Another weekend away with a selection of target species. Made my way south on the Friday, stopping in the Borders for Southern Hawkers then onto Northumberland to get John. Took a wander around St Mary's looking for Owls but sadly no sign of any. We did watch a Kestrel at close quarters having its supper until a Migrant Hawker landed in front of us.
Saturday morning, we drove overnight down to Devon for Cirl Buntings and heard them singing as we got out the car. Ended up seeing around 6 of them, some very close. Had a juv Green Woodpecker flying around us but never landed in the open. Made our way over to Dorset for some Butterfly targets, Lulworth Skipper and Chalkhill Blue. Managed to get both of them eventually + Marbled Whites, GateKeepers ect and Wasp Spiders all at Lulworth Cove. Headed to Arne after this to try for the main target of the weekend, Forster's Tern. Sadly we dipped it, needed to be there an hour or so earlier so rather than waste more time, we decided to cut our losses and try again tomorrow. Made our way over to the New Forest next and got Small Red Damselfly which was the No1 target here + White-legged Damsel and Beautiful Demoiselle all beside each other. Our next stop wasn't far away and now into the late afternoon to look for reptiles, Grass Snake, Smooth Snake and Slow Worm but failed on all three. The one reptile I did manage to see however, was Sand Lizard at Arne, earlier in the day.
Sunday morning we were up early and headed back to Arne and thankfully this time, the Forster's Tern flew in and stayed on view for over an hour. Job done!
We started heading north and stopped in at a few sites for Silver-spotted Skipper and Brown Hairstreak but sadly the weather took a turn, wind picked up and the rain came battering down so pulled the plug and made the long drive home.