Alners Gorse

Prior to a report from my friend John Gifford and his sister Maggie a few days ago I had never even heard of Alners Gorse, a (Butterfly) Nature Reserve in Central Dorset, convincing me this was a 'must visit' place! However, before that there was the small matter of the morning ritual of attending the Moth Trap, once again holding a couple of 'goodies'. New to the property* were

PALE PROMINENT*

DINGY FOOTMAN again

and a decent photo at last of

BEAUTIFUL HOOK-TIP

The second and  last new addition has something of a history for me.

The night of 22 September 1988 was a drizzly, still affair so I had opted to place my Moth Trap just inside the side garage door of my then house in Wyke Regis, Weymouth. Next morning there was no more than a single Moth in the trap which was almost overlooked as the extremely common Silver Y. For reasons still unknown I 'potted' it and gave it a longer examination to find that it was Great Britain's 16th known

DEWICK'S PLUSIA

then a rare migrant from the south of the continent. I don't know the status of this charming little Insect today but believe many of my contemporaries in the county of Dorset now have this beautiful creature on their lists.

Also in the trap was this

HAWTHORN SHIELDBUG

occasionally getting acrobatic.

Then followed the one hour drive to the Reserve

with its avenue of LIME TREES leading down to a

dried out pond.

There I met up with my dear friends SHEILA and LORNE (Bowie) EDWARDS, both very keen and adept naturalists. There were 4 species of Butterfly on our 'hit list' for the day and I was assured from the off that none of them was going to be a foregone conclusion. We also decided to keep a Day List just as a bit of added fun.

GATEKEEPER
was first on the list and my first sighting of the year.

Attention was diverted to take a brief look at these mating
SOLDIER BEETLES

when it was also noted that the hedgerows, particularly
BLACKTHORN (Sloe)

and HAWTHORN were festooned with fruit.

Deep in the undergrowth the lair of a
 
FUNNEL-WEB SPIDER
was found, but we really did need to concentrate on searching for our quarry.

SMALL WHITE,
 

RINGLET

and MEADOW BROWN

followed in quick succession before Sheila spotted, high in the canopy a

BROWN HAIRSTREAK BUTTERFLY

which tends to hug the tree-tops.

Fortunately, it was our lucky day and this one descended to the

Brambles where it, unusually, spread its wings.

The first of our target Insects.

GREEN-VEINED WHITE

COMMA

and what looked like a 'predated' Wood Pigeon egg kept our
attention before we located this

SILVER-WASH FRITILLARY

Copulating SOUTHERN HAWKER was followed by

HONEYSUCKLE

OAK APPLE

and GREATER BIRDS-FOOT TREFOIL

before the first ESSEX SKIPPER was located.

It would be churlish to refer to the finding of a couple of high flying White-letter Hairstreaks as disappointing, but as these Butterflies also favour the 'tops' there was little chance of obtaining an image. However, target number two had also been seen!

One of the CINQUEFOIL (Potentilla Sp)
Almost resigned to the fact that we were only going to secure 50%
of our desires, it was Sheila again who's 'hawk-eyes brought to our
attention yet another small creature high in the branches.

PURPLE HAIRSTREAK

was a welcome finale to a great day at a marvellous Reserve,
We only 'dipped' on White Admiral, but as they say
"you never get them all!"

The Butterfly total for the day reached 20 with the others not previously mentioned including Large White, Peacock, Large and Small Skipper, Small Tortoiseshell, Brimstone, Red Admiral, Marbled White, Chalkhill Blue (seemingly a rarity here) and Speckled Wood.

A GREAT DAY TO SAY THE LEAST, MADE EVEN MORE SO 

IN THE COMPANY OF MY DEAR FRIENDS.
If today were not long enough at Alners Gorse there was more to come later.
Time doesn't allow to publish now but a report will be contained on tomorrow's Post. 

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