I caught the bus out to Wembury for a quick walk along the coast. The sun was shining and it was surprisingly humid but with a swift breeze blowing. When the sun eventually disappeared behind the clouds (as it frequently does this summer) it was surprisingly cool.
There were no moths in the toilet block but I did see three six-spot burnets on the wing and a caterpillar basking in the sun on some birds foot trefoil. A few white butterflies were seen wizzing past in the strong breeze and I found a few false oil beetles feeding on the large daisy flowers. The dropwort by the path where the Depressia daucella moth caterpillars were seen feeding had been chopped down and I don't know if any pupated before this happened.
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| Six-spot Burnet |
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| False Oil Beetle |
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| Vipers Bugloss |
Bird wise it was quiet with a single adult gannet offshore, a flyover raven, 3 singing male cirl buntings with a male seen mating with a female, 2 little egrets roosting with the oystercatchers at Wembury Point and plenty of singing whitethroats.
Surprise bird was a smart male wheatear on a fence post by the wheatfield - either a late migrant, a failed breeder or a displaced bird from the recent gales we had. I managed a poor photo and on discussing the sighting with a fellow birder I later met we felt it wasn't a candidate for a wheatear of the Greenland race which would be more in keeping with the date as it wasn't unduly brighter or larger than a "normal" wheatear.
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| Wheatear |
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| Wheatear |
A pasty and a coffee and off home with a sighting of a common lizard at the bus stop but no scarlet tiger moth and on arriving home it absolutely poured down for the next 2 hours so I had been very lucky to have had a dry walk!
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