The weather has been pretty grim of late and it's felt more like mid-March than mid-May with cool temperatures, overcast skies, wind, mist, mizzle and rain and so I haven't been out on a wildlife walk for over a week. The weather on Wednesday 20th May wasn't that great either but I really needed to get out somewhere and so I caught the bus out to Wembury for a walk along the coast path. It was misty, breezy, cold and mizzley and as I stepped off the bus I started to regret my decision but as the morning wore on the mist cleared, the mizzle dried up and the sun appeared weakly through the clouds and I ended up having an interesting walk.
The high tide was just starting to turn and so I headed straight out to The Point to look for waders in the hope that the bad weather would have kept the dog walkers away. However just as I arrived there and found a flock of small waders along the shoreline a dog walker appeared and flushed them all! However they did quickly return and I counted 37 Sanderling in varying plumages and 8 summer plumaged Dunlins and while watching them a flock of around 15 small waders flew west offshore before disappearing from sight but they never returned for me to ID them.
Sanderling and Dunlin
Sanderling and Dunlin
Sanderling
Sanderling
Also along the beach were the usual Oystercatchers, 7 Turnstone, 5 Whimbrel, 2 Shelduck, 3 Mallard (2 male) and a Little Egret. The remains of a Little Egret were also found in the sheep field with the bones having been picked clean by scavengers and there were 4 Canada Geese hunkered down in the wheatfield.
Various Gulls were roosting along the beach or feeding in the surf and amongst the usual Herring Gulls were a few Great Black-backed Gulls, a 3rd summer Lesser Black-backed Gull, 3 Black-headed Gulls, a 1st summer Mediterranean Gull and a 1st summer Common Gull. A 4th summer and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull also flew past offshore heading west along with 3 1st summer Kittiwakes which unusually flew between the shore and The Mewstone and when the mist cleared around 30 distant Manx Shearwaters were also picked up offshore moving west along with a few Gannets.
Common Gull
Herring Gull and Common Gull
Mediterranean Gull and Black-headed Gulls
Mediterranean Gull
Despite the weather I did get a brief view of a White butterfly flitting past and also a good look at a Bloody-nosed Beetle on the footpath, only my second one of the year at Wembury following the footpath upgrade.
Bloody-nosed Beetle
An unusual sight was a buoy washed up on the rocks having escaped its anchorage, it appeared to be some kind of experimental buoy and belongs to a marine company based in Plymouth.
Buoy
Buoy
Buoy and Mewstone
With the weather set to change and a heatwave imminent (and over a Bank Holiday weekend!) I headed out to The Plym for a quick walk on Thursday 21st May. It was overcast but noticeably warmer and when the sun did occassionally break through the clouds it felt very warm and humid indeed. I'm a bit loathe to visit The Plym these days as the state of Blaxton Meadow is just too depressing to look at but at least at this time of year there is plenty of non-avian wildlife about to distract me.
It was high tide but Blaxton was virtually waterless as usual and along with the usual Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Herring Gull, Shelduck and Canada Geese were an adult Great Black-backed Gull, a Grey Heron and 3 Little Egret but it was nice to see a pair of Shelduck with 7 small ducklings. A Swallow and 3 Swift were seen overhead and a surprise Kingfisher dashed past as it headed upriver towards Marsh Mills.
I had a look for Spotted Flycatcher in the usual area with no luck but a pair of Jay, 3 Stock Dove, 3 Buzzard, 2 Roe Deer, Garden Chafers, a male Orange-tip and an Azure Damselfly kept me amused and on the walk back to the bus stop I found a Common Swift in the Marsh Mills Underpass.
Roe Deer
With sunny skies and high temperatures forecast for Friday 22nd May I had planned to visit Roborough Down to look for butterflies but on waking up in the morning it was dull and overcast. I also felt a bit rough after enjoying a few too many sherbets the night before and so I scrapped my plans and headed out to Wembury on the 11am bus instead. As the bus headed down into the village I saw a Swift flying over the village roofs amongst the House Martins, my first for Wembury this year, but sadly it was only a brief view.
Despite the grey skies it felt warm and humid as I stepped off the bus and with the tide heading in I made my way to The Point for the wader roost, needless to say there was a lot of disturbance along the beach but out on the rocks was a small roosting flock of Oystercatchers and with them were a Whimbrel and a Turnstone.
A pair of Red-legged Partridge showed very well in the horse field, otherwise the usual birds were seen along my walk. However with the cloud eventually dissipating and the sun appearing the temperature rose and insect activity increased and I spent more time looking down at the ground than looking up at the sky.
Red-legged Partridge
I found 3 Green Hairstreaks in their usual place and walking further along the footpath I found 4 more, some looked very fresh but a few were looking battle worn. Also seen were 2 very smart looking male Common Blues, a Green-veined White, 3 Large White with 2 females seen egg-laying, 2 Speckled Wood, a Red Admiral and a Painted Lady.
Green Hairstreak
Common Blue
I also found a Speckled Yellow, Cocksfoot Moths and a Rush Veneer and there were quite a few Thick-thighed Beetles seen too.
Speckled Yellow
Thick-thighed Beetle
The bus back to Plymouth was running late and so while waiting at the bus stop for it to arrive I scanned the skies in the hope of seeing the Swift again but I was out of luck. Typically though I did find a distant Hobby circling high overhead just as the bus arrived so unfortunately my views of it were brief, I couldn't relocate it as the bus travelled out of the village but I did get some good views of at least 2 Swifts over the rooftops along with a Sparrowhawk flying through with a small bird in its talons.
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