Grey Lane / Bright Beetles

This morning was mild, calm and dry (well, not raining but still damp underfoot). It was also very grey. Still, despite this I had an urge to take a stroll down the lane towards the PYO and around the Countesthorpe Meadow with my bins at hand. It was too grey to bother trying to photograph anything, other than the lanes I walked, and it seems appropriate to accentuate the greyness ...

Very pleasant and relaxing it was too. In particular I was pleased to be able to point my glass at Yellowhammers, Jays, Skylarks, Stock Doves, a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers and plenty of Redwings and Fieldfares.

Nothing too exciting, and only 26 species in total but this is pretty sterile arable farmland around here with flailed hedgerows and no stubble.

The building works around the back of my housing estate seem to have finished, for now at least, and the service road that was built parallel with the main lane I walk is gone. You'd never know it had been there.

As an anthithesis to the greyness, here's a few more beetles that I've not posted previously from the PSL meet in June 2015.

Stenurella melanura, Beaulieu Heath, New Forest 14/06/2015

Cassida vittata - Ferrybridge, Portland 12/06/2015

Omophlus pubescens - Ferrybridge, Portland 13/06/2015

This one is a real rarity, and was a key target for the trip. We found several all on the same morning around a relatively small area of Thrift clumps ... appeared to be a brief and co-ordinated emergence.

Elaphrus cupreus - Beaulieu Heath, New Forest 14/06/2015

Dicheirotrichus gustavii - Ferrybridge, Portland 13/06/2015

Mononychus punctumalbum - Portland Bill Obs 11/06/2015

Legs, Lizards

So back to a great weekend on Portland in June 2015. But actually it all started in Hampshire on 11/06/2015 as I headed south and picked up Seth in Southampton for a bit of a pre-Portland jaunt. Seth was armed with some great botanical knowledge and sites, and I was armed with a list that needed filling. But before any botany, we headed the other way to Titchfield Haven where I was very pleased to pick up a long-overdue bird - a superb Greater Yellowlegs that had been knocking about for a while. It was pottering about with Godwits giving a good size comparison and showing it to be structurally distinct from its Lesser counterpart. I had my P600 bridge camera, and felt obliged to take some goddam awful record shots on full zoom.

After filling our boots, we headed over to the New Forest for some botany on our way to Dorset. Seth knew of a couple of sites where interesting plants could be found. And he found them. I didn't really make any effort to point a camera at them.

The main target was a small mint - Pennyroyal, which we saw albeit not yet in flower. Chamomile and Marsh Cudweed were also seen amongst a few plant ticks.

Whilst having a quick leak before heading off, I found a new for me beetle.

Lesser Thorn-tipped Longhorn Beetle

Next we headed to the Dorset coast, and we parked up in Boscombe. We were soon looking at numerous Wall Lizards. On the walls and surrounding vegetation. We also looked for Western Green Lizards but without joy.

Another of many plant ticks over the weekend was also here, and it was big and brash enough to make it onto the sensor.

Hottentot-fig

Another new for me beetle here wanding across a pathway ...

Silpha laevigata

Eventually we arrived at our base for the rest of the weekend - the Portland Bird Obs. Bags dumped and Obs garden viewed, we set about the priority of the evening - walking up to the Eight Kings pub for a few beers!