NFY: Wall

18 Monday May 2026

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My decision to head to Weymouth and Portland for a week from the 7th to the 14th of May was a last minute one; I had booked somewhere else but the weather there was forecast to be mostly wet so I cancelled that and headed south to Dorset instead. I hadn’t checked which butterfly species I might see there; I just knew that if it rained in Weymouth, I could always go birding.

When the Dorset weather turned out mostly dry, if not always particularly sunny, I knew I had to head to the locations on the Isle of Portland where I’ve previously found butterflies, and one of the first I saw there was the Wall (Lasiommata megera). Checking now, I see that the first generation adults usually emerge in late April – early May, so my timing was perfect.

Most of the Walls I spotted, in Tout and King Barrow quarries, at the Broadcroft Butterfly Reserve, and along the coastal path above the west cliffs, were constantly active, the majority males flying back and forth in search of females but, occasionally, one would pause long enough and close enough for me to get a few photos. These are they.

Sainfoin

17 Sunday May 2026

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I had never seen this lovely plant before I spotted it at Broadcroft Butterfly Reserve on the Isle of Portland last Monday. This is Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia).

As it was growing near some houses, I wondered, initially, if it was simply a garden escape. This proved to be partly true; according to Richard Mabey, writing in Flora Britannica, this erect form of Sainfoin was ‘introduced as a fodder plant from the continent in the middle of the seventeenth century’, and has since become widely naturalised. There is a native form which Mabey describes as ‘more or less prostrate, has deeper pink flowers and is native in grassland and bare ground on the southern chalk-hills’.

Though the Portland plants were the first sightings I remember, I’ve since checked the local biodiversity database and discovered there is a local site, a short train journey west along the south Wales coast, where I should be able to find them growing. As that is a location I haven’t been to for a while but which has other nice flora and fauna to be seen, I’m resolved to visit in the next few weeks to see if I can find Sainfoin, amongst other things.

Little tern courtship behaviour

16 Saturday May 2026

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The only time I get to see Little terns is when I visit Weymouth, in Dorset, during late spring and summer, as these stunning little birds spend their winters in west Africa and only return to Britain between April and August to breed. Chesil Beach is the furthest south west Little terns breed in England and is home to the Chesil Little Tern Project, which aims to monitor and protect the Little tern colony during their breeding season. A temporary electric fence is erected around the breeding area, and over 60 volunteers assist RSPB staff in engaging with and educating the public about the birds, and protecting the colony from predators, people and their dogs.

I didn’t visit the breeding colony itself – I figure the fewer people who go near them the better – but the birds can be seen flying over and fishing in the waters of the Fleet lagoon from the roadside at Ferrybridge so I found a handy boulder and plonked myself down to watch. And it was fascinating!

What I saw was the Little terns’ courtship behaviour. The male bird catches a fish and flies around calling, in the hope of attracting a female; I presume the fish is his way of advertising his ability to provide for his mate and any chicks they might have. If the female likes the look of him, she will chase and fly with him before both birds descend to the beach, or, in this case, the small buoys in the water. If the female accepts the fish the male offers then the courtship has been successful, and the breeding process gets underway. Do I detect a rather smug look on the male’s face in this last photo?

NFY: Common blue

15 Friday May 2026

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I had to go all the way to the Isle of Portland to see my first Common blue butterflies of the year!

Nah, not really. It just so happened that I didn’t spot any locally before I headed down to Dorset for another wonderful week of wildlife spotting, based in my lovely favourite guesthouse in Weymouth. I returned home yesterday, and this morning I went for a walk to my local Lavernock Nature Reserve, where I saw a couple more Common blues, despite a cool nor-westerly and not a lot of sun.

In case you’re not overly familiar with these butterflies, the one in my first photo is a male; they always have completely blue upper wings. The butterfly in my second photo is a female; they are often quite brown but this particular specimen had a lot more blue in her upper wings. And below is a side view, showing the pattern of spots on the lower wings. Distinguishing one species of blue butterfly from another can sometimes be all about recognising the patterns on the underwings.

Lekking Green long-horns

14 Thursday May 2026

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My Collins Concise Dictionary defines lek, the noun, as ‘a small area in which birds of certain species, notably the black grouse, gather for sexual display and courtship’, and the word can also be used as a verb, hence lekking, the activity of courtship display in that area.

The dictionary only mentions birds and, certainly, we usually think of lekking as something confined to birds, but the act of showing off in order to attract a mate is not confined to avian species; insects and, apparently, some fish, also perform mating displays.

And that’s exactly what these Green long-horn moths (Adela reaumurella) were doing when I spotted them congregating around a particular bush in an area of trees (in fact, I’ve now seen several such displays in various woodland or tree-filled locations). I’m not sure why they choose their particular spot but it seems to be a prominent position towards the top of a shrub or on a branch that sticks out from the rest of a tree, often in sunshine, and they flutter about, settle briefly on a leaf, then flutter again. The lek is a delight to watch.

Early mining bees

13 Wednesday May 2026

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I’ve done it again – found some little bees so gorgeous that I simply couldn’t resist taking their photos, but this time I know their names.

These are Early mining bees (Andrena haemorrhoa), identifiable by the wonderfully furry, Fox-coloured thorax, with a complementary black abdomen and, as you might be able to see in my first photo, a fluffy little Fox-coloured bottom (which is the reason this species is also known as the Orange-tailed mining bee). This bee’s colouring is also the reason for the epithet haemorrhoa in its scientific name, as haima is the Greek word for blood and rheō is the Greek verb meaning ‘to flow’ – you have to imagine that the foxy mane and tail resemble flowing blood.

A fungus-infected ladybird

12 Tuesday May 2026

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This Harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) has been infected with the fungus previously known as Hesperomyces virescens, that is now known to be specific to the Harlequin so has been renamed Hesperomyces harmoniae. Hopefully, you should be able to make out the short pale-coloured stalk-like growths emerging from between the ladybird’s eyes and along its front left leg. According to the Beetlehangers website, the fungus is being investigated as a means of controlling the Harlequin ladybird, as it is an invasive, non-native species that is threatening the populations of native British species. The fungus is believed to decrease the Harlequin’s ‘mating frequency, winter survival rate, and mobility’ – not very pleasant if you’re a Harlequin but good news for our other ladybird species.

Sunning

11 Monday May 2026

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It’s an interesting way to get yourself clean but I’m sure you’ve all seen birds sunning themselves like this Blackbird, head up and beak open as if panting with the heat, body close to the ground with wings outspread. The BTO website gives two reasons for this behaviour:

It helps oil from the ‘preen gland’ to spread across the feathers, keeping them healthy and in good condition. It also drives parasites out from within the plumage. Some of these parasites feed on the feathers themselves, degrading their quality and function, and all are highly specialised, with many only found on a single species of bird.

Continue reading →

The Twayblades return

10 Sunday May 2026

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It’s been three years since I last spotted these beautiful little orchids, Common twayblades (Neottia ovata), at Lavernock Nature Reserve.

While the Wildlife Trust was busy renegotiating a new lease for the reserve with the local council, a process that seemed to take a very long time, the reserve was neglected and became very overgrown, so it was impossible to walk along some of the paths, let alone find these very small orchids amongst the vegetation.

And then, when the lease was finalised and the Wildlife Trust resumed its maintenance work, someone from their staff decided it would be a good idea to build a fence right through the area where the Common twayblades had been growing.

I had thought the habitat destruction involved in the fence building would have been the end of the orchids but it seems they’re tough little plants, and I was able to pick out at least a dozen just coming in to flower during last Tuesday’s visit to the reserve. Very good news!

An influx of Painted ladies

09 Saturday May 2026

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I wasn’t in the UK for the last huge influx of Painted ladies (Vanessa cardui) in the spring of 2009, when an estimated 11 million butterflies arrived here (Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, p.241) but, in the last couple of weeks of April this year, we experienced a much smaller influx of this amazing migrating species.

This type of influx is subject to weather conditions; the butterflies take advantage of strong southerly winds to fly from sub-Saharan Africa across the Saharan Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to southern Europe and then onwards to more northerly locations, including Britain. (These weather conditions also see an increase in migrant moths arriving in southern Britain, in car owners reporting a thin covering of Saharan dust on their vehicles, and, sometimes, in murky skies and spectacular sunsets.)

I spotted my first two Painted ladies of the year at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park on 30 April, my bumper day of new sightings, as described in my last two blogs. ‘Nice’, I thought, and didn’t really expect to see a lot more, though I did notice reports on social media of large numbers of sightings across southern England.

Then, last Saturday, 2 May, as I walked the paths through the various fields at Cosmeston, Painted ladies just kept on appearing, as if by magic. My personal count after a couple of hours was 16, though I didn’t cover all the tracks around the park and I’m fairly sure there were many more I didn’t see. This number was certainly higher than I’d ever seen in one day before.

And you might be wondering what happens to all these butterflies? Well, according to Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, research has shown that they breed here in Britain and their offspring migrate south again in the autumn. It’s estimated that, in the spectacular influx of 2009, as many as 21 million Painted ladies embarked on the return journey to Africa. Just incredible!