Sunday 19 July 2020

Portland birthday day trips results in Large Tortoiseshell & Lulworth Skipper

                                              Large Tortoiseshell
                                            Large Tortoiseshell
                                         Lulworth Skipper (female)

Lulworth Skipper (male)
                                          Grayling (Tout Quarry)
                                                    Church Ope
                                                 Guillemot flock
                                                Above Church Ope

View down to Portland Observatory
                                                     Rock Pipit
                                         Great Black-backed Gulls

Lulworth Skipper (male)
                                                   Wall Brown
                                  Walking down to Church Ope Cove
                                           Common Blue (male)
                                       Silver-studded Blue (male)
                                            Small Skipper (female)
It was time to head south to try and see another species of butterfly. The Lulworth is the only british butterfly that can be found geographically by its name. Rather than head to Lulworth we opted for Portland where there would be much less people.

After a relaxing coffee at the tip of Bill we did a large circular walk taking in a range of habitats. The skippers were tricky to see but I was pretty happy that I'd photographed a male with a closed pale circle followed by a darker female. Thankfully my photos supported my thoughts. (Lloyd/Dave were both good enough to confirm ID's).

Bird sightings were limited to Great Black-backed Gull,
Guillemot flying to and from cliffs, a large flock of Common Scoter, Rock Pipit, Swifts, Gannet and Linnet.

From there we had a relaxing hour at Church Ope sat on the pebble beach taking in the views. There were plenty of people looking for the
Large Tortoiseshell reported the day before but without luck.

As we reached the car I checked Twitter for local sightings and the
Large Tortoiseshell had been seen just five minutes away from where we were ! Thankfully the butterfly was sat out in the open allowing a small group to get a great view. Lets hope they can be re-established here.

We finished with a walk around Tout Quarry but I don't think we saw its best as the breeze had increased making it tougher for flying butterflies.



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