Saturday 17th June and with a day to myself and hot and sunny weather forecast I decided to have a walk at Wembury, somewhere I have neglected somewhat this year. It was indeed hot and sunny, so much so that I caught an earlier bus than planned back to Plymouth in order to escape the heat.
Bird wise it was quiet with the usual June at Wembury birds seen - 28 oystercatchers and a male mallard on the rocks at high tide, fulmars around The Mewstone, stonechats, linnets, robins, pied wagtails, a flyover peregrine, a flyover male sparrowhawk being mobbed by swallows, etc. Blackcaps, whitethroats and chiffchaffs were still in song and there were quite a few fledglings of all three species seen especially chiffchaffs which seem to have had a very good breeding season this year.
A few moths were around too - a dead buff ermine in the toilet block, a rush veneer and 2 unidentified micro moths.
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Butterflies were on the wing too with a ringlet and at least 4 large skippers being firsts for the year along with a faded painted lady, a small tortoiseshell, a male common blue, meadow browns and an egg laying red admiral.
Ringlet
Painted Lady
Large Skipper
Large Skipper
Red Admiral Egg
Vipers Bugloss
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On the way home I stopped off at Blagdons Meadow for a quick look around despite the heat. There were no small heaths again but I did see common blues, meadow browns, burnet companions and my first 6 spot burnets of the year.
6 Spot Burnet, Blagdons Meadow
Swallows, River Plym
Swallow
Southern marsh orchids were still in flower but were looking very faded and worn, no bee orchids but I did find 3 pyramidal orchids, my first for the site.
Pyramidal Orchid
Pyramidal Orchid
That evening I decided to head off to Stover on the relatively recent regular new coach service between Plymouth and Bristol that stops off at Drumbridges roundabout near the country park. I arrived off the coach at 19:15hrs and it was hot and sunny and still. I checked out the verges of the A38 first as I had noticed orchids flowering by the road side on our drive back from Suffolk earlier in the week and was pleased to find a good display of common spotted orchids (there were also lots of them in flower in the country park too).
Common Spotted Orchid, A38
Common Spotted Orchid
Common Spotted Orchid
It was cooler walking through the woodland of the park but hot and humid in the sunshine on the walk around the lake where sand martins were flitting about over the water, a great crested grebe was sitting on its nest with a second bird feeding nearby and a male mandarin duck was feeding on seed on the footpath looking a little worse for wear as it begins its plumage moult.
Great Crested Grebe on nest, Stover Lake
A pair of mute swans were swimming around with 2 cygnets with the male being very aggressive to a white female mallard with 3 ducklings, chasing them off into the side canal.
Mallard with Ducklings
Male Mallards in Eclipse Plumage
Dragonflies were buzzing over the water too but too distant and active to get a good look at except for a male keeled skimmer that buzzed close to the shore. Blue tailed damselflies were much more cooperative with good numbers roosting in the reeds by the waters edge and I managed to find a single azure damselfly sunning itself on a branch.
Blue Tailed Damselfly
A wood mouse was feeding on seed on the footpath, initially it ran off into the undergrowth before returning and giving some very close views.
Wood Mouse
Wood Mouse
Wood Mouse
There were quite a few white looking moths flitting about in the grass close to the waters edge and when one landed on the vegetation I managed to ID it as a brown China mark, a very attractively marked brown and white moth.
Brown China Mark
Brown China Mark
Brown China Mark
Chiffchaff, willow warbler and blackcap were all heard singing along with calling great spotted woodpecker and green woodpecker and at 21:50hrs I heard my first nightjar churring on the heathland between the A38 and the pylons. A second bird then began to churr in trees by the footpath on the lake side of the pylons and I managed a brief flight view as it took off from a pine tree and chased a second bird with much wing clapping and "guicking" before falling silent. The first bird continued to churr but after 20 minutes of listening and waiting to see if I could get a view of it I had to leave to walk back to the bus stop to catch the coach home to Plymouth. The coach was due at 22:25hrs but was 20 minutes late, a little disconcerting standing in the dark at a roundabout off the A38 in the middle of nowhere and miles away from Plymouth but I eventually arrived home having had a very good day out on what has been a very birdy and wildlifey week.
Nightjar - from the Stover Park information board
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