The Best of Dorset’s Wildlife Naturetrek Tour Report 16 – 19 June 2015 1 2 Bee Orchid by Charlie Rugeroni Fulmar by Caz Robertson 3 Smooth Snake by Charlie Rugeroni 4Marbled White on Greater Knapweed by Charlie Rugeroni Report compiled by Charlie Rugeroni Images courtesy of Caz Robertson & Charlie Rugeroni Naturetrek Mingledown Barn Wolf's Lane Chawton Alton Hampshire GU34 3HJ UK T: +44 (0)1962 733051 E:
[email protected] W: www.naturetrek.co.uk The Best of Dorset’s Wildlife Tour Report Tour participants: Charlie Rugeroni (leader) together with nine Naturetrek clients Summary Our base for this holiday was Mortons House Hotel, an Elizabethan manor house in the village of Corfe, between Wareham and Swanage, in the heart of Purbeck. The diversity of the underlying geology in this part of Dorset, which embraces the Jurassic coast (a World Heritage Site), provided the setting for the variety of habitats, wildlife and landscapes we so enjoyed and explored in a hot, sunny June. Equaled by few places in Britain, Durlston brought together an array of butterflies, birds, wildflowers and views. Here, on cliff tops, we came eye to eye with Fulmars and Great Black-backed Gulls, and marveled at the delicate, nationally scarce, Slender Tare, as Marbled White butterflies flew past Bee Orchids in a flower rich meadow. At Lodmore, Marsh Harriers quartered the lakes and the song of Cetti’s Warblers rang out from reedbeds, home to Shoveler and Little Egret. The heaths at Arne did not disappoint with Britain’s rarest reptile, the Smooth Snake, found one morning on Grip Heath, and in the cool of the evening Nightjars displayed and churred above a Glow-worm or two.