More Sunny Days Off Work

Thursday 25th May and another hot and sunny day forecasted and so I headed off to Wembury on the bus for a walk. It was indeed hot and sunny and I wore my shorts and sandals for the first time this year but I did foolishly get a bit sun burnt on my fore arms and on the tops of my feet.

The sedge warbler I first saw in the valley to the beach at the beginning of May was still busily singing away and songflighting , I guess it has yet to find a mate although it is probably unlikely to now. Blackcap and chiffchaff were heard along with whitethroats which again seemed to be everywhere and a nice surprise was a willow warbler quietly singing near the riding stables.

Sedge Warbler

Whitethroat

Other bird highlights were:- 2 raven flying along the cliffs; 2 shelduck and 2 male mallard, oystercatchers and 7 whimbrel feeding on the beach near the sewage pipe with another 2 whimbrel flying east along the shoreline at Heybrook Bay; around 20 house martins feeding over Heybrook Bay with a few swallows; 6 Canada geese feeding in the wheatfield; a singing cirl bunting in the sewage farm hedge with a male and female together at The Point; and the usual birds - stonechats, linnets, robins, blackbirds, wrens, etc.

Butterflys were much in evidence in the hot sunshine and I saw green veined white, holly blue, common blue, peacock, red admiral, small tortoiseshell, speckled wood and orange tip but the best was a green hairstreak on the gorse bushes by the footpath at The Point where I also bizzarely saw a male brimstone fly past.

 Green Hairstreak

 Green Hairstreak

 Peacock

Common Blue

Moth sightings consisted of 3 common marbled carpet in the toilet block, all with different colouring and markings, a silver y in the grass at The Point, Depressia daucella caterpillars on the hemlock water dropwort flower heads, lackey caterpillar nests and a large drinker moth caterpillar squashed on the footpath.

 Silver Y

 Lackey Caterpillars

Depressia daucella Caterpillar

A glow worm larva, a tiny dark bush cricket nymph, a wasp beetle, a seven spot ladybird larva and a beautiful demoiselle briefly by the footbridge in the valley to the beach were also seen.

 Glow Worm Larva

 Wasp Beetle

 Wasp Beetle

7 Spot Ladybird Larva

Beautiful Demoiselle record shot

Friday 26th May was an even hotter day than before and so we headed to the beach at Bovisand, catching the ferry across to Mount Batten from The Barbican and walking along the coast path. There were plenty of butterflies on the wing - red admiral, large white, green veined white, 2 holly blue, a painted lady, common blue, 2 worn wall, 2 faded small tortoiseshell, speckled wood, orange tip, a small copper and 2 green hairstreaks - a big improvement on general sightings this time last year. A sparrowhawk being mobbed by swallows, swifts flying about overhead, whitethroats heard and seen and chiffchaff and blackcap heard were the bird highlights on what was a very hot day despite a cool south easterly breeze.