Day 2: 19/06/2015 - Lankham Bottom, Lulworth Cove, Portland
First stop today was at Lankham Bottom, a Butterfly Conservation site that was supposed to be good for Cistus Forrester. We did find about 6 Forresters but they all seemed too large to be Cistus Forrester. The only external difference between these species as adults is size, though the larvae have quite different requirements. I have retained a couple of specimens to check, but I am not optimistic that we found our quarry. I did however find a new (to me) micromoth (Cauchas fibulella).
Next we moved on to Lulworth Cove where we found hordes of people. We found a relatively isolated spot on the stony beach to have our lunch and while there we found many Lulworth Skippers mainly feeding on Viper's Bugloss. This was our third new butterfly for the year and leaves only one British breeding species for us to see (Brown Hairstreak)
Next we moved on to Lulworth Cove where we found hordes of people. We found a relatively isolated spot on the stony beach to have our lunch and while there we found many Lulworth Skippers mainly feeding on Viper's Bugloss. This was our third new butterfly for the year and leaves only one British breeding species for us to see (Brown Hairstreak)
Then we had a short walk around the Radipole Lake RSPB reserve before getting our shopping in Weymouth and driving on to our lovely self-catering accomodation at Portland Bill. We are staying in the old higher lighthouse cottage and the old lighthouse is part of our accommodation with impressive views across Portland and out to sea and peregrines passing by at eye level. An evening stroll produced a Bordered Straw - a scarce migrant moth that I had not encountered before today. (In fact I found another earlier at Lulworth Cove, but that was a rather worn specimen).