Jeez I was looking forward to this! Like you have no idea!

A few years back there were a gang of us started up Widerscope, the main men nowadays being Danny Cooper and myself. A few others have come and gone but we're pretty much it now (although the Facebook Group is still going strong). At least once a year we embark on some mad hair-brained escapade around the country finding as much weird and wonderful wildlife as we possibly can and all with plenty of beer chucked in on top. It's tradition. This year Danny and I had planned to try for the Wild Boar in the Forest of Dean and then head up to Orme's Head for cave and rockpool shenanigans with Jenni Louise Cox. Except she'd had a bit of a breakdown and was not gonna be able to meet us anymore. I don't think it was the thought of meeting us that caused it. We still planned to go for the boar and do some rockpooling though, but probably not as far afield as Orme's Head. During the course of a few Facebooking messages Bill Urwin, aka Gandalf of Avalon Marshes (or Papa Smurf to the irreverent), had very kindly offered to show us around his patch and get us into areas usually out of bounds to the general public. Brilliant stuff, gotta love Bill. He's funnny as fkk too when he gets going! The other interesting development was that I'd half-jokingly invited Graeme Lyons along, knowing he'd say no, and amazingly he'd agreed!!! How fantastic was THAT???

So the loose plan was that Graeme would come over to me, we'd head off westwards in my van, then meet Danny that evening at a pre-arranged site (which just so happened to be a pub that allows overnight stays in the yard behind...) before heading to meet Bill in Somerset the next morning and ending up in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire that night where we would meet up with Craig (a pal of Danny's that I've met a couple of times before) and then go find ourselves some boar! After that we had no idea what we planned to do. But hey, these things develop kinda organically. It's the best way!

Right, so back to the present again. Graeme was here, where should we go? The weather looked pretty crap, it was dull and quite cool. Not ideal. "How about you show me those Heath Grasshoppers?" asked Graeme. Cool, we had a plan! So off into the heart of Poole we headed. Entering Alder Hills NR Graeme wasted absolutely no time at all and said, "this is all Bristle Bent!" which agreed with what the notice board stated. Cool, Bristle Bent (Agrostis curtisii) was not a grass I'd identified before and was lifer number one of the day for me. We trudged around the top perimeter path, I don't think we saw a single orthopteran, not even Field Grasshopper. It was just too overcast and miserable. Damn, I'd been so confident too. Graeme didn't let that get him down though and was soon showing me another lifer, the smart spider Arctosa perita which is a sand and heath specialist with amazing annulated legs. When it stops moving it almost disappears from view! Nice work, fella.

I headed straight to the bottom of the wide sandy ride that leads to the lake, this was where I saw the most Heath Grasshoppers last time I was here. Nothing. We searched under heather plants and amongst debris until finally Graeme yelled, "got one!" Hurrying over to where he stood I had to agree, he'd found the barest of suntraps which held the only Heath Grasshopper (Chorthippus vagans) we would see that day. It would be Tony's turn to see one next, but that would have to wait until next summer now.

Leaving Alder Hills we briefly encountered a single Ivy Bee (Colletes hederae) and I noticed a patch of Polytrichum piliferum that Graeme had already dismissed as a commoner species (probably be the one and only time I'll ever get to correct him on a moss identification!) Last thing we saw of any note, and Graeme's second lifer of the day, was found in a clump of bamboo overhanging the pavement. "Usually I find bamboo aphids whenever I check bamboo like this" I boldly claimed. Graeme looked bemused...until I showed him a whole cluster of them on the underside of a leaf blade! "Oh wow, what are these then?" came the questioning reply. Through a 10x handlens we could make out the distinct black spot on the aphids 'bum' which confirmed the species as Black-tailed Bamboo Aphid (Takecallis arundicolens). Easy!

We still had lots of daylight left so I suggested I show Graeme his frst close look at Portland. Seriously, I just can't believe he'd never even clapped eyes on it until just two weeks ago! We didn't venture very far onto Portland. Graeme said he'd rather wait until next year's PSL Weekend and see it properly. In fact we only made it as far as the far end of Ferry Bridge, which was fine because that's where he ticked off Thick Topshell (Osilinus lineatus), Wild Asparagus (Asparagus prostratus) and Mediterranean Spurge (Euphorbia characias) amongst masses of Shrubby Sea Blite (Suaeda vera). I asked Graeme if the sea blite was a tick. "Haha mate, you DO know I used to work at Titchwell, right?" Oh, I guess not then? 

After that, at a bit of a loss as to what to do next, we simply decided to head to the rendezvous point and wait for Danny to make an appearance. Graeme's only met Dan once before, a couple of years back now. I figured they'd get on like a house on fire over the next few days. We hit the road and headed off westwards towards a pub called The Eagle. Danny wasn't there yet when we arrived, and thanks to poor phone reception it took a bit of effort to contact him. But he was on his way and before too long I was introducing Graeme to Danny and myself to a pint of Stella. Happy Days, our adventure could now begin. Danny's campervan would be our home for the next few nights, but I opted to kip in the back of my trusty van for the night, it being just a tad less busy than the rear of Dan's camper. I slept like a log and was woken with the call of "You alive in there? Coffee here, Seth!"

I didn't actually take any photo's today, so here's a pic of Danny instead!

Doesn't matter what it is, if you can smoke it then Danny will..