NFY: Chalkhill blue

24 Friday Jul 2026

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A July visit to Dorset’s south coast was always intended to be about butterflies (and dragonflies) rather than birds, and so it proved to be. I missed seeing one of my target butterfly species; the Silver-studded blues seem to have been affected by this year’s continuing heatwaves, beginning their season earlier than usual and only reported flying on Portland for about four weeks, a much shorter period than usual. Try as I might, and despite getting great advice from locals, I failed to find any. But their absence was more than made up for by the Chalkhill blues (Lysandra coridon).

I think you’ll agree that these are stunningly beautiful butterflies. The silvery blue of the male is more subtle and delicate than the flashy brilliance of the Adonis blue, while the female’s upper wings are a rich chocolate brown, often with a sprinkling of blue close to her body.

My photographs here show, in descending order, a female with wings closed, showing the underside patterning and colouration; a female with open wings; a male with closed wings, showing his underside colours; and, finally, an open-winged male.

Despite the heat, I wandered Tout and King Barrow, the former quarries on the Isle of Portland, several times during this visit and, each time, I was rewarded with an increasing number of pristine sightings of these stunning butterflies, as they continued to emerge from pupation. I was in butterfly heaven, even though it felt hotter than hell!

Ruddy Ruddy darter

23 Thursday Jul 2026

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You’ll recall that, when I published A tale of two darters five days ago, I wrote ‘Now I need to find one of the blood-red male Ruddy darters, as they look quite stunning in the photos I’ve seen. Watch this space!’ Well …

Seeing these two males was a totally unexpected and absolutely wonderful surprise during my last wander around the nature reserve at Radipole on my final day in Weymouth. And they really are as blood-red as their ‘ruddy’ name implies. Simply sublime!

Greenshank

22 Wednesday Jul 2026

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I could probably count on the fingers of both hands the number of times I’ve seen a Greenshank (Tringa nebularia), and I’ve only once seen this species within walking distance of home (A Green-legged long-shank comes to call, April 2017). My other sightings were on bird club outings in various parts of Wales and when I’ve been at RSPB Lodmoor in Weymouth. And that is where I enjoyed my most recent, though still distant sighting of one of these handsome green-legged birds. (You can read more about them in my post Greenshanks, from November 2018.)

A tale of two hawkers

21 Tuesday Jul 2026

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June to October are the best months of the year to see the Southern hawker dragonfly (Aeshna cyanea), and so far I’ve seen two. The first was during my wander through Slade Wood on 2 July, a bonus sighting on a day mostly dedicated to looking for butterflies (see NFY: White admiral & Silver-washed fritillary) but which also turned up the Ruddy darters I blogged about last week in A tale of two darters.

It often seems strange to me to find dragonflies patrolling the vegetation lining woodland rides, particularly when the nearest water source is quite some distance away but this is normal behaviour for the Southern hawker, and many other species. I found my second Southern hawker of the year on 5 July, in a similar setting, flying rapidly back and forth along a wooded lane about a mile from the nearest water source. On their website, the British Dragonfly Society notes that this species has spread throughout much of England and Wales in recent years, and has also colonised parts of Scotland, so hopefully many of you will have been privileged to see them in your area.

One of the reasons I booked my latest visit to the south Dorset coast for July was to see more Norfolk hawkers (Aeshna isoceles), a dragonfly species I saw for the first time during a visit to Weymouth last June. I was not disappointed, though I had forgotten how tricky and frustrating they can sometimes be to photograph – like most hawkers, they rarely stay still for long.

Fortunately, the nature reserve at Radipole is just a short walk from where I stay in Weymouth so I was able to wander its trails multiple times and at different times of the day, giving myself as many opportunities as possible of watching these green-eyed beauties. And, as is often the case with wildlife, time and patience and getting to know the behaviour of the creature you’re watching can bring the rewards you’re hoping for. I’m already planning my 2027 wildlife excursions to include Radipole for more Norfolk hawker watching next year.

NFY: Marbled white

20 Monday Jul 2026

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Amazingly, I didn’t see my first Marbled white (Melanargia galathea) of the year during my recent week on the south coast of Dorset, nor during any other recent jaunts away from home. Though this butterfly species is not resident locally, my first sighting this year was on 29 June just a couple of miles from home at Lavernock Nature Reserve. Even more surprisingly, I didn’t see just one, but rather two of these stunning butterflies, and a couple of local chaps I talked to had seen six (!) the previous day. As we had just experienced our second heatwave of the year, from the 22nd to the 25th of June, it’s likely that these butterflies had been blown across the Bristol Channel from England on the hot nor’easterly winds we experienced during those few days.

I love these stunningly patterned butterflies so I was very pleased to have timed my latest visit to Weymouth and the Isle of Portland with their peak flying time of mid June to mid July. Despite my visit also coinciding with our third heatwave of the year (I’d booked my travel several months earlier), by leaving my guesthouse before 7am, I still managed to spend many hours over several days wandering around the disused quarries on Portland, thrilled to be surrounded by these, and many other, butterfly species.

In his Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, Peter Eeles explains that the aposematic colouring of this black-and-white butterfly is thought to deter potential predators, the flavonoids from the food ingested by its larva making both larva and adult taste bad. Eeles also notes that these flavonoids ‘make the butterfly more visible to potential to potential mates thanks to the ultra-violet reflection from the flavonoid-rich white areas that contrast with the blacks on the wings’. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see what the butterflies see?

If you’re wondering why the Marbled whites in some of my photos have a brown hue that’s because the female of the species, though still having the black-and-white marbling on her upper wings, exhibits a pale brown tint on the undersides and on the leading edge of her forewings.

Wood sage

19 Sunday Jul 2026

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With its sage-green leaves, this looks like a herb you should be able to cook with but it doesn’t have the smell you’d expect from a sage and, though I haven’t actually tried to cook with it, everything I’ve read says not to bother. I guess the lack of smell also indicates a lack of culinary taste.

I’m talking about a plant that I personally think is very poorly named, Wood sage (Teucrium scorodonia). I have never yet seen it growing in a woodland setting; the two photos below were taken in the last ten days, the first showing Wood sage growing very happily on the sea wall in Penarth, on the south Wales coast, the second in the hot rocky landscape of a former quarry on the Isle of Portland, where Wood sage is abundant and thriving.

Wood sage is a very pretty plant, I think. Those sage-green leaves look lush, despite the heatwave we’ve been experiencing for the past couple of weeks, and have a wonderful crinkly texture. And the flowers are a smooth buttery cream, with prominent pinkish filaments and yellow anthers.

A tale of two darters

18 Saturday Jul 2026

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I saw my first Common darter (Sympetrum striolatum) of the year on 26 June, though I haven’t seen many more yet. However, they are known to be common throughout Britain, except for the Scottish highlands and upland locations in the north of England, so I’m sure I’ll be seeing more in the coming weeks – the core months for sightings are from June right through to the end of November, depending on the weather conditions.

At first glance, you might think the two dragonflies shown above are the same species – I certainly did – but they’re not. And, fortunately, as I had seen this other species at this particular location three years ago, I took lots of photos. The second photo (and my third photo, below) shows a Ruddy darter (Sympetrum sanguineum). The Common darter has pale stripes down its legs, whereas the Ruddy darter’s legs are black. Another feature to look for is the black T-shaped mark on the top of the Ruddy darter’s thorax – the Common darter doesn’t have this. If in doubt, the British Dragonfly Society website has excellent side-by-side photos of the tops and sides of the various darter species, which I find very helpful.

Many of you who live in England have probably seen a Ruddy darter but they are not common in the southwest or far north, and, in Wales, are only seen in the eastern counties nearest to England. I found the two shown here during a recent visit to Slade Wood in Monmouthshire. Now I need to find one of the blood-red male Ruddy darters, as they look quite stunning in the photos I’ve seen. Watch this space!

NFY: White admiral & Silver-washed fritillary

17 Friday Jul 2026

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My annual pilgrimage to Slade Wood, in the neighbouring county of Monmouthshire, on Thursday 2 July, was an absolute joy! If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know that I go to the woodland each year around the beginning of July as it’s the closest, most accessible location for me to try and see two very special butterfly species.

This year I only managed to see two White admirals (Limenitis camilla), and one of those was just a tantalising glimpse as it flew across the woodland ride above me. And, though I waited and watched, it did not reappear. Luckily for me, about a third of the way along the main ride I spotted a second White admiral moving around the lower branches of a tree. These butterflies often have a favourite perch they return to frequently – I hoped I had found it but, unfortunately, the butterfly flew off and also did not reappear.

The Silver-washed fritillaries (Argynnis paphia) were much more numerous, and more co-operative, and the reason for my joy. In fact, I saw more of them at Slade Wood that day that I’ve ever seen in previous years. I’m not talking about hundreds of butterflies but somewhere between ten and twenty, and they’re just the ones I could see along the ride; there were sure to be more gliding around amongst the trees.

These butterflies are large, impressive, stunningly beautiful. Having them float past within inches of me, chase each other among the vegetation, settle to feed within touching distance – moments like these are bliss for a butterfly lover like me.

Food for little thrushes

16 Thursday Jul 2026

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I was photographing a dragonfly hanging off a path-side bramble bush when I felt like I was being watched.

This handsome Song thrush had popped out of the vegetation not far in front of me along the path, clearly having just nabbed a couple of insects to feed to its young ones, perhaps spotting the dragonfly and wondering whether it could nab that as well. Unfortunately for both of us, the dragonfly chose that moment to fly off.

Holly blues love poo!

15 Wednesday Jul 2026

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In all but the most northerly parts of Britain, Holly blue butterflies have two broods every year (and, very very occasionally, in southern Britain, depending on the weather, a late third brood), and the males of the second brood started to emerge in my area around the end of June.

As with many butterfly species, though the Holly blue butterfly feeds primarily on aphid honeydew, the males also gravitate towards damp earth, decaying vegetable matter, and the poo of other creatures, which might seem fairly disgusting to us humans, but is for them the source of essential salts and minerals.

Judging by the number of Holly blues I saw doing this at a local park recently (two males together in two separate locations), they seem to feed this way very soon after they hatch. I’ve since read that the salts they absorb from this feeding behaviour help to fuel their flight muscles and also that they then transfer the minerals to female Holly blues when they mate, which helps with egg production, so it makes sense that this mineral and salt absorption happens before they start searching for emerging females to mate with.