Dorset Reptiles & Durlston Country Park 13th April

Went to Dorset today to do a bit of a Reptile ramble. We arrived at a reserve about 9.00 a.m and it wasn't long before we found a cracking male Sand Lizard basking on a Gorze stem. Around 5 Sand Lizards were seen at the site. We also had a couple of Common Lizards and 3 Slow Worms.
After walking around for a while we met up with Gary Powell from the Reptile and Amphibian Conservation trust who we had gone on a walk with a few years ago. He was checking a few tins in the area as he had heard of a melanistic Smooth Snake around and kindly asked us if we would like to join him and check the tin where it had been seen. We arrived at the tin and when he lifted it, there it was a Melanstic Smooth Snake with 3 normal one's. Rare as you like and a first for me! :-)

 Male Sand Lizard

 Male Sand Lizard

 Young Sand Lizard

 Smooth Snake

 Melanistic Smooth Snake

 Melanistic Smooth Snake

When we had finished here we set off for Durlston Country Park for the Early Spider orchids.
Quite a few were in flower along the pathways.

 Early Spider Orchid

 Early Spider Orchid

Iffley Meadows BBOWT Reserve 10th April

 Snakeshead Fritillary

 Snakeshead Fritillary

 Snakeshead Fritillary

 Snakeshead Fritillary

 Snakeshead Fritillary

 Snakeshead Fritillary

Hundreds in flower in the meadows today. I liked this bunch so concentrated on photographing these!

 Butterbur

Lots of this in flower along the cycle track between the river and Kennington.

Red Necked Grebe Farmoor 5th April

 Red Necked Grebe

 Red Necked Grebe

 Red Necked Grebe

 Red Necked Grebe

 Red Necked and Great Crested Grebes

Sydling's Copse 29th March

 Common Lizard

 Common Lizard

 Common Lizard

 Common Lizard

 Gorze

 Gorze Shieldbug

 Primrose

 Peacock and Common Lizard

 Larch Cones

A couple of Common Lizards were seen today basking on a log.
Plenty of Primroses and Dog Violets were in flower in the grassland area.
Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell and Brimstone butterflies were on the wing.
About 4 Gorze Shieldbugs were seen in the Gorze bushes.
3 Green Tiger Beetles around but very flighty.
2 Pieces of Toothwort were seen just coming out from under some Hazel bushes.

Garden Frog's

Spent a bit of time in the back garden today photographing the frogs that have finally emerged in my pond.

 Common Frog

 Common Frog

 Common Frog

 Common Frog

 Common Frog

Otmoor 16th February

 Stonechat

 Stonechat

 Dunnock

 Robin

3 Stonechats, 1 Male and 2 Females were seen today on the fence that runs along the path that goes past the main hide towards Noke.

 Brown Hare

 Brown Hare

 Brown Hare

 Brown Hare

 Brown Hare

 Brown Hare

At least 5 Brown Hares were seen today trapped in Big Otmoor field on the last few remaining areas of grassland available.Surely there must be a way the RSPB could make spaces in the fencing big enough for Hares to get through but small enough to stop Foxes?

Red Flanked Bluetail, Marshfield, 9th Feb

 Red Flanked Bluetail

 Red Flanked Bluetail

 Red Flanked Bluetail

 Red Flanked Bluetail

 Red Flanked Bluetail

 Red Flanked Bluetail

 Red Flanked Bluetail

Me and Julie arrived on site about 12pm and the bird was showing quite well perched in the middle of a Hawthorn bush. Other birders present had placed some mealworms onto a small grassy mound. After a short while the bird started moving around in the bush and then flew down onto the mound where the mealworms had been placed, grabbed a few and flew back into the bush. The bird done this quite a few times while we were there but it was only on the mound for a few seconds at a time so you had to be quick to get any pics!
2 Raven's were flying over calling.