Nuts in May

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Thursday, 5 October 2023 19:39

It's been a mad year. I've mad over 42,000 records in just over nine months, already a record for a year for me. I am now back writing the book on pan-species listing, so what better way is there to holiday in such circumstances, than a pan-species listing holiday?! I can't believe that I made 1194 records in a week but I did and it was really enjoyable. A huge thanks to Karen for putting up with my intensity but I really needed this holiday. As you can see, we got about quite a bit. Too much for one blog really. 50 miles walked exactly, in fact.


We started off nipping into Arne on the way down there, and leisurely ticked the long-staying Forster's Tern. My 2nd new bird in September. 

If you think that is a bad photo, then check this out. The only shot I managed of my first and only Large Velvet Ant. So pleased to finally catch up with one of these. I spotted this male in flight and new immediately it was something I had not seen before.


And then I had a go at searching for Hairy Nuts Disco. The fungus that grows on last year's Sweet Chestnut husks. A couple of birders walked past and I wanted to share the find, hoping to lure them in and then drop the name on them. This happened:

Me "Would you like to see a cool fungus?" *giggling to myself quietly*
Woman "Not really" as she and her husband sped up.

I only wanted to show them my Hairy Nuts Disco :(

I literally burst out laughing. It's a good job she didn't come over. 

We called in at Corfe Castle, I was channeling my inner Keith from Nuts in May. If you haven't seen this 1976 film, it is well worth a look. Each year I get a bit more like Keith...

Keith: "Look at this view, Brownsea Island, Round Island, the Lakeland of Dorset...pity about the power station in the background, never mind...there are the heaths, Newton Heath, Rempstone Heath, Witch Heath...disused railways line going up to Wareham...and the great nimbocumulus rising above it all like great puffs of cotton wool..."

I literally stood in the same place and delivered such a monologue without realising just how Keith I have become. I rewatched it last night and you know what, I don't really care! I'm proud to be a bit Keith from Nuts in May!


We stayed at Gorwell Farm, a wildlife friendly farm that were happy for us to run the moth trap out of the cottage. I will cover the farm and moth traps in more detail in part 2, and I think I will also cover Portland Bird Observatory and all the Portland stuff in that section also. This one then, basically being everything else. 

After spending the day on Portland, we headed to Chesil Beach. A Brown Hare on the shingle was a surprise but the highlight for me was finding an adult female Phlegra fasciata under a rock. There were very few rocks to turn, so finding Scaly Cricket this way was looking unlikely.

And it's always a pleasure to see Sea Pea!

The next day we headed to Cerne Abbas, then onto Radipole Lake RSPB Reserve to look for the rare spider Hyspsosinga heri. It didn't take too long to find five immatures, all in one place. Very large and orange for a Hypsosinga, and we only found them where the water table was high. So, highly distinctive even as an immature. Now only known from this general area, so listed as Nationally Rare and Vulnerable.

I also found this Arocatus sp. (I forget which one the consensus is that we have), have only seen this bug that feeds on Alder a few times so far.


We headed to a ghost walk in Weymouth. It was just the night for it and my coat was better than the tour guide's.


Then we headed over to Eype. I went there in the summer and found the Cliff Tiger Beetles there easy enough but I had unfinished business with Drypta dentata. I found five but it was hard work. What a beetle!


This shot makes it look much more daring than it really was.

I got a few other beetle lifers, Curimopsis setigera being one.

There were loads of adult male Synageles venator, only the 2nd time I have seen this Nationally Scarce ant-mimic jumping spider. I saw seven, all adult males.

But getting my first adult Boat Bug was also exciting.

Then back to Chesil Beach, where the tiny Iberina candida was common. Lots of mature males and female of this Nationally Rare species.

I finally caught up with probably my most wanted species, Scaly Cricket. They were really common once I baited some makeshift pitfalls with a Cornish pasty. In fact, I found them everywhere I looked with 69 individuals found. There must be millions of animals on that beach.

Then to Kimmeridge Bay for the big low on Saturday. It was a bit of a struggle, despite the low tide, due to strong winds and poor light. Yet I got a few new seaweeds, including this Peacock's-feather. It looks a lot more impressive in real life, very unlike a sea weed at all.

A few clingfish were fun, including this Cornish Sucker.

I wrestled a rock for ages to get a shot of what looked like a blob of jelly sitting on top of some star ascidians, thinking it was a nudibranch only to decide it wasn't and walk away from it with just one poor photo. I then realised when I got home that it was a nudibranch (you can see the rhinophores). I got some help from Julie Hatcher and was pleased to see the fact that it was feeding on the star ascidians was a good indicator that it was Goniodoris castanea! A lifer, result. All the nudibranchs I see are like 5 mm long, as was this one.

So it was pretty full on! Yet most of the excitement for me really came from moth trapping, at Gorwell and Portland and in Tout Quarry, but that will have to wait until part two!

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