21st April - Durlston Country Park

A trip down to Durlston Country Park to check everything is as we remembered it ready to lead tours there later in the year.

We worked our way west along the lower coastal path where we bumped into this chap:

We carried on and found a number of orchids, including early spider:

There were also very good numbers of green-winged and early purple orchids. Other plants in flower included chalk milkwort and fields of cowslips - brilliant!

Perhaps the most interesting thing we saw was a chalkhill blue caterpillar with its bodyguard of ants. In exchange sugars and proteins exuded by the caterpillar, the ants protect the caterpillar, nature is amazing!!

 

After checking the cafe was still producing bacon rolls and tea of a high standard we checked out the seabirds and managed to see a nice selection including guillemot, razorbill, gannet, fulmar, shag and kittiwake:

So all is well at Durlston, a wide variety of wildlife seen and heard. NA/DT