Alkanet.

 It is good to see that the uncommon Alkanet, with its dark blue, white centred flowers, is growing well at the bottom of Blundell's Lane. This is one of those plants which are liable to pop up suddenly and the disappear just as suddenly, and doesn't appear to have been recorded in our 1km. square before.

Alkanet. Photo. John Elliott. Click to enlarge.

Beautiful Demoiselle.

 Not quite as showy as their male counterpart, the female Beautiful Demoiselle damselfly which appeared in my front garden this morning is still an amazing colection of colours.

Beatiful Demoiselle. Photo. John Elliott. Click to enlarge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This damselfly used to appear down the Weymouth road, but desperately avoiding the traffic, I failed to find it this afternoon. It must be moving up-stream. I was however very pleased to see a Mallard with four very small chicks.  Goodness knows where she managed to nest as the stream is now denuded of suitable vegetation to nest in, perhaps by effects of sewage discharge.

 

     My cuckoo,  Cuach Torc has now been seen back in its breeding ground in Limmerick where it was born.   Here is the latest bulletin from the BTO.

'Trent is back in Worcestershire, Joe is in Norfolk, Sayaan is in Sussex and KP, Cuach Cores and Cuach Torc are all back in Ireland. They'll be busy zooming about their breeding grounds looking for suitable females to breed with. We could be less than a month away from the first of these birds beginning their journeys south once again. '

Lords and Ladies puzzle.

Trudging up the hill to Ewelease Dairy today, stopping frequently to admire the newly emergent ferns, both Hart's Tongue and Soft Shield Fern, as well as the frequent Lords and Ladies, my eye was caught by one of the Lords and Ladies which had a yellow spike or spadix in contrast to the dull purple usually found. The last time I saw one of these was in the mountains of the Czech Republic some years ago, where it was frequent and easily identified as Italian Arum, Arum italicum. This does occur in Dorset, but only in narrow coastal belts in Purbeck and Portland. Could it have made it over the sea wall?

Arum italicum??. Photo John Elliott. Click to enlarge.

Checking in CTW however, the spadix of Lords and Ladies, Arum maculatum, is stated to be '7 -12 cm., upper part dull purple, rarely yellow'

Arum maculatum. Photo John Elliott. click to enlarge

There is supposed to be a difference in the midrib of the enveloping spathe but it is not apparent in any of the specimens I have examined. The leaves of italicum are said to emerge in December while those of maculatum arise in the Spring.so I will be keeping an eye on it.

Dandelions.

 

 Goldfinches feeding.  Photo. John Elliott. Click to enlarge.

My wild front garden has produced a lovely crop of sunny yellow Dandelions which, once seeded, are proving to be a great food source for the Goldfinches.

News of my Cuckoo.

 The latst bulletin on the BTO's tagged cuckoos incuding mine,  Cuach Torc.

 

 

Cuckoos Trent, Cuach Torc and Sayaan are more or less neck and neck, some 100km south of KP. Trent is in a wooded area just north of the village of Belmez in Córdoba, Andalucia. Cuach Torc is just south of Trent, in the Parque Natural Sierra de Hornachuelos (which KP also visited). Meanwhile Sussex Cuckoo Sayaan is slightly further east, in the Sierra de Andújar natural park, part of the vast Sierra Morena mountain range.

The first Comma.

 The first Comma of the year appeared today in my front garden.

 

   Comma. Photo John Elliott

 

The Comma, Polgonia c-album, is one of the butterflies that regularly overwinter as adults, the others being Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell and Brimstone, and are thus the earliest butterflies to be seen in the spring. 

The Comma became very scarse in the 1800s, being confined to the Welsh Borders, but a remarkable recovery started early in the 20th century, with Dorset being among the leaders with the butterfly 'everywhere' by 1929.