Plymouth Hoe and River Plym

The weird world of lockdown continues and it very much feels like Groundhog Day with "eat, sleep, work, repeat" very much the order of the day and not helped by the glorious weather we have had since it all began with every day seeming to be dry and sunny. Going to work is currently the most normal thing in my life even though it is not normal when I am there due to all the changes that have occurred to accomodate the expected Coronavirus influx and with staff going off sick to self isolate for 7 or 14 days or 12 weeks the rota has had to be flexible too resulting in my early shift on Tuesday April 7th having to be changed to a night shift. It was a sunny but breezy day and so I decided to take a lunchtime walk to Plymouth Hoe for a quick look around before my looming night shift.

I had 2 targets in mind, the first being Sandwich Tern which I quickly connected with as I scanned around from Duttons Cafe. There were at least 9 birds present but they were very mobile around The Cattewater and along The Hoe so assessing numbers was difficult but never before have I felt so pleased to see and hear my first Sandwich Terns of the year in these weird times.

Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Terns

Sandwich Terns

My second target was Holly Blue and I eventually found 2 flitting about the ivy growing up the walls of The Citadel along with a confiding Woodpigeon and lots of bees and flies.

Holly Blue

Holly Blue

Woodpigeon

Bee Sp.

Bee Sp.

Thursday April 9th and I decided to take my weekly walk to Saltram on what was a sunny and eventually very warm day. The tide was ebbing and out on the mudflats of the River Plym there were the usual birds with 3 Oystercatcher, 1 Curlew and 10 Redshank seen along with Shelduck, Canada Geese, Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron.

 Grey Heron and Little Egrets, Laira Bridge

Grey Heron and Little Egrets

A Swallow gave away its prescence as it flew overhead, chittering away in the sunshine, and Chiffchaff and Blackcap were very vocal in the undergrowth although the Blackcap mostly sang from within cover with the Chiffchaff being much more showy. A Stock Dove cooed and a Ring-necked Parakeet screeched in the trees, both giving brief views, but a pair of Stock Dove were seen flying across the mudflats before setting down. Nuthatch were vocal and showy too and quite confiding, maybe due to the reduced numbers of human visitors to the Park at the moment.

Nuthatch, Saltram

A pair of Mandarin were again on the small pond in the woods but were disturbed by some dogs and flew off towards Saltram House.

Mandarin, Saltram

A Comma, a male Brimstone (in the same place as I have seen one on my previous 2 visits and maybe the same individual?), 2 Holly Blue, Peacocks, Small Whites, Orange Tips (including a single female) and Large White were all flitting about but in the warm sunshine they didn't settle for any photographs.

I checked out some of the gorse bushes I came across on my walk in the vain hope of finding some Green Hairstreaks but without any luck although I will keep checking. I did however find quite a few Sloe Bugs on the gorse although they were very active and regularly flew off when I approached them.

Sloe Bug

Another very pleasant walk in these strange times and one that is becoming routine and familiar, it will be interesting to see how the wildlife changes week by week as the year progresses.

And with the warm weather I had another go with the moth box in the back yard that evening and on checking the next morning I had 3 moths of 3 species - Herald, Common Quaker and a male Muslin Moth.

 Herald

 Common Quaker

 Muslin Moth

 Muslin Moth

Muslin Moth