Monday 21st May was the last day of my holiday and an early start saw me heading off on the train to Exeter and then the bus to Steps Bridge and Dunsford Woods for a walk on a sunny and surprisingly hot day.
I had hoped to see wood warblers but was out of luck, they seem to be very scarce this year and I have probably now missed my chance of catching up with one this spring.
I did see some good birds though on my 3 hour wander through the woods with the highlights being a male great spotted woodpecker, 2 fledgling ravens flying over, songflighting siskins, singing pied flycatchers, a marsh tit, a dipper, a grey wagtail and a female goosander with just 1 fluffy duckling.
Steps Bridge
Dipper
Goosander with Duckling
Goosanders
Goosanders
There were plenty of insects around too and I spent a lot of time watching my footing as there were oil beetles and bloody nose beetles galore on the footpath. Broad bodied chasers were buzzing about and beautiful demoiselles were flitting about and brown silver line moths, speckled yellows and a common heath were also seen. Butterflies were very much in evidence with brimstone, peacock, speckled wood, large white, a wall brown, green veined white, orange tip and a holly blue noted but the highlight were the pearl bordered fritillaries fluttering about, a few nectaring on the flowers in the woodland glades and warming up in the sun and many more fluttering over the bracken slopes above the woods in the building heat of the day.
Oil Beetle
Oil Beetle
Beautiful Demoiselle
Broad Bodied Chaser
Common Heath
Common Heath
Beautiful Demoiselle
Peacock
Wall
Broad Bodied Chaser
Broad Bodied Chaser
Broad Bodied Chaser
Brown Silver Line
Pearl Bordered Fritillary
Pearl Bordered Fritillary
Pearl Bordered Fritillary
Pearl Bordered Fritillary
Bluebells, yellow archangel and ramsons were all in full bloom with the heady smell of garlic from the ramsons being very noticeable and I found a few early purple orchids too.
Bluebells
Yellow Archangel
Yellow Archangel
Early Purple Orchid
I caught the bus back to Exeter at 12:30 and it had become incredibly hot in the sunshine and so I decided to jump off the train at Dawlish Warren on the way back to Plymouth for a quick look around. It was bakingly hot by now and a look for sand lizards along the dune ridge only gave me my usual brief view of a lizard species scuttling across the sand into cover as I think it was too hot even for them. I found the lone green winged orchid again in the same spot as last year but it had gone over but there were plenty of southern marsh orchids beginning to flower.
Dawlish Warren Dunes
Grass Sp.
Southern Marsh Orchid
Bird wise it was quiet with a Canada goose, 2 little grebes and a pair of moorhen with 2 chicks on the main pond with chuntering reed warblers in the reeds, an immature male eider and a few gannets offshore with 2 Sandwich terns, oystercatchers and shelduck in the estuary and linnets and a skylark in the dunes.
A few butterflies were on the wing including 2 small copper and a lovely male common blue, my first of the year.
Common Blue
The heat eventually got the better of me and I headed home to Plymouth on the train, having had a great day out despite dipping on the wood warblers.
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