Mullein Wave
Friday 13th August was grey but dry and so I headed out to Wembury for a walk. It was breezy but warm and humid and the sun did eventually make an appearance as the clouds slowly cleared.
The tide was high and along the beach a large congregation of Gulls were feeding in the surf gently breaking onto the beach and on the seaweed mass washed ashore.
Gulls at Wembury
I scanned through the assorted Herring and Black-headed Gulls but couldn't find anything more unusual than 14 Mediterranean Gulls (8 juveniles).
With the high tide waders were roosting at The Point - 59 Oystercatcher, 3 Curlew, 2 Whimbrel, a Common Sandpiper and a Turnstone were seen along with 3 Little Egret.
I picked up a steady movement of adult, juvenile and sub-adult Gannets offshore heading west and also a distant Shearwater species, too far out and in hazy light conditions to call but it looked good for Balearic. A few Fulmar were flying about around The Mewstone with some sat on the sea and getting aggro from nearby juvenile Herring Gulls and the fat and fluffy chick was still sat on its nesting ledge.
A Cirl Bunting was singing with another male seen along with a female and a juvenile, Stonechats and Linnets were showy, a Chiffchaff and 3 Whitethroat in contrast were skulky.
Common Lizards were basking in the occasional sunny spells including a few small and dark looking young. I was also pleased to finally see my first Long-winged Coneheads at Wembury since autumn 2017, the year before the Beast from the East hit Devon and which seemed to have totally wiped them out here, presumably these are new migrants arriving to recolonise. Also seen were 2 male Oak Eggar moths dashing back and forth along the footpath, presumably trying to home in on a female hidden in the brambles nearby.
Common Lizard
Common Lizard
Tuesday 17th August was grey and cool in the breeze and I headed out to Wembury again for a walk. There were occasional sunny spells and out of the breeze it felt quite pleasent.
The tide was heading in and there were clearly waders on the move with a nice selection on show on the rocks - 78 Oystercatcher, 5 Ringed Plover, 4 Curlew, 3 Whimbrel, 2 Dunlin, 2 Common Sandpiper and a Sanderling. 4 Little Egret and 7 female Mallard were also seen and amongst the usual assorted gulls were 15 Mediterranean Gulls including a ringed juvenile.
Sanderling
Sanderling
Dunlin and Sanderling
Sanderling
Dunlin, Sanderling and Ringed Plover
Mediterranean Gull
Mediterranean Gull - ringed 1st July 2021 at Langstone Harbour, Hampshire
Mediterranean Gull
The usual Stonechat, Linnet, Cirl Bunting, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Rock Pipit were seen with a juvenile Willow Warbler at The Point and a Coal Tit in a village garden also noted.
Cirl Bunting
More Common Lizards were seen sunning themselves on various fences, walls and posts along with more Long-winged Coneheads and a Dark Bush-cricket but the star find of the day was a Convolvulus Hawkmoth found resting on a post, a huge beast of a moth with massive eyes and an absolute delight to see.
Common Lizard
Long-winged Conehead
Long-winged Conehead
Dark Bush-cricket
Convolvulus Hawkmoth
Convolvulus Hawkmoth
Convolvulus Hawkmoth
Convolvulus Hawkmoth
Convolvulus Hawkmoth
No comments:
Post a Comment