Lulworth Skipper

On the way back from the Hudsonian Whimbrel twitch we decided that today should be an early start, to see if we could find a Lulworth Skipper down Dorset way. So this morning we found ourselves parked in a layby adjacent to Ballard Down just outside Swanage, where recent reports indicated that I would be able to find the 50th butterfly on my list. By 0900 we were scouring the slopes and even at this early hour butterflies were on the wing. We found Large Skipper, Dingy Skipper, Common Blue, Adonis Blue, Meadow Brown, Brown Argus and several tatty specimens of Green Hairstreak but no Lulworths. Thanks to some very helpful locals we were directed to the right spot and almost immediately came across our first Lulworth Skipper. Over the next three hours we had a steady stream of specimens, all of mine appear to have been males, no females with that "sunray marking". As the sun's heat started to get the better of the easterly breeze they became more active and harder to photograph.

Anyway here are the results:-

 

A rather well worn specimen!

 

As for the Hudsonian Whimbrel, another life tick, with distant record shots very similar to every other photograph that I have seen so far.

On the way back to Ferry Pool, where we had parked, we came across a family of Great-crested Grebes and the adult male was diligently feeding the offspring a steady stream of Sticklebacks.