With another week of annual leave from work and travel plans abandoned yet again due to Lockdown (which ends on December 2nd to be replaced by Lockdown Tiers) the general weirdness of life in 2020 continues.
A walk at Wembury Point on Sunday 29th November was stunning in sunny skies and no breeze with the sea flat calm and mirror like. Unfortunately it was absolutely heaving with walkers and dogs but we enjoyed the walk anyway.
A female Blackcap, an adult Mediterranean Gull, a singing Cirl Bunting and a bubbling Curlew were the avian highlights with a quick look for the Water Pipit drawing a blank, not surprising with the low tide and the number of walkers along the beach.
A Honeysuckle in flower was a surprise and 3 large Parasol Mushrooms looked stunning (and were very tasty for tea that night).
The log store in the front garden was disturbed that afternoon on our return home as logs were chopped up for the winter and a surprise find amongst the logs was a Beautiful Plume moth, ID'd with help from @MothIDUK and my 97th moth species for the garden in 2020.
Monday 30th November was dry but overcast and after a tip off from my mate Mavis we headed up to Burrator for a walk to look for Devils Fingers, an introduced species of fungus from the Southern Hemisphere which originally was common in the New Forest and is now spreading across Southern England. We quickly found the area where Mavis had seen them and soon found some emerging from the soil, they were very weird and wonderful looking and quite smelly too.
We found one emerging from its "egg", looking slimey and gross and like something from the film "Alien" but fascinating to see.
A walk around Burrator Reservoir was very quiet bird wise with a Cormorant, a Canada Goose with a white Farm Goose, a few Mallards, Blackbirds with a few Redwing snaffling down Hawthorn berries and a chipping Great Spotted Woodpecker the highlights.
Tuesday December 1st was another sunny and still day and so I decided to revisit Wembury again. It was unsurprisingly very busy with dogs and walkers especially along the beach and I was unable to find the Water Pipit again amongst the Rock Pipits and Meadow Pipits, also not helped by it being low tide. A smart Grey Wagtail was a nice consolation though.
On the rocks with the usual Oystercatchers were a Curlew, 2 Little Egret and 3 Mediterranean Gulls (2 adults and 1 2nd winter) while along the footpath Cirl Buntings were vocal and showy along with Stonechats.
A male Kestrel, 2 male and a female Bullfinch and a Song Thrush were seen at The Point while on the hillside above the wheatfield a male Pheasent strutting its stuff and a Buzzard feeding on an adult Herring Gull carcass were noted. At least 27 Skylark were feeding in the wheatfield and only visible when they occasionally took to the air calling.
The best bird was a Firecrest in the gardens by the road leading to the beach, mobile and flitty amongst the evergreen trees and bushes but showing well at times and my first for Wembury this year.
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