Very commendable but unfortunately the photograph depicts a Little Swift which is a very rare vagrant to the UK. The species which nests in the UK is the Common Swift (Apus apus).

The single butterfly is Grosesmith's Swallowtail I think (from Madagascar) and the others are a Blue Morpho of some sort.

Some great work being done here by the Dorset Wildlife Trust. Great to see bottom up conservation initiatives in the county rather than populist top down.

bsky.app/profile/dors...

I believe that when it's a poor Red Grouse season they chuck loads of RLP up on the hills for the guns.

Have you got any plans for birding over the next 3 days?

The fleece is warm but not as windproof as they make out in the adverts. I've not got the waterproof coat which zips onto it but have one of their other coats. It's good but the main zip can be difficult to do up and the zips on the upper arm frequently unzip themselves. There's better out there.

You might as well go and talk to the nearest brick wall Natalie. This #labour government clearly hate nature as their friends tell them it doesn't generate income and the only way forward is growth, growth, growth. You need to push for a General Election.

It's not bad 😉 I've been planting a few more shrubs, which seem to have taken well, so hopefully they will help bring more birds down which often just move through the taller trees. You'll be able to see it for yourself sometime soon.

Easily in my top 10 of UK moths, absolute bobby-dazzlers 🤩

Excellent find Martin, a rare bird in Dorset 👌

It's the latter Steve, ordered through a friend from a company called Pherobank.

Golden Twin-spot if you have it? Surely breeding on the south coast this year.

I'm sorry but mortgage rates at around 4% might be higher than the recent unprecedented lows but historically that's still low. There are many ways to fix the housing market but they're all very unpopular with the people who make lots of money from owning multiple houses, which includes most MPs.

You're supposed to put blinkers on horses not yourself.

And the misandrist award of the year goes to...

If only there was a farmers union that could help sort that sort of thing out rather than just pandering to agrichemical lobbyists.

Nope, they planted the trees in the place they were told not to plant them and even then they mound planted them 🤦‍♂️

As well as Leica and Zeiss there's also a lot of other brands available nowadays which offer superb quality optics at a more reasonable price with better warranties. Unfortunately birding snobbery stops a lot of people buying them.