Diary

April 28th
Apparently, the wet summer of 2007 was not good for butterflies and it is expected we will see fewer this year as a result. I have seen a few peacocks; small tortoiseshells and just in the past few day a few orange-tips.
In dappled light where sun and shade mix under trees we can often find the speckled wood butterfly. I saw several today and managed to photograph the one below.
The weather is showery which doesn’t encourage butterflies to be very active.
I have yet to see the large yellow brimstone - normally an early flying species.

May 2nd
The day promised to be sunny and warm, and so it turned out to be.
I went with my brother to Thorncombe Wood at Higher Bockhampton near Dorchester. A 26 hectare site owned and managed as a nature reserve by Dorset County Council.
Here it said, you may see the dormouse, lesser spotted woodpecker and marsh tit. Also reptiles; adder, grass snake and common lizard.
We searched high and low for the what should have been the easiest on the list, the adder and grass snake, however, they proved to be rather elusive compared to the ones on my local common. I did get a glimpse of a lizard.
There is a pond - Rushey Pond - which was sadly used by every dog out for a walk as a paddling pool. The pond did however have a huge population of newts which rather oddly spent a lot of time at the surface.
The highlights of the walk had to be hearing a meadow pipit; watching the aerobatic display of a buzzard and raven and the many brimstone butterflies.

May 10th
A huge improvement in temperatures has quickly moved us from winter to summer. The swallows and house martins arrived here within two days of each other - usually at least a week separates the two.
Dragon and damsel fly hatching in the pond is in full swing, with at least five dragons emerging every day.
We are surrounded by the marvels of nature. The swallows having left here last October for South Africa, arrive back and take up residence in the tack-room where they reared chicks last year. And the dragonfly larvae climb out of the pond, up an iris stem to emerge a couple of hours later as a beautiful flying insect.