Saturday and I headed off to Wembury for a wander in the sunshine. Bird wise it was quiet but I did find 3 summer plumaged dunlin feeding along the beach with a ringed plover, 3 whimbrels feeding on the rocks and a count of 34 oystercatchers roosting on the rocks. A little egret flew along the coast and a shelduck was on the sea by the sewage pipe. 2 ravens flew over being mobbed by 2 jackdaws. A pair of cirl buntings were seen feeding together.
Fledglings were much in evidence with a pair of stonechats seen with 4 fledglings, the male was singing at times and was seen chasing off one of the fledglings. A male blackcap was seen feeding a fledgling, a great tit was seen feeding a youngster and a young blackbird was seen calling from a tree in the valley to the beach.
Insect wise it was a good day with 2 green hairstreaks, a wall, a small tortoiseshell and speckled woods representing butterflies, a burnet companion moth was a surprise after seeing them for the first time yesterday and false oil beetles with their huge thighs were feeding in the daisy flowers. Moth wise I also found a silver ground carpet, a male pale tussock, a white ermine and a common marbled carpet in the toilet block. A common swift moth was found squashed on the footpath and six spot burnets were also on the wing and I found quite a few of their caterpillars along the walk too. Speckled yellow moths were seen flitting over the cliff tops.
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| Speckled Yellow - finally stayed still long enough to get a photo, they are such skittish things! |
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| False Oil Beetle - check out those thighs! |
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| Common swift - squashed on the path but not by me! |
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| White Ermine |
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| Pale Tussock |
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| Common Marbled Carpet |
Also seen were loads of caterpillars feeding on some type of umbillifer, I am not sure what species they are but appear to be a moth species on checking butterfly caterpillars in the guide books. They are causing quite a bit of damage to the plants and were seen all along the walk but especially by the path by the cattle field.
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| Unknown caterpillar |
In the evening we headed off to Kitley House for my work colleague Monicas wedding reception. We had a good time and stayed the night there. I did see a brimstone moth and an orange footman flitting around a floodlight in the grounds, the footman being a new moth for me.
We were woken up early by twittering swallows and someone had set the alarm clock in the room to go off at 06:48 in the morning so we didn't get much sleep. After breakfast we had a walk around the estate and saw a male pochard and a pair of tufted duck on the large fish lake with 2 little egrets, and a pair of shelduck with 4 young on the creek.
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| Swallow from the bedroom window |
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| Spring is here! |
I decided to put the moth box out in the back yard that night and the next morning I had a new for the garden but very tatty iron prominent and a small square spot amongst the 9 moths in the trap.
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| Yellow Barred Brindle |
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| A very tatty looking iron prominent |
Monday and the weather was cold and grey so we had a quick walk along the coast at Wembury and I found a small magpie and a mottled beauty in the toilet block and I found a six-spot burnett moth coccoon on a grass stalk.
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| Mottled Beauty |
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| Small Magpie |
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