Thurlestone 25th August 2011

Felt as rough as a badgers a**e on Sunday morning after the wedding, had a great time at the wedding and actually danced! but I felt really awful the next day. It was a free bar but I had very little to drink but I maybe had more than I thought but I also had an upset stomach and did not sleep well. However I went to work on the late shift, struggled through and went to bed as soon as I got home at 21:45hrs. The next 2 days I was on early shifts and struggled through them too, luckily work was relatively quiet. I was relieved when Wednesday arrived and I had 3 days off but the weather was shite so we went to the pictures and saw "Cowboys and aliens" which was a great piece of frothy fun and nonsense.

Thursday 25th the weather still was crap with a rubbish forecast but we decided to take our chances and headed out to Hope Cove for a walk along the coast. It was quite breezey but the sun shone at times and it stayed dry.

Bird wise a juvenile yellow wagtail was watched feeding around the feet of some sheep in the field in front of South Huish marsh although it was distant. Later a yellow wagtail flew over calling, its underparts being very yellow as it passed over, presumably an adult male, and later another or the same juvenile was seen flying over the sheep field. I was pleased to see them as they are one of my favourite birds but they were not the best views so I'm hoping to catch up with some more of them in the next few weeks.

Also seen were 2 black-tailed godwit on the marsh with a grey heron and some moorhen. 2 wheatears fed in the sheep field with pied wagtails, 1 of the wheatears had the tell-tale scruffy plumage of a recent fledgling. 2 wheatears were later seen feeding on the cliffs at Hope Head. House and sand martins flew overhead with swallows and a whitethroat was seen flying low over some brambles before disappearing. 2 adult male and a female stonechat were seen along the coast path and 2 ravens flew overhead. At one point all the gulls were up in the air calling but I failed to find any raptor flying over.

The toilet block by Thurlestone golf club held 2 single dotted wave, a brimstone moth, a smart setaceous Hebrew character, a rusty dot pearl, lots of grass veneers and best of all, a smart rosy rustic, a new moth for me.

Rosy Rustic

Rusty Dot Pearl

Also seen were a small copper, 2 male common blue, a speckled wood, small whites, meadow browns and a six-spot burnet moth.

We had a sandwich at the cafe on the beach despite it being a little on the expensive side, however David had a crab sandwich which cost the same as the cafes in Hope Cove and I had a sausage sandwich made with local sausages and I have to say it was very tasty and filling.

Cetacean skull on a shed

Despite the weather I had the moth box out in the back yard a couple of times, one morning I was woken up by thunder to find it pelting down with rain and the trap was a little on the soggy side as I tried to process the moths. I got soaked as well!  Nothing new in the trap but I did have a new record count of Jersey Tiger moths for the garden, a total of 5 although 1 was dead in a spiders web, I try to brush the webs away when I get the trap out but the spiders have to eat too and they are quick to respin the webs I brush away. Also caught were an Old Lady, 2 Marbled Green, 2 Square Spot Rustic, 1 Copper Underwing, 1 Rusty Dot Pearl and a Garden Pebble amongst others.

Square spot Rustic

Jersey Tiger Moth

Back to work today for 4 days, a late today and then 3 earlys, haven't done that for a while! No chance to use the moth box until Tuesday night but the weather is still pretty dire, it is Bank Holiday weekend though, but hopefully it will be better by Tuesday. Still hoping to catch large rannunculus in the garden, a very pretty moth that I caught around this time last year, so fingers crossed.