Friday 20th August was overcast and cool and so I headed off to the River Plym and Saltram for a walk to catch the 5pm high tide.
A few butterflies were flitting about in sheltered spots despite the lack of sunshine and I saw good numbers of Common Blue and Meadow Brown along with a few Small Heath and single Painted Lady and Small Copper.
Blaxton Meadow was bird filled as the tide headed in through the sluice gates with 34 Curlew, 9 Oystercatcher, 2 Dunlin, 2 Redshank, a Greenshank, 14 Little Egret, a Kingfisher and 4 adult Mediterranean Gulls the highlights. One of the Mediterranean Gulls was sporting a red plastic leg ring on it's right leg but it was too distant to read the white letters/numbers on it even with my telescope.
Out on the estuary 4 more Greenshank with the 2 Redshank from Blaxton Meadow were roosting on the embankment along with 11 Grey Heron and a Little Egret.
Around the Park Stock Doves, Swallows, House Martins, Nuthatch, Coal Tit, a Stonechat, a Treecreeper, 3 Spotted Flycatcher (2 juveniles) and 2 Mistle Thrush were all seen, 3 late Swifts were hawking insects high overhead and a Shag was a nice find resting on a buoy just above Laira Bridge on my walk home.
Saturday 21st August was forecasted to be grey and wet but on waking up in the morning the skies were beginning to clear and it was dry and so I decided to head out to Wembury for a walk.
It was warm and humid in the sunshine but as I headed back home the skies had darkened and the mizzle drizzle duly arrived so I was very lucky indeed to catch some decent weather.
The tide was low but along the beach 6 Turnstone, 4 Whimbrel, 3 Curlew, 2 Dunlin and a Sanderling were seen with the usual Oystercatchers and a single Little Egret. Mediterranean Gulls were roosting out on the rocks with Herring Gulls and Black-headed Gulls and a pair of Great Black-backed Gulls were tucking in to the corpse of a Dolphin washed up on the shoreline which appeared to be entangled in a fishing net.
The sea was flat calm and scanning offshore revealed the usual Gannets and Fulmars along with a distant Sandwich Tern flying west and 2 Harbour Porpoise briefly surfacing out near The Mewstone.
Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, Stonechat, Linnet and Cirl Bunting were all noted along the footpath and my first Wheatear of the autumn at Wembury was feeding on the rocks below the horse fields.
Swallows and House Martins were flying around overhead with the House Martins moving back and forth along the coast in loose flocks.
A Wall Brown, a Red Admiral, a Speckled Wood, a Large White, Meadow Browns and Common Blues were flitting about along with 2 male Oak Eggars and a Long-winged Conehead was basking in the sunshine along with the usual Common Lizards.
Common Lizard
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