An Early Spring

Despite it being a Saturday, a gloriously warm and sunny day and Half Term Holiday Hell I decided to visit Wembury on February 23rd for a walk. It was unseasonally warm and unsurprisingly very busy and by the time I left to catch the bus back to Plymouth it was complete chaos with cars blocking the access roads and people everywhere.

Wembury

There was no sign of any butterflies or moths despite the warm weather although I did rescue a large fox moth caterpillar off the footpath. There were however patches of blossom on the sloe bushes in the more sheltered spots and a few bumblebees were seen buzzing past too. My first common lizard baskng in the sun on a fence beam was also a nice find.

Fox Moth Caterpillar

Sloe Blossom

Common Lizard

It was quiet birdwise with the highlights being a female type black redstart flying over at Wembury Point and a brief view of a water pipit along the beach with rock pipits and a meadow pipit before it flew off never to return. Gannets were diving offshore and fulmars were prospecting the cliffs of The Mewstone, 2 curlews and 9 little egrets were roosting with the oystercatchers at The Point on the high tide and cirl buntings and stonechats were showing very well along the coast path.

Cirl Bunting

An odd sight was a training shoe on the beach covered in goose barnacles, unfortunately the barnacles were dead but were a good size showing how long the shoe must have been floating around on the seas.

Goose Barnacles on a shoe

A nice walk despite the crowds and disturbance and a welcome taste of things to come with proper spring not far off now.