Adonis blues

11 Monday Aug 2025

Tags

Adonis blue, blue butterflies, British butterflies, butterflies in Tout Quarry, butterflies on the Isle of Portland, butterfly, Dorset butterflies, Isle of Portland butterflies, Polyommatus bellargus

In classical antiquity, Adonis was celebrated as the epitome of male beauty. I presume, when writing in his publication British Butterflies in 1860, W. S. Coleman named this striking butterfly the Adonis blue, he considered it was the epitome of male beauty in the world of British butterflies. Though lacking the elaborate patterning of many British butterflies, the sheer brilliance of the colour of the male Adonis blue (Polyommatus bellargus) is breathtaking.

Fortunately for me, this butterfly has two broods each year so, though I missed the first in May-June, I timed my visit to Weymouth perfectly for the very start of the emergence of the second brood in August-September. I only managed to see two males, no females (which have chocolate brown upper wings, tinged with varying amounts of blue) but, as these sightings were only the third time I’d seen any Adonis blues, I was very happy indeed!

Chalkhill blues

08 Friday Aug 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British butterflies, Butterflies in King Barrow Quarry, butterflies in Tout Quarry, butterfly, butterflying on Portland, Chalkhill blue, King Barrow Quarry, Portland butterflies, Portland's quarries, Tout Quarry

It was six years since I’d last seen a Chalkhill blue so it probably comes as no surprise that I took rather a lot of photographs of these gorgeous butterflies during my two visits to Tout and King Barrow Quarries on the Isle of Portland, in Dorset, last week.

I decided it would be easier to share the best of these in the form of a video slideshow, and I’ve also included a few photos of the quarries to provide context and give an indication of the habitat in which these butterflies thrive. Tout Quarry has the added benefit of being an open air sculpture park, so it’s very easy to spend many hours there, delighting in both the natural beauty of the butterflies and the creativity of the sculptors.

The Marbled white and the Skylark

21 Saturday Jun 2025

Posted by sconzani in birds, insects

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, British butterflies, butterflies in Tout Quarry, butterfly, Isle of Portland butterflies, Marbled white, Skylark, Tout Quarry

Today’s blog title puts me in mind of one of Aesop’s fables. I’m sure there was one where the butterfly was tired and asked the bird if it could ride on its back but the bird ended up eating it? Just kidding! Before I sign off from my blogs about my Weymouth trip I just wanted to share two more random moments …

The Marbled white butterfly (Melanargia galathea), though common in many parts of Britain, is rarely seen in my part of coastal south Wales, so it was a special treat to see three on the wing in Weymouth. The first was a distant blur in a field in the Wildlife Trust reserve Lorton Meadows, an area that looked like it would have good potential for butterflies and wildflowers if it wasn’t for the excessive number of off-lead dogs being allowed to roam everywhere, even into the one dragonfly pond. Fortunately, Portland’s Tout Quarry came up trumps again, and I saw two more Marbled whites there, including this obliging beauty.

Seeing this stunning Skylark up close was another of this trip’s special moments. I was walking back from Portland to Weymouth and had almost reached the information centre at Chesil Beach when I heard Skylark song in front of me. I searched the sky for a couple of minutes before realising that the bird was, in fact, sitting on a bush adjacent to the track directly ahead of me.

Such a singing spot seemed odd but I wondered if there might be a nest in the scrubby area I was walking through and so this male was trying to distract me from going near that. Though I had never intended to move off the path, its tactic certainly focused my attention, and I grabbed a few photos before walking onward.