Butterflys and Waders at Wembury Part Two - July 27th 2012

It was still hot and sunny so I headed out to Wembury again on the first bus of the day, arriving at Wembury at 09:30. The beach was again busy but less so than it was on Wednesday and it was cooler with a North Westerly breeze but still quite warm.

The breeze kept a lot of the butterflys lower down to the vegetation but they were still very noticeable flying around eveywhere. I saw all the same species as I did on Wednesday but added a holly blue and 2 comma to the tally resulting in a 13 species butterfly day!

Small Copper

Red Admiral

Comma

Holly Blue

The toilet block held a few moths again including one of my favourites, a very rosy rosy footman. I also found an unusual moth that I had to have help identifying through the Back Garden Moths Forum, it was a meal moth, an unusual micro moth that I have not seen before. It is usually found in barns and mills so what it was doing in the toilet block is anyones guess - the National Trust cafe opposite the toilets used to be a mill but that was many years ago!

Rosy Footman

Meal Moth

Waders were again roosting at Wembury Point at high tide - 56 oystercatcher, 2 whimbrel, 2 common sandpipers and 4 curlew were seen with a ringed plover and a dunlin heard. There were probably more curlew hidden amongst the rocks than the 4 I could see and 2 little egrets were also present. A juvenile peregrine buzzed the wader flock as it flew overhead before flying off towards Plymouth, causing a moment of panic amongst the waders.

A yellowhammer and 3 cirl buntings were heard singing and along the beach there were now 4 male mallards in eclipse plumage with the 3 females. Swallows were seen flitting around the cliff face beneath the foot path by the horse field and on watching them through my binoculars I picked out 2 sand martins which eventually flew off West, a species I only occassionally see at Wembury. A green woodpecker was again heard yaffling at Wembury Point and offshore there was a light passage of small groups of black headed gulls heading West, mostly adults with a few juveniles.

A pasty and a coffee while sitting in the shade near the main beach was very welcome before I headed off home on the bus, having had yet another great days wildlife watching at Wembury.