Wembury and The Plym

After all the excitement of our trip to Turkey it's nice to be home and to catch up on local birding.

Saturday 8th October was warm, sunny and still, a perfect Autumnal day, and so I headed out to Wembury for a walk. The warm weather meant a few butterflies were flitting about with Red Admiral, Speckled Wood and Small White seen along with a Clouded Yellow, a Large White and a Holly Blue. A Common Lizard was basking in the sunshine and I found my first Glow Worm Larva of the year on the footpath which I picked up and placed in the grass nearby for safety.

Speckled Wood

Glow Worm Larva

A single Gannet was seen offshore in the flat calm conditions and with it being low tide I only saw 7 Oystercatcher, a Curlew, 2 Little Egret and around 20 Mediterranean Gulls distantly out on the rocks.

Meadow Pipits and Skylarks were noticeable along the walk along with Cirl Buntings, Chiffchaffs and Stonechats. At least 8 Blackcap (5 males) were seen busily scoffing down blackberries and a nice surprise were 7 lingering Swallows, a group of 5 heading west and 2 hawking for insects back and forth along the beach.

Stonechat

Stonechat

A Goldcrest was found feeding in the pines at The Point but even better was a Firecrest feeding in the gardens by the road down to the beach, unfortunately a brief view only but a Wembury year first. A pair of Stock Dove feeding in the horse field were firsts for the year at Wembury too.

Sunday 9th October was cooler and cloudier and so I headed out to The Plym for a walk. I arrived early at around 8:30 just as the tide was heading out and on Blaxton Meadow there were 6 Bar-tailed Godwit, 10 Greenshank and a Shelduck with Curlew and Redshank.

Greenshank

A Common Sandpiper, 2 Little Grebe, a Grey Wagtail, 2 Kingfisher and a Mute Swan were out along the river but a surprise find was a Greylag Goose amongst the Canada Geese, apparently the first on the Plym since 1993!

Common Sandpiper

Greylag Goose

There were at least 15 noisy Ring-necked Parakeets in Saltram Park including a blue type and after a bit of patient searching I finally found my first for the year Plym Firecrests with 2 seen flitting through the foliage and a 3rd bird heard only. A single Teal was still present on the duck pond but there wasn't a single Mandarin Duck to be seen. 

Also noted were a Speckled Wood basking in the occasional sunny spells, a Hummingbird Hawkmoth busily feeding on Buddlea flowers and 6 Roe Deer hunkered down in the long grass before it was unfortunately time to head home to catch up on chores before my return to work the next day.