Alners Gorse, Dorset

  Making the most of the sunny weather last weekend John and I visited the Butterfly Conservation's reserve at Alners Gorse in Dorset. Our target butterfly for the day was the White-letter Hairstreak.

  We were lucky enough to see at least six adult White-letter Hairstreaks flying around the tops of the Elm trees. We had good views through our binoculars, but unfortunately they would not come down to the lower branches for their photographs to be taken!

  There were lots of Marbled Whites on the wing as well as Ringlets, Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers. We also saw Silver-washed Fritillary and lots of Small Skippers.

  The pictures below are a selection of the those I took during the day and show a variety of insects that we saw whilst walking around the reserve.

Ringlet

Gatekeeper

Common Darter

Common Blue Damselfly

Hoverflies

Beetle (not identified!)

Yellow-tail Moth - the tip of the abdomen has a tuft of yellow hair.

A slightly different view of a hoverfly! I took this picture whilst the hoverfly was hovering in front of me in a sunny patch next to the trees. The hoverfly seemed to be territorial as it kept returning to the same area.