Portland

Common Darter

Recently, we took our annual three night visit to Portland Bird Observatory. It started off with a Common Darter perched on a reed overhanging the Observatory's wildlife littered pond.

Emperor Dragonfly

Having only waited a minute at the edge of the pond after the Common Darter had landed, this male Emperor came in to land as well. Rather lucky, as it had been flying around for the past 20 minutes. 

Hummingbird Hawk-moth

Later on that day, there was a Hummingbird Hawk-moth on the flowers in the garden. This was a challenge as they move very fast and are very small. It's not quite in focus but an all right picture.

Sunset

And to end the almost perfect photographic day on Portland, this sunset over the Observatory.

Haven't seen you in a while!

Painted Lady

I haven't posted in a while due to laziness, poor I know, but having broken one of the fundamental parts of Dad's birthday present I had to redeem myself!  I am going to go a bit off track and showing you some of my butterfly pictures that I have recently taken. This first one is a Painted Lady that was at Durlston.

Skipper

On that same walk we saw this Skipper, feeding on a thistle. Now unfortunately after hours (minutes actually) of trying to identify this butterfly we still couldn't figure out what it was.  Please comment if you think you know because we are stuck!

Marbled Whites mating

Further up the path we saw two Marbled Whites mating. The Marbled White is the common and widespread butterfly in its group, the Browns.

Common Blue

And very recently we saw this Common Blue.  It feeds on clover, birdsfoot-trefoil and rest harrow. They are normally found April to September.