The forecast had been for a dry and mild night so I had the Moth Box out in the back yard again but on checking it out in the morning on Monday 9th September it was a little soggy after some overnight rain. Only a few moths were present with the highlights being a Copper Underwing Agg., 2 Yellow Barred Brindle, a Buff Ermine and 2 Box Tree Moths. Sadly I found an Angle Shades caught in a spiders web and being eaten by a spider, also 1 of the Box Tree Moths flew off and landed in another spiders web and was promptly caught by the spider residing there.
I had an appointment that morning at the GP's (yes, I actually managed to get through their hallowed surgery doors!) and afterwards with the day forecasted to be dry I decided to make the most of it and headed out to Wembury for a walk. It was cool, grey and breezy but as the day wore on the sun did eventually appear and it was quite pleasant out of the brisk north-westerly wind.
The highlight of my walk was a Black-necked Grebe close in to the beach near the sewage pipe at The Point, it was very confiding as it dived away and slowly moved east along the shore. The high tide was ebbing and so I headed down to the waters edge to watch it and at times it was only a few metres away from the shore, not what I was expecting to see and my first Wembury sighting of one.
It was a case of deja vu with a Feral Pigeon picked up flying towards the main beach from the east, it was quite high up but was losing altitude and was followed by what I thought were 2 more Feral Pigeons. As they came closer I realised the other 2 birds were in fact an adult and juvenile Peregrine and just before the Feral Pigeon reached the cliffs near the church the juvenile Peregrine caught it in a puff of feathers. Shortly after I picked up another Feral Pigeon flying low over the sea from the south before heading inland up the valley to the beach, as mentioned before I rarely see Feral Pigeons at Wembury and now I've seen 4 of them in 3 days with 2 of them taken out by a juvenile Peregrine!
Another interesting sighting was of a Stoat running around the rocks offshore at The Point before swimming across the open sea back to the foreshore, it was quite a gingery colour and the black tip to the tail was quite pale so possibly a youngster. Certainly an odd place to see one in the middle of the day.
There was much less disturbance along the beach compared to my last visit although there were still a few dog walkers about but on the high tide I found 16 Turnstone, 5 Curlew, 2 Ringed Plover and a Dunlin along with Oystercatchers and 5 Little Egret.
Offshore a few Gannets were noted while the roosting Gull flock out on the rocks held the usual Mediterranean Gulls. The stubble field held 39 Canada Geese while a Kestrel flew overhead and Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Wheatears and 2 Grey Wagtail were all noted too. At least 1 Sand Martin was present in a feeding flock of House Martins in the valley to the beach where they were more sheltered from the wind.
A Grey Seal poking its head out of the water, a beautifully smart looking Clouded Yellow dashing past and a Small Copper feeding on Ragwort flowers were the best of the rest.
The Plym and Wembury may have thrown up some good birds lately but I fancied a change on Tuesday 10th September so I headed out to Bowling Green Marsh for the day. It was high tide when I arrived at a jam packed bird hide but at least the Marsh was jam packed with birds too.
Amongst the throng of Curlew, Redshank and Black-tailed Godwits present were a few Dunlin, 25 Lapwing, 23 Greenshank, 5 Avocet, a Snipe, 21 Knot with the most exquisite scalloping on their feathers and a very smart juvenile Ruff. The highlight though were 2 beautiful juvenile Curlew Sandpipers which showed very well at times.
There were plenty of Teal about too with Mallard, Shoveler, 2 Pintail and 10 Gadwall also seen while over the water at least 4 Sand Martin were hawking for insects with Swallows and House Martins.
I headed over to the viewing platform where birds were beginning to arrive from the Marsh as the tide dropped. A Ringed Plover and a few Oystercatcher were also added to the days wader list but the best sighting was a Common Seal hauled out on the mudflats.
It was a bit windswept when I had a look off the nearby Goat Walk so I returned to the hide just as a Peregrine hurtled across the Marsh and scattered the remaining birds. It made a kill which it ate out in the grass but I couldn't see what it had caught. With all the birds gone I returned to the viewing platform where I found the juvenile Ruff now out on the mudflats along with at least 5 Bar-tailed Godwit amongst the Curlew and Black-tailed Godwits.
A couple of birders arrived and told me there was a Common Tern roosting on a pontoon off the Goat Walk so I braved the wind and went to have a look and it was still there. I scanned downriver and also found 3 Terns flying around and diving for fish, they seemed very small like Little Terns but the views were distant and they soon disappeared downriver.
Back to the viewing platform and after a bit of a wait and constant scanning I found a distant Osprey hunting over the river off Starcross, it was regularly hovering with its legs dangling and made a few swoops down to the water but always abandoned its dive at the last minute. It then soared around for a bit before drifting over towards Exmouth where I lost sight of it.
Time was marching on and the forecasted rain was beginning to arrive so I headed back to the railway station to catch the train home. I stopped off for a final look about from the hide along the way where I found another Ruff, this time an adult male moulting into winter plumage and a nice end to my day out.
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