As a result of the recent good weather the most noticeable thing on the walk were all the butterflys flitting around, the most I have seen for a long time and proof of how amazing nature can be. The weather has been pretty cold and wet and windy for the last 3 months and yet after a few days of hot and sunny weather everything has come to life. Meadow browns and gatekeepers were eveywhere and I also saw quite a few ringlets, large whites and small whites. Some of the small whites may have been green veined whites, I couln't be sure as they wizzed past in the hot sunshine. Also on the wing were a very tatty wall brown, 3 small coppers, 2 speckled woods, 3 red admirals and quite a few small skippers which were busily harrasing every butterfly that so much as looked at them. I also saw a marbled white fly past the bus at the petrol station at Staddiscombe so by the end of the trip I had seen 11 species of butterfly.
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| Small Copper |
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| Ringlet |
The toilet block held a few moths too - a riband wave, a snout, a common white wave, a common footman and a rusty dot pearl - and along the coastpath I saw 2 silver y and some six-spot burnets. I also found the remains of a cocoon of an emerged six-spot burnet.
Bird wise it was quiet, no surprise at this time of year, but the wader roost at Wembury Point at high tide had 2 winter plumage dunlins and a common sandpiper amongst the 2 whimbrel, 13 curlew and 53 oystercatchers. Also seen were 3 male and 3 female mallards (the males in eclipse plumage), 2 little egrets, a song thrush and a single adult gannet offshore. 2 cirl buntings were heard with 1 of the males also seen and whitethroats, chiffchaffs, linnets and swallows were obvious all along the walk.
I headed home on the 13:30 bus and was glad to get back indoors and out of the sun and heat but I had had a very pleasent morning.
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