This is the last post from my recent mini-break in Weymouth, another first butterfly sighting for 2026 from my first meander around the former quarries on the Isle of Portland. These are, of course, Graylings (Hipparchia semele).

By happy coincidence, the Graylings had just started emerging when I visited. During my first walk around Tout and King Barrow quarries, on 9 July, I only saw two of these cryptically coloured butterflies. Just two days later, another quarry exploration produced more than 20 Graylings, with several flitting around me at once in one particular location, much to my delight.

I usually take the train up one of the local Welsh valleys to Aberbargoed coal spoil tip in July to see the only local population of these butterflies that is accessible to me as a non-driver. This year, with much of Britain sweltering under our third heatwave of the year, I haven’t made that trek, so I was even more grateful to have seen such numbers of Grayling in Dorset.