Wembury, 2nd July 2011

Another beautiful day, hot and sunny but pleasently so, not like the weather last weekend which was a little too hot, and so I headed off on the bus to Wembury for a walk. I always find it good for my body clock to get out in bright sunshine after finishing night shifts if at all possible and today was perfect for that.

Bird wise it was a little more interesting than of late. On the beach a small group of adult black headed gulls in summer plumage were feeding amongst the seaweed washed up on the beach and a nice juvenile was feeding with them. On checking them out I found a smart Mediterranean gull in summer plumage although it had some black markings on its wing tips, it also had a light blue plastic ring on its left leg but it was too distant to read any letters or numbers on it. There has been an influx of Meds along the South Devon coast this week so it was nice to see one today especially in smart summer plumage.

Also seen were 2 little egrets and a grey heron feeding amongst the rock pools at low tide, a pair of mallard, a curlew with the oystercatchers, a pale buzzard overhead, a pair of peregrines flying towards Noss Mayo and single adult gannets offshore with 1 dark juvenile.

Cirl buntings were heard with good views of a pair together and a single male. A blackcap was heard and whitethroats were seen and heard including a few juveniles. A chiffchaff was heard with 1 seen in bushes along the beach.

Butterflies were very much in evidence with 11 species seen. At least 2 comma were seen along with red admiral, small copper, small tortoiseshell, speckled wood, large skipper, common blue, meadow brown and  large white. Ringlets were by far the commonest butterfly, they seemed to be everywhere flying over the grassy fields and also seen were small skippers, my first record for Wembury. The warm weather meant they were very active and difficult to get a photo of but I managed these 2 snaps.

Meadow Brown

Comma

Moth wise Six-spot burnets were on the wing and the toilet block held an assortment of goodies including 2 bee moths, a willow beauty, an early thorn, a smart dot moth, a buff ermine and a small blood vein.

Willow Beauty

Dot Moth

Early Thorn

Plant wise Self Heal was seen along with some beautifully vibrant blue Vipers Bugloss.

Vipers Bugloss

David met me after my walk, having met some friends in town for a coffee first, so at least I had a good nature walk without him dragging along behind me. We had a coffee and a pasty while sitting on the bench above the beach admiring the scenery and enjoying the sunshine, the pasty was much nicer than the one I had on Monday. It was a stunningly beautiful day, I had a great time and it was just the tonic after a busy week of night shifts.