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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

A week in Purbeck (1 Viewer)

Fozzybear

Fozzybear

Ich bin ein Vogelbeobachter
Had a rather toasty week in Dorset last week, at Corfe Castle. Lovely scenery and terrific for wildlife too. I didn't get to as many heaths as I expected as there was so much to do and being on foot they were mostly a little far for me to walk in the heat, though my brother did so and racked up quite a lot of miles! He did get to see Sand Lizards though, but when he was seeing those I was enjoying fantastic views of Weasels and Spotted Flycatchers, so I wasn't really very jealous after all.

We spent some time exploring the chalk ridges east and west of Corfe Castle, took a night-time walk out to the moor and heath a few miles north of the village, where we saw churring Nightjars and lots of Sika Deer, walked out to Swanage and saw my first Marbled White butterfly on the cliff path, saw loads of bats around the village and in the garden of our cottage, plus I took the ferries out to Brownsea Island and saw Red Squirrels (despite all the advice being that you won't see them this time of year), five spot burnet moths, lots of common and sandwich terns, dragonflies, damselflies, wood ants and rather more horseflies than I really wanted to see!

I haven't really sorted out many of my photos or any of the video I shot but will add some bits and pieces as I sort them, but in this weather I'm not really inclined to sit too much at the computer so will take some time to go through it all I think!

Pics from around the castle grounds:

1. Corfe Castle
2. Lords and Ladies
3. Three-pronged Bristletail
4. Pyramidal Orchid
5. interesting plant growing on the ruins
 

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1. 5 spot burnet moth
2. Marbled White butterfly
3. Small Heath butterfly
4. Marbled White butterfly
5. Red Squirrel

Being my picky self (I know, I know!) my compact struggled with the contrasty light and dark shadows and the constant movement of the squirrels so that last one is lacking detail and quality compared to what it could be, but am pleased I got a fair shot and have yet to look at the video I shot, which hopefully will be ok. Very pleased to have a record of the encounter - really cute little things.

The burnet moths were gorgeous, there were loads in one little stretch of reedbed on Brownsea and even though it was very hot and they were active one climbed off a thistle onto my finger, which was a fantastic treat!
 

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Lovely to see your photo's, Fozzy. I noted you went to Brownsea, but did you go to Arne as well?
Red squirrels spoil you for the greys once you've seen them. The Greys are large, solid & bullies, compaired to the lovely, fairy light & red Reds.:t:|:d|
 
The reds certainly are cute, will be interesting how I react when I see a grey next. We'd intended to go to Arne but it looked a bit too far to walk in the heat so we went to other places... Brownsea in my case.

If I drove we'd have gone to a lot more places, though I'm not sure I'd have seen a lot of the things I did walking around the local area. Certainly would have missed the large herd of Sika we saw, and the Marbled White too probably.
 
Lovely photos and it sounds like a heavenly week :t: Dorest is one of those places I've always wanted to visit.....bit of a hike from Northumberland though so I think I'd best make it a fortnight holiday o:)

I was in Kent in 1992 when I saw my first Marbled White and Oban in March 2003 but other than that it's EMBARRASSING how little I have ventured around the UK :smoke: Plan to make up for that in the coming years.....starting later this year :king:
 
Thanks Clark and Gill. It's a lovely place to visit and I can highly recommend Corfe, even though it does see crowds a bit - early and late in the day it's very quiet and great for wildlife.

I've not been to many places Gill, it's only in the last decade that I've started travelling a little to visit places in Suffolk, Norfolk, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Pembrokeshire. Before that I just took day trips on the train to the coast or towns near to home - I really don't like travelling at all! The only time I've left the south is a mid-80s school trip to the Peak District.
 
Fozzybear said:
The reds certainly are cute, will be interesting how I react when I see a grey next. We'd intended to go to Arne but it looked a bit too far to walk in the heat so we went to other places... Brownsea in my case.

If I drove we'd have gone to a lot more places, though I'm not sure I'd have seen a lot of the things I did walking around the local area. Certainly would have missed the large herd of Sika we saw, and the Marbled White too probably.
Click to expand...

There are hundreds of Sika at Arne, Fozzy, you can't miss them, they are everywhere. Not shy either. They protected them so well they multiplied greatly.|:d|
 
Like the red Deer at Minsmere then - those were astonishingly tame.

Just remembered that I also saw my first Cockchafer beetle, flying around the trees not far from the visitor centre on Brownsea Island, and Black Tailed Skimmers and Four Spotted Chasers - one of the few latin names I remember... Libellula Quadrimaculata. |:D|
 
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|:D| Blackbird is good too, Turdus Merula. And the Manx Shearwater for some reason is Puffinus Puffinus!

While watching the squirrels on Brownsea Island the wardens and volunteers were working on a moth trap and later I saw the container they put some of the moths in at the Villa, for people to see (and for them to release later in the evening) - they had both Elephant Hawk Moth and Poplar Hawk Moth in there, neither of which I'd seen before. Interesting to see the Elephant was one of the smaller hawk moths as you imagine from the name that it'll be huge - it's definitely a large moth but smaller than I thought it would be.

Have sorted out some Red Squirrel footage and posted it to youtube - weasels to follow possibly tomorrow if I have time to upload it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utyqwSSZTCQ
 
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Only just caught up with this thread owing to having been on hols myself.

Great report from nearly my neck of the woods! Will watch the videos when I've caught up with myself.....;)
 
Thanks Wendy, hope you had a good holiday too.

Was interesting to see a land rover on brownsea with BBC Autumnwatch emblazoned on it, but I can't remember if the log seating area I saw on the island was their set or not - i know they've had similar sets but my memory fails me! The fish tank in the villa was a great idea as you could sit and watch marine fish and a small spider crab, which was camouflaged with seaweed.

We didn't spend as much time as we might have watching bats but we had a fantastic display of large bats over the garden and in a clearing between the ridge and the castle, though I don't think we found any lesser horseshoes, which would have been amazing. We heard some calls up above 100khz but not the warbling that horseshoes do... Not sure which species that may have been.
 
Just catching up myself! What a lovely report and such fabulous photos and videos, Paul. I have enjoyed them.
 
Thank you Kits. It was interesting how different it was compared to other places I've been to on holiday, in terms of landscape and wildlife. Probably the most 'touristy' place I've visited for a long time too, the busy village was a complete change to Westleton in Suffolk, which is really quite sleepy.

I should start going through my photos and videos again - I'd stopped during the heat but will add some here when I do. I should have some footage of bats in our cottage garden and although not wildlife I shot quite a bit of video on the steam train.
 
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