Three Counties Birding

Wednesday 26th July

A POCKET GUIDE TO THE GRASSHOPPERS, CRICKETS AND ALLIED INSECTS OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND

Just published by Forficula Books is this new guide by Bryan J Pinchen, the same author as "A Pocket Guide to the Bumblebees of Britain and Ireland" and "A Pocket Guide to the Ladybirds of Britain and Ireland".

This book is intended as a quick and easy to use identification guide with all thirty seven native species illustrated in full colour. With concise text for each species it includes field characters, similar species, colour variations, habitat and general distribution, this is in my opinion the author's best guide yet, and I thoroughly recommended it.

Copies are available for £9.25 each, which includes first class p+p from B. J. Pinchen 7 Brookland Close, Pennington, Lymington, Hampshire, SO41 8JE. Please make cheques payable to B J Pinchen.

Monday 24th July

DRAGONFLY

This dragonfly, I think it's a Brown Hawker, flew through our open office window this afternoon and settled on a shelf end. It seemed quite content, in the end we had to usher it out, but not before I grabbed the office camera and took a couple of photos.

Sunday 23rd July

GROVELEY WOOD

We walked this afternoon from Great Wishford to Groveley Wood and back. There were good numbers of butterflies, among them Silver-washed Fritillaries and White Admirals.

We also saw a Black Beetle, lots of Scabious flowers and Gatekeeper butterflies.

Sunday 23rd July

MOTHS

These were among the Moths in the Moth Trap this morning

Drinker

Dusky Sallow

Festoon

Poplar Hawk Moth

Scalloped Hook Tip

Yellow Tail

Friday 21st July

MARTIN DOWN

We had a late afternoon walk on Martin Down hoping to see some butterflies. We did, Dark Green Fritillaries, Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell, a Clouded Yellow, and our first Chalkhill Blues of the year.

Chalkhill Blues

Rose Bay Willow Herb

Spider

St Johns Wort

Saturday 15th July

WHITE ADMIRAL
We went to Garston Wood this morning hoping to add Purple Hairstreak to the year list, no luck, but White Admirals were showing well.

Friday 14th July

SMALL COPPER

On our walk from Keyhaven this evening we found this very photogenic Small Copper feeding on Ragwort.

Wednesday 12th July

MARTIN DOWN

We paid an evening visit to Martin Down and were rewarded with a good selection of butterflies which included Large and Small Skippers, Dark-green Fritillary, Marbled White, and Painted Lady. We also did what we always do, given that our eyesight isn't what it once was, took lots of video of "Small" Skippers and sorted out an Essex on the telly screen later. It worked again this time.

Once the female half of the Blog got her eye in, she found a number of Frog Orchids.

Small Skipper

Dark-green Fritillary

Frog Orchid

Sunday 9th July

LANGFORD LAKES

We didn't feel like going very far today, so we went to Langford Lakes again. There were good numbers of butterflies and damselflies, including Red Admiral, Comma, Gatekeeper and Green-veined White, but it was very windy, and they were difficult to photograph. The Green-flowered Helliborines have flowered since our last visit.

Beetle

Hoverfly

Green-flowered Helleborine

Thursday 6th July

SLIVER-STUDDED BLUES

We walked from Ashley Walk car park out to Pitts Wood and back this afternoon. A feature of the walk was good numbers of Silver-studded Blue butterflies.

Tuesday 4th July

DURLSTON COUNTRY PARK

It was another hot and sunny day, so hoping for cooling sea breezes, and a Lulworth Skipper, we went to Durlston Country Park near Swanage.

There weren't huge numbers of Lulworth Skippers, but one counts for the year list. Other butterflies included Small and Large Skippers, Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns. There were good numbers of Pyramidal Orchids, and we also found a single Bee Orchid.

A Cuckoo was flying around the coast path, and Stonechats were on the gorse bushes. Among other birds were Guillemots, a Peregrine and Herring Gulls with young chicks.

Bee Orchid

Herring Gull and Chick

Lulworth Skipper

Stinking Iris

House Martins

"Our" House Martins are occupying four out of the six nest boxes, the adults are to-ing and fro-ing feeding the youngsters.

Monday 3rd July

COLLARD HILL, SOMERSET

We've got this week off, we've left it a bit late, but we went to see if the Large Blues were still at Collard Hill near Street in Somerset. They were, but only females, which were egg laying on Wild Thyme.

Female Large Blue

Yellow-wort

Clustered Bellflower

Pyramidal Orchid

Sunday 2nd July

BENTLEY WOOD & LANGFORD LAKES

It was another hot day to go butterfly-ing at Bentley Wood. We were lucky with good views of White-letter Hairstreak low down on Wytch Elm, and a Purple Emperor which was flying all around us. Unfortunately I wasn't able to photograph either of them. Other butterflies at Bentley Wood included many Silver-washed Fritillaries, Marbled White, Red and White Admirals, Large and Small Skippers, and Comma.

We called in at Langford Lakes on the way home, where a flock of 25 Long-tailed Tits noisily picked their way through the trees. We also saw Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Garden Warbler, and added Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper, Common Blue and Painted Lady to the butterfly list.

Silver-washed Fritillary

Ragged Robin

Green-flowered Helliborine

Greater Bindweed

Young Coot

Saturday 1st July

MARTIN DOWN

With most people preoccupied with England v Portugal, we made the most of the afternoon to walk in Vernditch Chase and the Kitts Grave side of Martin Down.

There were good numbers of butterflies, Red Admiral, lots of Marbled Whites, Dark-green and Silver-washed Fritillaries, Large and Small Skippers, Ringlet, and White Admiral.

Ringlet

Small Skipper

White Admiral

Friday 30th June

LYMINGTON

As it was another super evening we drove down to Lymington after work. It was quiet, but I tried some flight shots of Common Terns. The autofocus on the Panasonic DMC-FZ5 is painfully slow, so there was more luck than technique to these pictures.