Wembury, 26th May 2011

Cold, grey skies, breezey and showers so after getting out of bed at 10:00am(!) I caught the bus out to Wembury for a quick walk, having only 90 minutes between buses. The small magpie moth was still in the toilet block but nothing else. The unknown caterpillars on the umbellifers were eveywhere still especially in the stream along the valley to the beach, I hadn't noticed them there on Saturday or Monday. I also found some colourful magpie moth caterpillars on the sloe bushes, they are much larger now than when I saw them at the beginning of the month.

Magpie Moth Caterpillar

Bird wise it was quiet again but the wind didn't help much. A flock of around 100 great black backed- and herring gulls were roosting on the beach around the sewage pipe and feeding on the mass of decaying seaweed, being a mix of adults and various aged juveniles. A shelduck was on the beach amongst them. A few gannets were seen offshore. Land birds were represented by the usual whitethroats singing and song-flighting and a male blackcap was seen skulking in a bush.

Best find of the day was a scarlet tiger moth that I found at the bus stop, in the same place I found one last year.Unfortunately I found it just as the bus turned up so I took a few quick photos before I had to head home.

Scarlet Tiger