Ringstead Walk –Sunday 31st July 2005

by Bernard Franklin

We had a group of about 16 for this walk, most from the Wessex area, with one who had come down especially from Worcester and one from Surrey. The walk started out overcast, and other than Gatekeepers and one or two others we did not see much. Where we would expect to see Lulworth Skippers at Burning Cliff we were disappointed. However a bit further on in Holworth Bay we saw the first of many Lulworth skippers.

We stopped for lunch on the under cliff of White Nothe, with some good views of the surrounding coast. Above us were people paragliding, a family of peregrine falcons swooping and diving and a pair of ravens also practicing aerobatics.

By the time we had finished our lunch the sky had cleared sufficiently to cause the Lulworth Skippers to show themselves, and although not huge numbers, there were plenty to see.

We walked up the smugglers path to the top of White Nothe where we found several Marbled Whites flying about, as well as two wartime Mustang Fighters, I suppose off to an air show.

On the way back to the car park we counted 17 wall Browns, many of them resting on the footpath and the walls of the old coastguard cottages.

The species count for the walk was as follows:

Small Skipper and Small/Essex Skipper
Essex Skipper Nil
Lulworth Skipper
Large White
Small White
Red Admiral
Painted Lady
Peacock
Small Tortoiseshell
Speckled Wood
Wall
Marbled White
Gatekeeper
Meadow Brown
Moths - Mother-of-Pearl
Magpie
Silver Y and Large Yellow Underwing

The 17 Walls were noteworthy in four 1 km squares.

Thanks to Brian Dicker for noting these sightings.