It was a warm and sunny morning when I awoke on Monday 5th July but with clouds gathering on the horizon and the weather forecast predicting heavy rain and strong winds for the afternoon I headed out to Oreston again for another look at the White-letter Hairstreaks.
It was beginning to get quite overcast when I arrived at Oreston but I soon found the Hairstreaks flitting about in the tree tops with at least 4 present and at times they gave some good views.
A female Purple Hairstreak was less obliging as it flitted about in the foliage of an Ash tree but flashed a beautiful metallic purple sheen on its upperwings when the sun shone through the clouds.
Thursday 8th July and a look through the back yard moth box revealed 14 species of moth with Batia lunaris, Bryotropha domestica and Spilonata ocellana (Bud Moth) the highlights.
After sorting out the moth box I took a walk to Central Park to look again for White-letter Hairstreaks. It was warm with occasional sunny spells and I managed to find just one flitting about at the top of an Elm tree, binocular views only and no chance of a photo. A Red Admiral was more obliging and a Meadow Brown and a Large White were also seen.
On a quick look around nearby Ford Park Cemetery I found a few Marbled White flying low over the grass along with a few Meadow Browns and a flyby Six-spot Burnet moth.
On the walk home I stopped off at Drakes Reservoir on the Plymouth University Campus where Blue-tailed Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Red-eyed Damselfly and Small Red-eyed Damselfly where seen buzzing around the Water Lilies and flotsam.
And so to Birdy 2021. After he leapt down into the builders yard and out of view he was heard calling occasionally while his sibling remained on our chimney stack. An adult Great Black-backed Gull was then seen over a couple of days, flying around and resting on nearby roofs and being regularly and noisily mobbed by all the adult Herring Gulls in the area. The young chick on the chimney stack across the road from our house disappeared around this time, presumably predated by the Great Black-backed Gull, but the larger chick on our chimney stack remained in place.
However the chick on our chimney stack has since disappeared too, it seemed too small to have fledged already but there now is a chick on the roof of the builders yard. I'm not sure if it is the chick from our chimney stack that has semi-fledged or our rescued bird from the fire grate who must have been placed on the roof by the workers in the builders yard but hopefully it will fledge and the local Herring Gull nesting attempts will be over for another year.
I had the moth box out in the back yard again overnight for Moth Night 2021 and on checking it on the morning of Friday 9th July I was very pleased to find a Poplar Hawk Moth, the first one in the back yard since 2013!
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