Lulworth Cove
With an upturn in the weather I was keen to get out and see some butterflies but with a big trip on the cards for the following day I didn’t fancy pushing my luck. However fate stepped in and as the vernacular of ‘youff’ goes; “Did me a solid”. My wife wanted to take advantage of the sun and go to the beach. So we were off to Lulworth. I was heading ‘back home’ and even better a sneaky check on the Dorset branch website had revealed that a small local denizen was flying
. The start of the morning took the usual fashion; walking amongst the Grockles, choosing left or right and then finding the sandiest spot. As we’d taken out time setting out and driving down by the time ‘basecamp’ was prepared we were ready for lunch.
Having previously turned right and with lunch eaten I was now at liberty to investigate my favoured hotspot of old. So I was up the gully/collapsing path as fast as a Whippet. I’d only just reached the first ‘step’ when a tiny golden blur shot across the path and buried itself in the low growing yellow flowers. It was a Lulworth Skipper and with a couple of record shots on the memory card the job was done. I carried on up the track and checked the reed filled depression on the right of the track. Along the edges 2 Dingies had a scrap as did 2 male Common Blues but nestled down deeper in the reeds were another couple of Lulworths showing well and looking anything but drab.
Further up another Dingy added itself to the tally as did a further three Lulworths. They were a joy to watch, tinier than I remembered and because they were fresh much, much tidier. As I was enjoying the Lulworths buzzing this way and that something caught my eye. It seemed out of place in the flower heads, the wrong shape, colour and pattern. It took me a moment but then I realised it was the wing tip of a Painted Lady. It took off and I followed it, scrabbling, to the top of the cliff. I was worried that despite keeping a close eye on it, it would suddenly change gear and bomb away out of sight when it reached the top. Luckily it went down on to the deck and stayed still long enough for me to get my first shots of 2019 and also guess that it was freshly arrived from the continent.
I carried on round criss-crossing and traversing the cliff face along the trackways adding Lulworths each time I came to a patch of the yellow flowers. There was also another fresher looking Dingy. Back at my starting point the same group of species put on a show although there was a nice addition with a really fresh female, her crescent moons reflected the sun almost as effectively as Luna herself.
It was then back to Basecamp and I had to keep watch of the valuables so the girls (all three of them) could go off exploring. It was a hard job; sitting in the sun with the sound of waves breaking on the beach, cup of coffee at hand and reliving/remembering past butterfly trips as I scribbled away in my notebook. A pair of Dragonflies looked out of place as they quartered the small islands which the low tide had revealed. Before I knew it the girls were back and I had to take Little L for a toilet run. While I waited for her to negotiate the queue that is a feature of the Ladies I checked the little area of scrub but it didn’t produce anything. We were heading back when I spotted a Red Admiral behaving oddly. It was fluttering weakly around the sparsest of flowers that were somehow growing through a brick wall and concrete path combo. It would land face on, wings open and then curve its abdomen round and up. I manged a few shots before the spectacle was ruined by a passing family who were encouraging their little lad to catch the Red Admiral. Luckily it evaded them but unluckily it was gone. I checked one of the leaves it had been making a fuss over and there was a delicate fresh ova.
After a bit more beach activity I was off or round 2 so I was able to see the same species again and add a Brown Argus to the list. After I got back we packed up and made our way over to Stairhole. To get there we ascended the cliff using my hotspot path and the same two males were still on the right in the reedy depression and further up there were another 2, a male and female. The male tried his luck, bending his abdomen around in a flurry of wings. Unfortunately for us both his advances were rejected and the female climbed stoically up the grass stem and then took to the air when she reached the top.
Over at Stairhole a Wall shot past us and a Common Blue followed us as we scrambled down to the beach. While the girls played with Tess, a puppy that had befriended us, I went up the slope at the other end of the beach. In an around the yellow flowers I counted a single Common blue female, 2 Dingies and at least 4 Lulworths. There were probably more but a more accurate count was unattainable as by now the little blighters were very hyperactive whizzing around all over the place and only stopping for a few seconds at a time. A larger, slower flying butterfly appeared and I clambered over to it finding it to be a female Large Skipper, my first definite of the season and unusually a female.
I made my way back down to the beach and did some rock-pooling showing the girls various molluscs and seaweeds, then we gazed for a while at the Lulworth Crumple before enjoying another coffee in the sun. We left by the slope that I’d previously investigated and I managed a few shots while people stopped every now and again; Common Blue, a male Large Skipper, but before I could contemplate going after any more Lulworths we were off away home. Still I’ll be back I’m sure. A cracking ‘trip to the beach’…
Have a goodun
Wurzel
!!!!!
