobby caused panic among large flocks of hirundines at Swineham

A roosting Southern Hawker was also at Swineham

Not just birds...

...at Swineham on Friday evening. In fact most of the waders from earlier in the week had cleared out leaving insects and mammals to provide the photographic interest. Best of all were a pair of Common Seals hauled out on the mud at Swineham Point - at least 5 miles from the open sea.

Comma

Southern Hawker

Common Seal

 

One of the seals was very inquisitive...



...and a bit of a show-off, porpoising up the River Frome

This young fox was licking it's lips at some Teal on a flooded field. It went hungry.

Fox