Midsummer Night's Dream - Bill the Bard

In sharp contrast to yesterday, to which we will return in a moment, it is just bucketing it down with rain out there. Just as well then that we had a few photos left over from that previous evening as the wildlifing here has been a little poor as well. Only c29 'macro' Moths in the trap, all recorded here before, and the Blackbird and Robin clearing the white sheet of its contents makes me feel I'll have to get up a little earlier in the mornings. After a fairly exhausting day at Alners Gorse yesterday, under a baking sun, I returned to Parley to find another treat in store, and TREAT it was!

Under the watchful eye of LORD BADEN-POWELL himself, Hugh had secured tickets for us all to enjoy an evening of Shakespeare on

BROWNSEA ISLAND
where in 1908 L B-P started the Boy- Scouts Movement

No Scouting For Boys
for Daryl, Kath, Ray, Lydia (obscured), Janet, Hugh and his mum Joan
as we waited to board

The Ferry

to transport us across Poole Harbour, the second largest natural
harbour in the world after Sydney, Australia,

with a chance to view a few 'novel' watercraft en-route.

Viewing SANDBANKS from a distance the Chain Ferry can just be seen right right of shot. In addition the properties here are officially the most expensive 'real estate' in the world, with one of these houses belonging to Football Manager Harry Redknapp while a close neighbour is his son former footballer Jamie who's wife is 'pop singer' Louise.

Brownsea Island
has a chequered history, well worth a read via the link.

After the welcome it was time to enjoy

a sumptuous picnic along with many family friends,

the 'highlight' of which, for me at least, were Dan's home grown
Strawberries and Raspberries certainly the best I remember.

As the sun dropped behind the trees we joined the rest of the revellers

for a superb rendition of
A Mid-Summer Night's Dream
(cor, I do love that Charlie Dickens)

Unfortunately, photography was not permitted during the performance so all we have to offer is the Stage Set and Curtain Call. It was a fine performance touching on all emotions, but for me it was Puck who 'stole the show'! A Hugh Thank You to Huge and Janet.

Entry	Pageviews
United Kingdom	949
United States	348
Russia	97
Estonia	30
France	28
Germany	27
Canada	25
China	15
Australia	8
Netherlands	7

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. 

Entry	Pageviews
United Kingdom	952
United States	329
Russia	104
France	29
Estonia	26
Germany	24
Canada	21
China	15
Australia	10
New Zealand	7