Gulls and a telescope trial

The herring gull chicks have finally departed from the assorted roofs and courtyards at the back of the house. What I thought were 2 birds were actually 3 which I only realised when the 3 of them were mewling away for the adults on the flat roof next door. This was the last time I saw them (13th July) so hopefully they will do well.

One of my juvenile Herring Gulls

I headed out to Wembury on the 14th July with the telescope to put it through its paces. I am very pleased with the telescope although it really is at its limit at the 40x zoom even in the bright weather. It will take some getting used to using it and I felt a little self-conscious carrying it around - having binoculars around your neck is a little more discreet than lugging a telescope and tripod around. However I am not so pleased with the tripod, it is a lovely tripod and very stable but man, is it heavy! I had had enough of it by the end of the walk and so I have ordered a travel tripod for £65 on the internet, it is half the weight of the other tripod and will fold down to a size that will fit comfortably in my rucksack.

Bird wise the walk was quiet with the highlights being :- 43 oystercatchers and 13 curlew with 1 summer plumaged dunlin roosting on the beach; 2 singing cirl buntings heard; a yaffling green woodpecker flying over the pines at Wembury Point; a meadow pipit feeding along the beach amongst the rock pipits and pied wagtails; and gannets offshore.

A marbled white was a surprise sight as it flew over the arable field by the footpath in the old HMS Cambridge grounds, a brief view only before it dived in to the grass and was lost from sight, only the 2nd time I have seen a marbled white here. Also seen were a few meadow browns and ringlets and a six-spot burnet moth. I also saw a few interesting looking flys feeding on the umbillifers, I don't know what they are called but managed to get a photo of one of them - I took very few photos on the walk due to lugging around the tripod!

Unknown Fly sp.